Several years ago, after I came back from my first field trip to Cameroon, I had a meeting with my two mentors in Anthropology, Alberto and Augusto Cacopardo. I wanted to tell them of a few unexpected features I had been exposed to in NW Cameroon. I found one particularly surprising: there are patrilineal societies […]
If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life — Henry David Thoreau There are actions that are good. Unquestionably good. “Good” meaning that when we do these actions we know for sure that they will cause […]
The day was flowing quite smoothly. I had even had a proper breakfast. Then, out of the blue, Pierpaolo came and invited me to team up with him and help on the PiFoPi crowdfunding campaign. Now, I get what crowdfunding means, and I also have some clues about how such campaigns work. But when he […]
I am an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University at Buffalo in New York State. I study linguistic diversity with a particular focus on languages of Sub-Saharan Africa. I came to the study of African languages because of a fascination with the variation that can be found in their sounds, words, and sentences, and […]