The Magazine of the Liberal Arts for General Audiences

Welcome to Issue 2

Sometimes our contact with it is painful. Sometimes it's daunting or confusing. At other times, we can't help but laugh at it in spite of ourselves.

The second issue of this publication has assembled a fresh range of voices on a topic that I think many are reluctant to thoroughly, openly, and deeply unpack. This resistance is in no small part, I suspect, because it's a theme that confronts each of us as mortal human beings and makes us naturally afraid. It's also due to an epistemological slipperiness--for there's really no way for living beings to directly experience it. The topic, of course, is Death.

To discuss death is to remind ourselves of our frailty, our finiteness, our uncertainty, and our aloneness--to reflect (honestly or not) on if the way we are living our lives is in any sense worthy should we die tomorrow. This alone should make the question of What is Death? meaningful. But death also leaves some details to explore that leave traces, whether physical evidence or emotional experience. There is much to learn from both categories, and therefore I am grateful that a few brave souls contributed to this exploration.

WATER Institute senior scientist, and funny man, John Janssen briefly relays a bizarre encounter between his younger self and two women on a mission to save his soul--by poking out his eyes. In "Death of death's certainty," Janssen makes the point that 20th century developments in quantum mechanics leave us no certainty in the 21st century, only probability. When do you really know somebody's really dead? Janssen asks. This question is no longer as easy as it once seemed.

Archaeologist Kevin Cullen presents an excellent survey of what human burials can tell us about how people have faced death within different cultures at different times throughout history and prehistory. Read about the Australopithecine Taung Child--whose skull was taloned by a bird of prey. Or Ötzi the Iceman--who was shot with an arrow and exiled to die in the Alps. Cullen also takes the reader on a journey highlighting deliberate burials, often showcasing the monolithic extravagance with which masses of people have mobilized to commemorate their honored dead. The "death industry" is not strictly one of the ancient past, however--just consider the billions of dollars and tons of paperwork that go into legal death and burial in the Western world today. After reading Cullen's "The archaeology of death: New insight into human mortality throughout time and across cultures," you may never quite look the same at a cemetery headstone again.

Opening herself up to the vast abyss within, poet Helena Fahnrich resolved herself to reflect on death in four journal-like entries. In what I have titled "Meditations on the ultimate interloper," she relays, with an honest and sometimes scouring intensity, her personal experience facing the death of a former lover and heroin addict, the surreal urban anonymity of a neighbor quietly dying two floors beneath her new apartment, and the psychological death that lurks within us all when life's strains become too much.

In my own essay, "Death: Going nowhere in particular," I ramble on a bit about quite a few things and I can only hope the reader finds something of value in the exposition.



Happy autumn,

-Michael Timm
September 22, 2008

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About this Publication


Milwaukee Anthropologist
is an experimental publication that seeks to unite voices of enlightened authority from disparate disciplines, engaging a conversation about themes of human import.

It supposes that academia need not speak to or within academia to be of value or interest. It seeks to connect these voices with ordinary people, serving those readers who are united in a genuine curiosity about life and living.

The magazine begins humbly. While it is open to all, it focuses on writers with some connection to southeastern Wisconsin, and in particular, Milwaukee.

Milwaukee is not exactly thought of as any kind of cultural mecca, yet in its own humble way, it is precisely that--a cultural mecca along Lake Michigan. A small big city. A big small town. A mixing place of agricultural heartland and gritty urban reality. A city of neighborhoods, the hub of a thriving metro area. It is a place facing, among other challenges, an identity crisis following the shift away from a manufacturing economy. Therefore, one of the goals of this magazine is to fully respect the modern Milwaukee, as a place with people who care, who are intelligent, who are creative, who work hard, and who live humbly. It is both of and for Milwaukee, both of and for our entire world.

Each issue will be structured around a question of a preselected theme, the first of which is What is Life? in the tradition of physicist Erwin Schrödinger.

In each issue, writers from various disciplines will respond to the same question in an in-depth article of magazine quality and length. It is my hope that writers from disciplines as apparently diverse as Anthropology, Art, Engineering, Literature, Music, Philosophy, and Science will prove to have interesting and complementary things to say about topics to be discussed. Discussions will not be restricted to these categories and diverse voices will be welcomed. The idea here is interdisciplinary, but not necessarily in the sense of one author bringing together two or more disciplines to bear on one subject (although this is not a problem); rather, I hope to invite distinct and in-depth voices to explore human topics, allowing the reader to become sensitized to the connections within and among those various perspectives expressed. Voices need not be "of" academia to contribute, though I will be seeking such voices.

Another goal of this magazine is to provide a way for liberal arts learning to come in contact with the general population, because we live better lives when we consider things from various perspectives--especially perspectives not within our own comfort zones. What we do with what we learn remains up to us.

Finally, this online magazine seeks to remind us of two ideas. First, that those with specialized knowledge should not fear to share it. And second, that we can come to a better understanding of the world by recognizing both our human sameness and that there are many different ways of seeking truth.

-Michael Timm
April 30, 2008
rev. June 21, 2008

Milwaukee Anthropologist


Editor & Publisher
Michael Timm

Issue 7 Contributors
Tony Gibart
Ben Klandrud
Michael LaForest

Issue 6 Contributors
Jason Haas
Charles Oberweiser
Richard J. Sklba
Kevin Woodcock

Issue 5 Contributors
Luke Balsavich
Brandon Lorenz
Michael Timm


Issue 4 Contributors
David C. Joyce
Ryan Kresse
James Mlaker
Cody Pinkston
Michael Timm


Issue 3 Contributors

Tina Kemp
Mary Vuk Sussman
Michael Timm

Issue 2 Contributors
Kevin Cullen
Helena Fahnrich
John Janssen
Michael Timm

Issue 1 Contributors
Louis Berger
Greg Bird
Jill Florence Lackey
Christopher Poff
Michael Timm


Issue Themes: Life, Death, Love, & Freedom


In each issue of Milwaukee Anthropologist, writers from various disciplines will respond to the same question in an article of approximately 2,000 words. The first themed question was What is Life? in the tradition of physicist Erwin Schrödinger.

Issue 1 (June 21, 2008): What is Life?
Issue 2 (Sept. 22, 2008): What is Death?
Issue 3 (Dec. 22, 2008): What is Love?
Issue 4 (March 20, 2009): What is Freedom?
Issue 5 (July 15, 2009): What is natural?
Issue 6 (Winter 2010): What is happiness and how do we get it?
Issue 7 (Autumn 2010): What is democracy and is it a good idea?
Issue 8 (2011): How central is music to the human experience?
Future topics: What is our purpose and how do we know it? What about God? Why is humor funny and what does that mean?



There are many other voices out there—perhaps yours!—with ideas about life, death, love, and freedom, and you are welcome to read and comment at Milwaukee Anthropologist. The discussion only begins here. I invite readers to learn from the arguments presented here, get curious, get fascinated—and also question, challenge, criticize, and augment the essays by posting feedback or sharing what you've read here with others.

If you are interested in contributing in the future, please contact me. Milwaukee Anthropologist is open to submissions. The deadline for unsolicited submissions is the 1st of the month in which an issue will be published.

Readers, please feel free to widely disseminate this site address to others you think would find it interesting, via email notices, word-of-mouth, or list servs.



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