Misinterpreting People
Anthropology has long ago dispensed with the notion that there is any ‘one’ truth. But I think most ethnographers still hope that in describing a group, the people…
Teaching about The Revolution in Urgent Times
This is the syllabus and overview of the course “The Anthropology of Insurrections and Revolution” that I’m currently teaching at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, to 67…
Teaching about The Revolution in Urgent Times
This is the syllabus and overview of the course “The Anthropology of Insurrections and Revolution” that I’m currently teaching at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, to 67…
What FoodAnthropology Is Reading Now, January 26, 2019
David Beriss A brief digest of food and nutrition-related items that caught our attention recently. Got items you think we should include? Send links and brief descriptions to…
Japan’s Emerging Emotional Tech
Are we developing emotional machines with all-too-human capacities for care? An interactive scene from Gatebox Inc.’s promotional video. Gatebox Inc. There is a moment in Spike Jonze’s film…
Love and the Pursuit of Home after War
Among Acholis, ideals of home and a good life are resilient even if everyday realities increasingly diverge from such aspirations. There is a tendency to think about love…
Looking for Mr. Right Now
What we talk about when we talk about Tinder. I have never been good at dating. I simply refused to acknowledge the subtleties and rituals of courtship, to…
Fieldnotes from the Kitchen Counter
This text appeared in the American Anthropologist submission queue, somehow entered as an anonymous manuscript, which the ScholarOne system is not supposed to permit. It seems to consist…
Love-Politics and the Carceral Encounter
For community organizers in New Orleans, action to oppose the carceral state first requires the building of community. We were in the middle of one of Voice of…
Sewing Needles Reveal the Roots of Fashion
[no-caption] F. d’Errico/L. Doyon The Inya River in southwestern Siberia winds through a landscape of striking seasonal changes. In the summer, crystal clear waters lap below alpine forests.…
Links & Contents I Liked 309
Hi all, The first week of our new semester was busy, but the #globaldev news front was actually a bit quieter…nonetheless some interesting stuff featuring Clooney, Prendergast &…
The scandal of British aid
*This is the text of a speech delivered at the Cambridge Union in defense of the proposition: This house believes that British aid is not working. Ladies…
Trump’s Coup in Venezuela
Last year in our final report on 2018, we closed with this warning: “one of the things we must all look out for then are the prospects of…
The Easiest Silverstein
Michael Silverstein is an important thinker whose work spans anthropology, psychology, and linguistics. I’m deeply indebted to him intellectually, and benefitted immensely from his service on m…
Playing Theory (Part Two)
Innovations in Anthropology Series Welcome to the Innovations in Anthropology Series, a blog series devoted to profiling the teaching, production, and dissemination of anthropological knowledge. Wheth…
When Rare Diseases Aren’t So Rare
[no-caption] Sara López Gilabert When Christy Collins’ daughter was born, the doctors were baffled. The baby’s body was larger on one side than the other, and her skin…
“Welcome to Sodom” – Six myths about electronic waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana
By Martin Oteng-Ababio & Maja van der Velden Agbogbloshie is an urban area in Ghana’s capital Accra, housing a vegetable market, a scrap metal yard, a large slum,…
Ankündigung zum Buch: Kein Ruhestand. Wie Frauen mit Altersarmut umgehen
Im März erscheint das Porträtband „Kein Ruhestand. Wie Frauen mit Altersarmut umgehen“, herausgegeben von Irene Götz. Es ist ein Werk, das aus der Arbeit der DFG-Forscher*innengruppe ̶…
Noah Coburn, “Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America’s Global War” (Stanford UP, 2018)
Noah Coburn‘s Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America’s Global War (Stanford University Press, 2018) is about the hidden workers of American’s foreign wars: third country nationals who…
Daromir Rudnyckyj, “Beyond Debt: Islamic Experiments in Global Finance” (U Chicago Press, 2018)
Recent economic crises have made the centrality of debt, and the instability it creates, increasingly apparent. In Beyond Debt: Islamic Experiments in Global Finance (University of Chicago Press,…
Noah Coburn, “Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America’s Global War” (Stanford UP, 2018)
Noah Coburn‘s Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America’s Global War (Stanford University Press, 2018) is about the hidden workers of American’s foreign wars: third country nationals who…
Daromir Rudnyckyj, “Beyond Debt: Islamic Experiments in Global Finance” (U Chicago Press, 2018)
Recent economic crises have made the centrality of debt, and the instability it creates, increasingly apparent. In Beyond Debt: Islamic Experiments in Global Finance (University of Chicago Press,…