Religious Ritual at the Credit Card Machine
Ritual Shrine Offerings Among the Exotic Nacirema Tribe While it may seem that anthropologists have documented the most exotic rituals across the globe, the strangest rituals are still…
Tag: ethnography
Reflecting on reflexivity: A practical example of reporting your reflexive practice
DR JESSICA REES As distinguished by Chiseri-Strater (1996) “to be reflective does not demand an ‘other,’ while to be reflexive demands both another and some self- conscious awareness…
Article: “A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China” in Museum Anthropology Review 16(1-2)
I am very happy to note a new co-authored article titled “A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China.” It was…
Thailand’s Most Famous Writer Finally Published in English
Thailand’s most famous and beloved writer– Rong Wongsawan’s work has been translated, edited and published in English for the first time. For admirers of Thailand and its culture,…
Ethnography.com launches on Youtube thanks to Chinese Smartphones in Africa
Greetings Ethnography.com aficionados! My previous post “What Happens if Chinese Smartphones Teach English Lessons in Tanzania?” is now on Youtube. Keeping up with the times, Tony and I…
Early Career Ethnographers of the NHS: Series Introduction
REBECCA IRONS Social Science and Humanities research with and on the NHS has never been more urgent than in a post-pandemic context. However, interdisciplinary collaboration with health servic…
Museum Anthropology Review Volume 16: Studies in Museum Ethnography in Honor of Daniel C. Swan
Social media is changing again and it seems like a good time to give Shreds and Patches more love and attention. My collaborator and special issue co-editor Michael…
British Colonialism and Railways to Nowhere in Northern Burma
In Northern Burma there is a railway bridge, the Gokteik Viaduct. It was completed in 1900 by a Pennsylvania steel company under contract to the British government, which…
Anthropology and Autobiography 30 years on: An Interview with Judith Okely
Our latest issue of AJEC was dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Anthropology and Autobiography, edited by Judith Okely and Helen Callaway (1992). Judith was kind…
Choosing Your Own Adventure: My Life as a Teenage Dungeon Master and How It Prepared Me to Become an Anthropologist
In many ways, Dungeon Masters are the ethnographers of their own worlds. Granted, we’re not exactly interviewing the people who populate them, and we’re inventing most of the…
Reducing Hypertension in Trinidad and Tobago
Author: Daniel Miller The research project Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing which is now close to completion was always intended to also develop some practical projects to…
Platypod, Episode One: Technologies and Politics of Accessibility
In its opening episode, Platypod presents a conversation between Cassandra Hartblay (University of Toronto) and Zihao Lin (University of Chicago). They discuss their research on accessibility culture…
ASSA Studies in Retirment
Author: Daniel Miller In June we held a very successful workshop with invited guest academics to discuss our contribution to comparative studies of ageing. Based on the very…
Just in Time (how to be an anthropologist in business)
As the academic world continues its slow motion descent into financial and sometimes intellectual insolvency, some anthropologists seek employment in the world of business. The Journal of Business…
Writing Life No. 20: An Interview with Emma Kowal by Carina Truyts
Figure 1: Emma Kowal writing her thesis in 2006 with 7-month old Maya in Darwin, Australia. Image: supplied. One evening in December 2021, in a small South African…
“Outward Spirals: A Guide to Shaligram Interpretive Traditions” (Work Continues)
A lovely morning Shaligram seva image I’ve been hard at work editing the manuscript for my upcoming book on Shaligram interpretive traditions and I am excited that we…
Making embryos lively: The politics of embryo personhood when fertilization happens under a microscope by Manon Lefèvre
On May 25, 2022, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt signed into law the strictest ban on abortion to date, a policy that prohibits the termination of any pregnancy “from…
Monstrous Matter, Out of Place
The following is an autoethnographic comic about my experiences re-understanding a new diagnosis through revisiting Mary Douglas’s Purity and Danger. (And yes, the final panel is from a…
Understanding the Shaman’s Tribulations
Understanding the Shaman’s Tribulations – By Taba Menia – The scholarship of shamanism is closely related to ideas about traditional healing and their knowledge. Found across the world…
Big Bend Javelina Survey
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Book Review: Skateboarding in Seoul: A Sensory Ethnography by Sander Hölgens
In Skateboarding in Seoul: A Sensory Ethnography, Sander Hölgens immerses body, board and camera lens in Seoul’s skateboarding scene to explore local variants of the ethos of authenticity that s…
Bringing Ageing to Life
Author: Charlotte Hawkins On 8th June, the ASSA team will host a workshop to bring together different anthropologists of ageing. This will include discussion of comparative papers from…
The last free words of a cannabis prisoner
My friend Daniel Muessig went to prison today. A former criminal defense attorney himself, he sold cannabis in Pennsylvania, a state where it’s legal. But it’s still illegal…
Sixty may be the New Fifty but is Twenty Six the New Old?
Author: Sheba Mohammid In Trinidad and Tobago, we may not have Ponce De Leon’s fountain of youth, but we do have a pool. It’s technically an offshore sandbar,…