Neanderthals Traversed Vast Distances
Chagyrskaya Cave holds clues about Neanderthal dispersals from what is today Eastern Europe to Southern Siberia. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian…
Seminar: Digital Technologies as Material Culture 2020
In this MA seminar at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, we explore digital media technologies from an anthropological/ethnographic perspective in the context o…
Darryl Li, “The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity” (Stanford UP, 2020)
No contemporary figure is more demonized than the Islamist foreign fighter who wages jihad around the world. Spreading violence, disregarding national borders, and rejecting secular norms, so… Visit…
An orientalist orthorexia
‘Alt-health’—a term referring to the loosely related set of Eastern and pseudo-spiritual ideologies about the body, health, and food—became my saving grace. I wanted to treat my body…
“She was killed in a car accident”. Konsten att minnas i det moderna.
“She was killed in a car accident” berättar en pojke i tioårsåldern. Han är på promenad med sin hund och verkar genuint glad över att kunna hjälpa två…
UK Universities, Decolonisation and the Future of Sociology
What is meant by the decolonisation of academic life? Why might it be of importance to contemporary British sociology? How might decolonisation proceed, and what might our sociological…
UK Universities, Decolonisation and the Future of Sociology
What is meant by the decolonisation of academic life? Why might it be of importance to contemporary British sociology? How might decolonisation proceed, and what might our sociological…
The Pecuniary Animus of the University
After some time, and somewhat shorter (tighter) edited to be less of a devotional prayer for Thorstein Bunde Veblen, this piece – The Pecuniary Animus of the University…
Der Stoff, aus dem Gewaltfantasien sind
Nach den Anschlägen von Halle und Hanau steht die AfD in der Kritik, die geistige Munition für solche Taten zu liefern. Doch was genau macht ihre Rhetorik so…
Go read my chapter on ‘Leviathans’
My chapter on ‘Leviathans’ is now available in the new volume Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon from the awesome open access publisher Punctum Books. I’ve long been a fan…
Remembered Visits to Seminole and Miccosukee Country
Some readers of Shreds and Patches know that I just lost my father KBJ (1935-2020). Others know that I am presently returning to my studies of craft from…
Going Viral in Hong Kong
Disease is but the most obvious part of an epidemic. As coronavirus spreads, it fuels many other kinds of contagious forces. AN editor’s note: How can anthropology help…
The Role of Pacific Youth in Ocean and Climate Action
Authored by Miriam Ladstein, this post draws attention to the work and contributions of Pacific youth in local and global arenas where decisions concerning ocean and climate action…
Feeble-mindedness, depression and obesity: a brief history of eugenics and dietary interventions in Australia by Christopher Mayes
In October 2019 the Australian Productivity Commission (APC) released a report stating that mental health cost employers $4.7 billion AUD in absenteeism. The report also highlighted significant gover…
David Morton, “Age of Concrete: Housing and the Shape of Aspiration in the Capital of Mozambique” (Ohio UP, 2019)
Who built Africa’s cities? Going beyond the colonial archive and the planner’s gaze, David Morton’s Age of Concrete: Housing and the Shape of Aspiration in the Capital of…
Great Books: Peter Brooks on Freud’s “Civilization and its Discontents”
We want to be happy, we want to get what we want, we want to love and be loved. But life, even when our basic needs are met,…
The mosquito struggle: other-than-vector ecologies in a ‘Zika-free’ Brazilian sertão by Túllio Dias da Silva Maia
For English click here. A luta dos mosquitos: ecologias outras-que-vetoras num sertão “livre de zika” Em 2016, a Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS) declarou a epidemia de zika…
Vänd streckkoden mot dig
Jag har vid flera tillfällen, vid kassan i varuhus, observerat hur kunder framför mig i kön gör när de ska lägga upp varorna på bandet. Trots att de…
Ten Things You Don’t Know About Me
Image Description: Drawing of a blonde woman in a light green shirt with an orangutan peering over her shoulder. Charlotte Hollands I was an actor before I became…
Michelle Williams takes the page 99 test
One half of page 99 of my doctoral thesis is a photo, taken at eye level of a group of Tongan students sitting cross-legged on the ground of…
Joseph O. Baker, “Deviance Management: Insiders, Outsiders, Hiders, and Drifters” (U California Press, 2019)
Christopher D. Bader and Joseph O. Baker‘s book Deviance Management: Insiders, Outsiders, Hiders, and Drifters (University of California Press, 2019) examines how individuals and subcultures … Visit New Books…
Elise Berman, “Talking Like Children: Language and the Production of Age in the Marshall Islands” (Oxford UP, 2019)
Since World War II, the fate of the Marshal Islands has been tied to the United States. The Marshalls were a site of military testing, host a US…
Obertauern: Wie konnte das passieren?
Ein Besuch im österreichischen Wintersportort Obertauern (Salzburger Land, glaube ich) im Sommer ist ein interessanter Ausflug in die ästhetische Katastrophe. Der fehlende Schnee deckt die Katastrophe…
What is Anthropology? A Summary Review of the Second Edition by Thomas Hylland Eriksen
I found it helpful when Eriksen drew the line in the sand about the fundamental questions that anthropology concerns itself with. Here’s his Big Three: 1) What is…