A Nepalese Region Reclaims Its Holy Water
The Budhi Gandaki River, shown here downstream from Nubri Valley, rushes with icy turquoise water. Madison Wrobley “I’ve been told this is the longest suspended water system in…
Tag: development
Book Review: Dispossession without Development: Land Grabs in Neoliberal India by Michael Levien
In Dispossession without Development: Land Grabs in Neoliberal India, Michael Levien examines how the shift from state-directed capitalism to neoliberalism in India from the 1990s has led to…
Catching up with Glenn Shepard: Interview to launch benefit photography sale with Linda Matney Gallery
This interview launches a new partnership with Linda Matney Gallery. Proceeds from the sale of selected photographs will directly support vital health services including emergency Covid-19 prevention …
Book Review: Nairobi in the Making: Landscapes of Time and Urban Belonging by Constance Smith
In Nairobi in the Making: Landscapes of Time and Urban Belonging, Constance Smith explores how the residents of Nairobi’s Kaloleni estate interact with materials and structures from the…
Covid-19: Lessons from the Yanomami [New York Times Op-Ed]
This essay, which I translated and edited from an original draft written in French by anthropologist Bruce Albert, was first published by the New York Times on April…
The UNESCO Site That Never Was
The people of Hasankeyf, Turkey, have long enjoyed the nearby Tigris River, seen here in 2019. Recently, the creation of the Ilisu Dam has submerged their town. Burak…
Book Review: Decolonizing Universalism: A Transnational Feminist Ethic by Serene J. Khader
In Decolonizing Universalism: A Transnational Feminist Ethic, Serene J. Khader unpacks mainstream feminist approaches to women in the Global South – or ‘missionary feminism’ – to shed ligh…
Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu: Textile livelihoods under threat
by Geert De Neve **Reprinted by permission from the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme.** On the 24th of March 2020, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a complete national…
Voluntary Isolation in the Age of Coronavirus
As governments around the world decide on public health measures to contain the spread of coronavirus, indigenous peoples across the Amazon, from the Madre de Dios region in…
Waiting for a Dam #Roadsides
Once again, in November 2019, I found myself in an SJVN waiting room. But it was a new waiting room. Many things had changed in the two years…
The Fish Trap: Winning poem featured by Sapiens.org for World Poetry Day
The fish trapThe fish trap is sun bleached dry halfburied in squeaking whitesand under an equatorialmoon that wants to walk across the blackmirror but instead is twiceswallowed by…
Book Review: Cultures of Doing Good: Anthropologists and NGOs edited by Amanda Lashaw, Christian Vannier and Steven Sampson
In Cultures of Doing Good: Anthropologists and NGOs, editors Amanda Lashaw, Christian Vannier and Steven Sampson bring together contributors to advance the growing field of NGO anthropology. Written b…
#MDGCOMICS: MZUNGUS IN DEVELOPMENT AND GOVERNMENTS! #10
In Episode 10, Going Native, Omar grasps the true meaning of kizunguzungu: but is the dizziness coming from denying local researchers authorship, or from open relationships? (Also, in which…
Amazon under Fire: A letter of protest by Brazilian scientists published by the New York Review of Books
As Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro stood before the United Nations in September of 2019 downplaying media reports of increasing forest fires under his administration and denouncing world-renowned i…
#MDGComics: Mzungus in Development and Governments! #9
In Section 9 Omar teaches Greta the amount of adjectives required to break government gatekeeping – while Naga defends the precious Ministry data from short term consultants in spite…
#MDGComics: Mzungus in Development and Governments! #8
In Section 8, Linguistic Interpretation (or lost in MDGs translation), the role of language is explored. Will Omar understand Mzungus better if he improves his fluency in Acronymia? How do…
#MDGComics: Mzungus in Development and Governments! #7
In Section 7 Omar is in search of his own existential place within the research: definitely not inside the Cheraton, maybe far from Mzungus for a while… a holiday…
Welcome to #MDGcomics: Mzungus in Development and Governments!
Welcome to #MDGcomics: Mzungus in Development and Governments! A Phd turned Graphic novel about Mzungus in Development and Governments. Meet Omar, the one with the fake beard. Omar…
Are Mixed-Income Neighborhoods the Best Answer for Public Housing?
The Plan for Transformation brought new mixed-income developments to Chicago, such as those shown here, as a novel solution to public housing. Elizabeth Svoboda When Juanita Stevenson mov…
Playing with Conspiracy Theories
What might viewing conspiracism as a form of play tell us about the workings of contemporary culture, our capacity for critical thinking, or how we build new understandings?…
Is Hunger Culture-Bound? by Sophie Chao
Over the last decade, indigenous Marind communities in the rural district of Merauke, West Papua, have seen vast swaths of their forests and savannas razed to make way…
development by Christine Sargent
Umm Adnan,[i] like many women I met during my research on Down Syndrome and kinship in Jordan, was extremely protective of her son Adnan. The youngest of four,…
White Saviours – Do They Really Matter?
by Anne-Meike Fechter Not least since the novelist Teju Cole launched a trenchant critique of what he called the ‘white saviour industrial complex’ and the periodically reigniting debates of…
Rhythms of Resistance on Timorese Saltscapes
Editorial Note: This post is part of our series highlighting the work of the Anthropology and Environment Society’s 2018 Roy A. Rappaport Prize Finalists. We asked them to…