Orin Starn is an anthropologist and writer at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. Starn is the author of ''

Ishi Ishi ( – March 25, 1916) was the last known member of the Native American Yahi people from the present-day state of California in the United States. The rest of the Yahi (as well as many members of their parent tribe, the Yana) were kill ...

's Brain: In Search of America's Last Wild Indian'' and co-author of '' The Shining Path: Love, Madness, and Revolution in the Andes'' with Miguel La Serna; his other books include ''The Passion of

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...

: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal'', ''Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes'', and he is co-editor of '' The Peru Reader'', '' Between Resistance and Revolution'', and '' Indigenous Experience Today''. Starn has chaired the Duke Cultural Anthropology department, directed the Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and been the faculty director of the Duke Human Rights Center. He has appeared on many radio and television programs, and writes for newspapers including the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' and ''

Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to rea ...

''. Starn teaches courses about Latin America, Native American culture and politics, human rights, and sports and society, among other issues. Starn won Duke University’s Robert B. Cox Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004 and was awarded the Sally Dalton Robinson Distinguished Professorship effective July 1, 2005.

Ishi, the Andes, and Indigenous Rights

Starn was involved in the repatriation to California of the remains of

, the last

Yahi The Yana were a group of Native Americans indigenous to Northern California in the central Sierra Nevada, on the western side of the range. Their lands, prior to encroachment by white settlers, bordered the Pit and Feather rivers. They were ...

Indian. This search was reported in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, and Starn's book ''Ishi's Brain'' gives an account of it as well as the story of Ishi's life. ''Ishi's Brain'' was a ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' Best Book of 2004. He has also written extensively about war and society in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

, including ''The Shining Path,'' ''Nightwatch'' and ''The Peru Reader'' as well as several books in Spanish. A book Starn co-edited with Marisol de la Cadena, ''Indigenous Experience Today,'' explores the global rise of

indigenous politics Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention * Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band * Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehor ...

and

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...

Sports, Society, and the College Athletics

Starn has done research on sports and society, and appeared on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and various

sports talk show Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...

s. His online course �
Sports and Society
�� has drawn thousands of students worldwide. He also maintains a related blog a
Golf Politics
Starn wrote op-eds in North Carolina newspapers about the

2006 Duke University lacrosse case The Duke lacrosse case was a widely reported 2006 criminal case in Durham, North Carolina, United States in which three members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape. The three students were David Evans, Collin ...

(among them, ''Let's talk sports''Let's talk sports
/ref>) and was quoted in other outlets, including ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' Big Men On Campus
/ref> and ''

The News & Observer ''The News & Observer'' is an American regional daily newspaper that serves the greater Triangle area based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The paper is the largest in circulation in the state (second is the '' Charlotte Observer''). The paper has be ...

''. Coach K speaks up for sports
During the case, Starn took issue with some of Duke Basketball Coach

Mike Krzyzewski Michael William Krzyzewski ( ; born February 13, 1947), nicknamed "Coach K", is an American former college basketball coach. He served as the head coach at Duke University from 1980 to 2022, during which he led the Blue Devils to five natio ...

's actions. In a June 21, 2006 article in ''

'', Starn was quoted as stating, "Whether Coach Krzyzewski likes it or not, these are serious issues and issues being raised at colleges around the country." He also accused bloggers of inaccurately portraying the involvement of Duke faculty in the

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

case in a January 2007 op-ed in the '' Durham Herald-Sun''. Starn has cited the incident in his criticism of Duke's participation in Division I athletics. In another ''News & Observer'' article, Starn was quoted as stating, "It's ridiculous to talk about a balance between athletics and academics...

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

should be a subset underneath a university's main mission... The idea that athletics should have near-equal weight with academics is just wrong."Sports in crosshairs of campus debates
/ref>

Writings

* ''The Shining Path: Love, Madness, and Revolution in the Andes.'' Co-author with Miguel La Serna. New York: W. W. Norton, 2019. * ''The Passion of Tiger Woods: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal''. Durham: Duke University Press (2011) * ''Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last 'Wild' Indian.'' New York: W. W. Norton, 2004. * ''Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes.'' Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1999. * "Maoism in the Andes: The Communist Party in Peru -- Shining Path and the Refusal of History." In ''Critical Perspectives on Mao Zedong's Thought.'' Edited by

Arif Dirlik Arif Dirlik (; 23 November 1940 – 1 December 2017) was a Turkish-American historian who published on historiography and political ideology in modern China, as well as issues in modernity, globalization, and post-colonial criticism. Dirlik rece ...

, Paul Healy, and Nick Knight. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1997. 267-288. * ''Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Protest'' Co-editor with Richard G. Fox. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1997. * ''The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics.'' Co-editor with Carlos Ivan Degregori and Robin Kirk. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1995. *''Indigenous Experience Today'' (co-editor) *''Here Come the Anthros'' (2009) *''Nursing the Revolution'' (1991) *''The Revolt against Revolution'' (1995)

References

External links

Golf PoliticsIshi's Brain: In Search of America's Last "Wild" Indian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Starn, Orin American anthropologists American non-fiction writers Duke University faculty Historians of Peru Latin Americanists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)

Ishi, the Andes, and Indigenous Rights

Sports, Society, and the College Athletics

Writings

See also

References

External links