Politics and/or knowledge There is lively debate about the authority of knowledge. Several movements within universities argue that academic knowledge is a form of colonisation. At the University…
Profound uncertainty The profound uncertainty that may undergird living with multiple narratives was conveyed to me during my research on the remaking of everyday life after the devastating…
After the pre-publication of an article on the oversight and even denial of population growth, Haydn Washington and I received a surprising number of reactions, notably from anthropologists.…
After the pre-publication of an article on the oversight and even denial of population growth, Haydn Washington and I received a surprising number of reactions, notably from anthropologists.…
The dystopian vision of a future in which robots take over the human race is as old as it is powerful—and is always in ‘the future’. Or is…
Students from our Institute for Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology as well as from a range of other departments recently went to the Dutch Wadden Island of Texel…
Mt. Kenya: A place of nature In September 2010, I embarked on a PhD project that examined the World Heritage listing of Mt.Kenya, an alpine area located in…
Our Institute and student society Itiwana recently held their annual photography contest around the theme ‘Street Life: Het leven van de straat’. The broad genre of street photography…
Our Institute and student society Itiwana recently held their annual photography contest around the theme ‘Street Life: Het leven van de straat’. The broad genre of street photography…
Learning about a conflicting past Separating a protestant neighbourhood from a Catholic neighbourhood and an industrial complex on the other side of the street, the 15-meter-high wall is…
Learning about a conflicting past Separating a protestant neighbourhood from a Catholic neighbourhood and an industrial complex on the other side of the street, the 15-meter-high wall is…
Ancestral protection During fieldwork in Cape Town, South Africa, the Xhosa residents of the townships would sometimes talk about their ancestors. They told me their ancestors offered protection…
Museums to prevent insurrection Many countries in the world have State financed national museums, based on the European model of the nineteenth century centralized state. These museums all…
The horror of human rights abuses Let me start this post with a vignette: On October 3, 2015, at the final plenary session of the German Association of…
“We call it biochar,” Professor David Millar explains enthusiastically to the delegation of civil servants visiting him at his office. During my visit to our Field School in…
In 2014 I spent 3 months in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, working with a Sierra Leonean research assistant to record women’s stories of wartime and domestic…
In 2014 I spent 3 months in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, working with a Sierra Leonean research assistant to record women’s stories of wartime and domestic…
In 2014 I spent 3 months in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, working with a Sierra Leonean research assistant to record women’s stories of wartime and domestic…
This is what seems to me the most striking conclusion of the symposium 'Finding Stories: The role of immaterial culture in city planning', organised on 30 January in…
This is what seems to me the most striking conclusion of the symposium 'Finding Stories: The role of immaterial culture in city planning', organised on 30 January in…
Penetrating unfamiliar social worlds It is still dark when I hit the highway towards the setting sun. I am travelling east and then north to visit five groups…
Penetrating unfamiliar social worlds It is still dark when I hit the highway towards the setting sun. I am travelling east and then north to visit five groups…
Building stereotypes Humour is especially humorous for insiders. He who laughs last… didn’t understand the joke. According to Carty and Musharbash a sense of humour is the &ldquo…
Blogging from Leiden and beyond When the Leiden Anthropology Blog came into life halfway through 2013, we didn’t know what to expect. Leiden University was encouraging faculties and…