Agony and Ecstasy in the Amazon: Excerpt from ‘Broad Street’
Never tell a Matsigenka shaman his tobacco snuff is anything but katsi, “extremely painful.” I learned this lesson the way I learned most of my lessons during fieldwork…
Agony and Ecstasy in the Amazon: Excerpt from ‘Broad Street’
Never tell a Matsigenka shaman his tobacco snuff is anything but katsi, “extremely painful.” I learned this lesson the way I learned most of my lessons during fieldwork…
Some animals are more equal than others – on net neutrality and roaming charges in the European Union
“Don’t ever let a good crisis go to waste.” While all of Europe is starring at Greece, the European Union has finally come up with new rules for…
Agony and Ecstasy in the Amazon: Excerpt from ‘Broad Street’
Never tell a Matsigenka shaman his tobacco snuff is anything but katsi, “extremely painful.” I learned this lesson the way I learned most of my lessons during fieldwork…
Learning to write English
Image courtesy of Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon (Creative Commons) Of our team of nine anthropologists only three are native speakers of English, two from England one from the…
Promotie Daan Beekers: Opvallend veel overeenkomsten tussen jonge christenen en moslims
Overtuigde christenen en moslims in Nederland hebben meer met elkaar gemeen dan vaak wordt gedacht. Dit blijkt uit het proefschrift Kwetsbare vroomheid: het geloofsstreven van jonge moslims en…
New book from Anna Tsing: The Mushroom at the End of the World: on the possibility of life in capitalist ruins
The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, coming from Princeton this September, details here. Matsutake is the most valuable…
Who do anthropologists think they are?!
You may have followed the ensuing debates around Alice Goffman’s ethnography and the broader moral, ethical and potential legal implications of her written account based on six years…
Siblings and Disability – Part II
This is the second installment in a two-part series about siblings and disability. The first part can be found here. What does Disability Mean for Typical Siblings? First…
#Review: Money from Nothing, Part 1 of 2
This post marks the first installment of our special review section on Money from Nothing. Deborah James’ Money From Nothing traces the evolution of credit and debt in post-apartheid South…
Was ist ein „Islam ohne Scharia“?
Eine Replik zu „Islamisierung Europas: Nein, ich habe keine Visionen“ von Michael Ley in der Presse vom 20. 6. 2015. Wie müssen sich die Angehörigen des Islam fühlen,…
Natural language and the language of thought
(This post forms part of our “book club” discussing Thom Scott-Phillip’s latest book with its author. This précis introduced the discussion.) I found Thom’s book extremely illuminating, ins…
Inferential communication and information theory
Speaking Our Minds is a timely book that very effectively frames many of the current important problems facing researchers interested in the nature of language and communication. Too few…
Sensory postcards: Using mobile media for digital ethnographies
As a mobile media practitioner interested in mediated everyday experience and urban space, my use of technology for collecting data, sharing impressions and observing cultural practices has sh…
US – Brazil Relations: the dynamics of consciousness and empowerment
In 2012, Dr. Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Roscoe Pound Professor of Law, Harvard University Law School lectured at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American studies on Brazil…
Thinking about and with “Selfies” in the Classroom
I often long for a classroom in which students eschew electronics in favour of pen and paper, a classroom that favours slow reading and reflection, rather than one…
Conceptualizing Autism Around the Globe — A special issue of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry by Aaron Seaman
The current issue of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry is a special issue, edited by M. Ariel Cascio and entitled “Conceptualizing Autism Around the Globe“. Along with six original articles…
Bomb Ecologies? Inhabiting Disability in Postconflict Laos by Leah Zani
I am an anthropologist researching postwar revival and development in Lao PDR (Laos), the most cluster-bombed country in the world (Branfman 2013). Through fieldwork with development organizations an…
Sharryn Kasmir: Mondragón coops and the anthropological imagination
In 2013, Fagor Electrodomésticos, the home appliance division of the world-renowned Mondragón cooperative group, declared bankruptcy. The announcement disheartened coop advocates who consider Mondragó…
Vortrag: Indigene Modernität durch digitale Medientechnologien?
Budka, P. 2015. Indigene Modernität durch digitale Medientechnologien? Infrastrukturentwicklung, Technologieaneignung und soziokulturelle Praktiken im Nordwestlichen Ontario, Kanada. Vortrag im Colloq…
Plastic Marine Smog and Horizontal Smoke Stacks: Representations of Pollution as Knowledge
Representations are the basis of human knowledge both in terms of how knowledge is made as well as how it is reproduced and circulated. They are the way…
Liminality, Biomedicine, and the Law – A symposium supported by the wellcome trust
Biomedicine and the life sciences continue to rearrange the relationship between culture and biology, problematizing what it means to be a person, and introducing uncertainty and instability to…