Milwaukee Anthropologist

The Magazine of the Liberal Arts for General Audiences

Welcome to Issue 3

Welcome to Issue 3 of this publication, which features three essays addressing the question What is Love?

In "Reflections on that lovely bright spot," Mary Vuk Sussman surveys popular culture references to the L-word and discusses how love of God and exercise may both be healthy for human life. She decides that love is a "bright spot of interest" that pulls us outside of ourselves and enriches our experience of our self in the world. You will also learn, as she did, that Catholics contemplating religious images while receiving electric shocks are better off than atheists in terms of the amount of pain reported...

In "Love analogies," I propose several comparisons that may offer new, or old, insights into how love operates. Plato, through Socrates in The Symposium, argued that the spirit Love was a scrappy pursuer of wisdom and an intermediary between gods and men, comprising a sort of connective tissue of brotherhood. The sense that love is a force for greater human connectivity is both an old and new idea, with tantalizing non-random results of random number generators suggesting to the folks at the Global Consciousness Project that there may be something to the idea of a global collective consciousness. If love involves a deep connectivity coupled with an urge to completion, perhaps we can learn something about human-scale relationships by considering the relationships of particles and forces at the subatomic and cosmic scales...

In "In pursuit of an operational definition of love," Tina Kemp puts forward, though subsequently discounts as too incomplete, a model for how to gauge how much one really loves someone or something. Her "love continuum" and its "relationship dots" offer a quantitative approach to measuring "love" based on how much comfort one will sacrifice for the needs of another...

During this darkest time of year, I hope these essays provide some light and warmth, making for interesting reading for those of you who have some time to kick back out of the work routine and relax. I would strongly encourage that you do take time for yourself, for life, ultimately, is short.

May you and yours have an inspiring holiday season and new year.

Merry Christmas,

Michael Timm
December 23, 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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