Wisdom From the Winding Path
[no caption] Frans Lemmens/Getty Images Excerpted from Paul Stoller’s essay “Jabès Amongst Songhay Sorcerers” in Philosophy on Fieldwork: Case Studies in Anthropological Analysis, e…
Author: Paul Stoller
Bridging the American Cultural Divide
[no-caption] Jondave Libiran/Pexels The Sufi mystics like to tell a story about an old man crossing a rickety footbridge that spans a deep gorge. When he reaches the…
End of Year Thoughts about Legitimacy in the Culture of Speed
A popular 2020 American meme reminds of us of the 1985 Robert Zemeckis science fiction film Back to the Future. In it Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) is…
Bad Faith In Our Times
On Friday January 31, 2020 the Republican-controlled US Senate chose to vote on the guilt or innocence of one Donald J Trump without the introduction of vital and…
Back to the Anthropological Future: Reflections on the Annual Meetings in Vancouver
Many decades ago, I traveled to the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in San Francisco. Still a graduate student, I accompanied three fellow anthropologists-in-traini…
Being At Home in a Hateful World
In the age of social media it has not only become more normal to demonize people who are “different,” but to cage and kill them as well. Through…
Beyond the Insanity: An Open Letter to My Students
Bonberiko, hay kulu s’a ra. The owner of the swollen head has nothing inside –Songhay saying Dear Students: In these insane times you are surrounded by people with…
Back to School: More Notes from the Academic Underground
There is always a buzz in the air when university students return to campuses to begin their spring semester courses. In these troubled times, what can they expect…
Weaving the World: Workshops on Evocative Ethnographic Writing
For several years I have had the pleasure of teaching three to four-day workshops on ethnographic writing. I have found the workshops to be rewarding and satisfying. They…
Edith Turner and the Anthropology of Collective Joy
Edith Turner Visiting with my students Shane Metivier, Erica Walters and Sarah Sutton at the AAA Annual Meetings in Washington DC 2014 Photo by Erica Walters Note: Earlier…
To Jared From Uncle Paul, the Anthropologist
Dear Jared, So, it’s been some time since I last wrote you. You’re a busy and important person, so maybe you don’t remember that we may be related. …
An Anthropologist Confronts the Culture of Hate
The Wall of Terror in Berlin, Gestapo and SS Headquarters (Photo by Paul Stoller) Even though I was long ago the object of anti-Semitic scorn and abuse, I…
Are We All Going Crazy?
The Peace Wall, Belfast (Photo by Paul Stoller) Belfast, Northern Ireland. I have a confession: I’m not sleeping well these days. I used to sleep well, but recently…
Looking South Toward Granada
The Alhambra (Photo by Paul Stoller) There has been much recent discussion about structural inequalities in the academy—especially in anthropology. In European and North American anthropology there …
A Guerilla Anthropologist Looks to the Future
We live in a world filled with seemingly insoluble problems. Carbon emissions have increased at such alarming rates that climate experts have had to push forward their dire…
Logging on to the Anthropocene
These days many academics like to talk and write about public scholarship. In my discipline, anthropology, there is no shortage
Logging on to the Anthropocene
These days many academics like to talk and write about public scholarship. In my discipline, anthropology, there is no shortage
Communicating Care: A Radical Resolution for 2018
As this year comes to a close, I am weary of 2017. I am weary of hearing, thinking, talking and writing about Donald J Trump
Communicating Care: A Radical Resolution for 2018
As this year comes to a close, I am weary of 2017. I am weary of hearing, thinking, talking and writing about Donald J Trump
Communicating Care: A Radical Resolution for 2018
As this year comes to a close, I am weary of 2017. I am weary of hearing, thinking, talking and writing about Donald J Trump
Doing Anthropology in Troubled Times
We live in troubled times. In America, we have as president a dangerously unstable and profoundly ignorant man bent on undermining
Doing Anthropology in Troubled Times
We live in troubled times. In America, we have as president a dangerously unstable and profoundly ignorant man bent on undermining
Doing Anthropology in Troubled Times
We live in troubled times. In America, we have as president a dangerously unstable and profoundly ignorant man bent on undermining
Niger Nightmare: The Cost of Cultural Ignorance
Whenever Niger is in the headlines, the news is never good—drought, floods, epidemics, starving children and now the emergence