Is War Inevitable? Consider the Ancient Maya
Two archaeologists show how investigating tactics, weaponry, and the logistics of battle helps answer questions about social conflict in the human experience. ✽ Arresting trails of light arc…
Category: English
Joel Robbins, “Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life” (Oxford UP, 2020)
Anthropological theory can radically transform our understanding of human experience and offer theologians an introduction to the interdisciplinary nature between anthropology and Christianity. Both sociocultural anthropology and theology…
First visit to Kayashima Shrine for the New Year 2023
Kayashima Shrine is famous because there is a train station right above it. The kami-deity associated with the shrine resides in a large 700 year old Camphor tree.…
Lindsey Clouse on her book, Stigmatized on Screen
Interview by Jeremy A. Rud https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793647412/Stigmatized-on-Screen-How-Hollywood-Portrays-Nonstandard-Dialects Jeremy Rud: Linguists have long called out the language at…
Lilie Chouliaraki and Myria Georgiou, “The Digital Border: Migration, Technology, Power” (NYU Press, 2022)
Hello, world! This is the Global Media & Communication podcast series. In this episode, our host Juan Llamas-Rodriguez discusses the book The Digital Border: Migration, Technology, Power (2022) by Dr.…
An update on the New Year’s greeting…
Updating Happy New Year 2023 from「VAoJ」 It seems some houses and businesses were just a little late with their decorations. But still, there are far fewer this year…
A Happy New Year? Yes, a Happy New Year!
By Marina de Regt. “So this is Xmas, and what have you done, another year over and a new one just began”, John Lennon and Yoko Ono sang…
In 2023, Question Everything
Here’s a New Year’s Resolution for everyone for 2023: Question everything about how we teach, do research, and select students or job applicants. – Question grades – Question…
Signing of the Sudanese Framework Agreement by Zakia Muhammad Sadeeg
The Future Sudan Campaign reviewed the published details of the signing of the so-called framework agreement between General Abdel Fattah …
Happy New Year 2023 from「VAoJ」
This is only anecdotal, but I have noticed in and around my neighborhood that houses are not displaying New Years decorations like the shimekazari in the photo above…
Bonus Episode: “Nomadland”
A special bonus episode in honor of the 93rd Academy Awards on April 25, 2021! One of the most-nominated films at this year’s Oscars is “Nomadland,” adapted from…
Magnus Fiskesjö, “Stories from an Ancient Land: Perspectives on Wa History and Culture” (Berghahn Books, 2021)
In 2013, the Journal of Burma Studies published an article titled “An Introduction to Wa Studies.” It seems that even within the last decade the Wa, an upland people living predominantly on…
Happy Holidays 2022
I am long overdue for an update here, and I hope to get to that in Q1. My health really took a serious downturn, and I haven’t had…
2022 Toshikoshi Soba
The tradition here at VAOJ to document the purchase of toshikoshi soba (“end of the year soba noodles”) on New Year’s Eve continues! Click here for previous new…
Against Charity
I wrote my first book as a critique of charity work in Kolkata, India. I attempted a critique of western ‘charity’ workers helping those they saw as the…
Depression (not mine, ours)
Depression: I am no expert on depression, at all, but I also note that over the last two decades it has become a more visible topic of discussion…
Mathew Gandy, “Natura Urbana: Ecological Constellations in Urban Space” (MIT Press, 2022)
In his new book, Natura Urbana: Ecological Constellations in Urban Space (MIT Press, 2022), Mathew Gandy explores urban nature as a multilayered material and symbolic entity. The book examines the…
大掃除！New workspace set-ups for the office and home
For the office, a new second (curved) monitor; I bought it last year to use up university research funds. After my accident it was sitting in its box…
Apology
by Peter Versteeg “Apology” is another word for acknowledgmentAcknowledging the past, but not just any kind of pastIt is a formal word for a moral occasionNo emotion, no…
from here to there
(June Fog, photo by Zoe Todd) 2 years and 11 months ago, I posted my last entry on this website: https://anthrodendum.org/2020/01/27/an-answer/ What I didn’t know then, on January…
Mário de Andrade, Modernism, and Brazilian Anthropology
Semana de Arte Moderna Poster, São Paulo, 1922 This year marks the centenary of São Paulo’s 1922 Semana de Arte Moderna (Week of Modern Art).[1]Funding for this article…
Rosa on opium
Rosa Luxemburg The Accumulation of Capital, ch 18 “Consequently, a stricter law was passed [by the Chinese] in 1833 which made every opium smoker liable to a hundred…