Tasting Independence
Maggi instant noodles are a treasured favorite among India’s young people. Their banning in 2015 conjured youthful memories of rebellion and revealed the uncertainties of our global food…
Tag: cultural anthropology
Society – A preliminary idea
In classical sense society refers to a group of people who share a common ‘culture’, occupy a particular territorial area and feel themselves to constitute a unified…
How the informal economy took over the World by Keith Hart – Finale
The Euro crisis: an episode in the history of money The monetary crisis that has overwhelmed the eurozone of late needs to be seen in this context. The…
Bamboo Basket Hampers Used by Tobacco Farmers in Nanhua County, Yunnan, China
While doing background work on FEI Xiaotong and ZHANG Zhiyi’s studies of the basketry industry(*) in Yunnan, China, my colleague W. discovered this webpage with a pair of…
How the informal economy took over the World by Keith Hart – Part 3
The demise of national capitalism To talk of the world economy being “informalized” suggests that there is a global rule-system, whereas effective rules are now absent at all…
Introducing Cultural Anthropology: A Christian Perspective Textbook Review
Christian but not ideological? Doesn’t promote perspectives in controversy but centers theological devotion? Biblical differences of opinion, but not anthropological ones? The centrality of “belief” a…
It’s Book Release Day!
Firstly, a sincere thank you to everyone who has helped to make this work possible. It’s been years in the making. But today is the day, and “Shaligram…
How the informal economy took over the World – Part 2 by Keith Hart
The dialectics of form “General Forms have their vitality in Particulars, and every Particular is a Man” (William Blake). Most readers of this book live substantially inside…
When Brazil’s Voters Became Followers
Politics on social media may be exciting and even fun. But is it good for democracy? Jair Bolsonaro’s sweeping victory in the 2018 Brazilian elections took many people…
Getting Out the Vote in South Asian Chicago
Language access provisions to expand language minority voters’ access to the polls are not only about political participation. They also reveal the reproduction of white public space and…
Ten Things about Black Women Suffragists through a Black Feminist Lens
Irma McClaurin is a Black feminist anthropologist and consultant who conducts research on the social construction of inequality and its impact on African diaspora communities through an intersectional…
Talking about Elections in Northern Kenya
An anthropologist recalls a conversation with three older women as they reflected on their experiences of electoral politics past and present. “What politics have people of nowadays seen;…
How the informal economy took over the world by Keith Hart
A la recherche du temps perdu (In search of lost time) The idea of an informal economy was born at the moment when the post-war era of developmental…
Ed Bruner: In Memoriam
August 8, 2020 Ed Bruner at his home in Illinois (2005) Ed Bruner passed away yesterday, at 95–peacefully, at home. I wish my daughter and I could have…
Seeing Culture Everywhere: A Book Review by Keith Hart
The authors of this well-written book tell how they were pushed by their editor into writing for a general audience. They have succeeded without sacrificing analytical rigor. They…
“But What Is It Really?” – Notes on Science, Pseudoscience, and Religion in Fossil Folklores
“Yes, but what is it really?” The man pressed. “A fossil, or God?” Sitting in the domestic airport in Kathmandu, Nepal waiting on the day’s flights into the…
Why George Floyd Matters
With all due respect and no malice intended but the George Floyd murder is not the first time African American men have been wrongfully brutalized and killed by…
Cracking the Vault: A Celebration of Daniel Swan
Below find the first of a series of guest posts offered in celebration on the occasion of our colleague and friend Daniel C. Swan’s retirement from the University…
Pandemics: Agents of Global Change – Part 2
The Economic and Commercial Impact of Pandemics By now, the COVID-19 influenza outbreak has reached practically all parts of the globe. In the context of discussing the pandemic,…
Compassion and sacrifice during COVID-19 by Felix Stein
COVID-19 highlights the limits of compassion and the need for sacrifice in contemporary capitalism Compassion with the leader When the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was hospitalized over…
What Anthropology Teaches Us about COVID-19, Part 4: A Conversation with Physician-Anthropologist, Dr. Bjørn Westgard
Recently, I checked in with Dr. Bjørn Westgard, to see how he was doing. Back in the ‘90s, Bjørn was enrolled in a wildly demanding, combined M.D./Ph.D. program…
What Anthropology Teaches Us about COVID-19, Part 4: A Conversation with Physician-Anthropologist, Dr. Bjørn Westgard
Recently, I checked in with Dr. Bjørn Westgard, to see how he was doing. Back in the ‘90s, Bjørn was enrolled in a wildly demanding, combined M.D./Ph.D. program…
“Shaligram Pilgrimage in the Nepal Himalayas” – Pre-Order
My books just went up for library pre-order! I can’t believe I am finally looking at it!! LINK: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463721721/shaligram-pilgrimage-in-the-nepal-himalayas