Call for Pitches: CARE
Image description: Two red hands grasp one another to form the shape of a heart. iStock/fairywong In Anthropology News 62.3, the “Care” issue, we will tell stories that reveal…
Tag: February
Stars—They Talk Just Like Us!
How an Instagram-based gossip franchise allows celebrities to manage the authenticity of their public personae. They go to the market! They pump gas! They explore the park! One…
“We Use Our Mouths to Trade”
At Ghana’s Kumasi Central Market gossip is more than idle talk. It helps traders mitigate economic risk and boost professional reputations. In the yam yard, wholesale traders bargain…
Tea Fit for a Queen
Tea sipping has a distinctly queer pedigree. To serve tea properly, one must be skilled in the art of verbal delivery. During last summer’s Women’s World Cup, Alex…
Gossip—A Thing Humans Do
Gossip and rumor are important informal modes of communication, influencing public opinion and individual actions. But, the distinction between information and falsehood can be difficult to see. Is…
Gossip in the Aid Industry
For international aid workers, gossip is a means of navigating a complex industry and acquiring essential information. All we have to do now Is take these lies and…
Threats to Destroy Cultural Heritage Harm Us All
Trump’s Twitter intimidation may have been politically expedient bluster. But, it threatened our collective cultural legacy, regional stability, and scientific inquiry. When United States President D…
Silicon Satire
How memes articulate tech trouble and signal “all the things.” History repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second as farce”—especially in Silicon Valley. In April 2018,…
Anthropomorphizing Wine in Our Current Climate
What might a Basque wine tell us about current wine trends and broader human issues? My coworkers at the wine bar knew I had an interest in the…
When We Come to Anthropology, Elsewhere Comes with Us
Ethnography’s power comes from the margins. Not the center. A glance at my watch revealed that my colleague was already five minutes over his thirty-minute allotment. Students from…
Emotions, Archistars, and Genoa’s New Bridge
What it means to rebuild in neoliberal times. On August 14, 2018, a large segment of the Morandi Bridge on Italy’s A20 highway connecting Genoa’s western outskirts to…
What Does Diversity and Inclusion Mean?
We need an emic approach to creating more inclusive departments. In December 2018, I called the founder of a diversity management organization to ask about a meeting where…
An Anthropology of Afrin—An Impossibility?
Searching for solidarity in the anthropological community. [pquote]How does one find the space to write or think—let alone breath—in such an environment?[/pquote]Şehitler ölmez vatan bölünmez. The mar…
Populism and the Conundrums of Democracy in Italy
There is one pattern that characterizes post-Cold War Italy: new political figures emerge, espousing an anti-establishment rhetoric, but end up bringing the people more of the same. Whether…
MPAAC, Sexual Harassment, and Immigration
[pquote] MPAAC embodies the spirit of the previously distinct committees but now functions as a single entity to generate more coordinated and focused efforts vis-à-vis both the discipline…
Migration as Clickbait
The demonization of young migrants and their families may be shocking, but these policies and practices are neither new nor surprising. On October 24, 2017, United States Customs…
Diversity Audited (A Short How-To Guide)
Since the 1980s, audits have almost become mundane. They have provided means by which employers can increase efficiency and productivity, as well by which the most disenfranchised can…
Washing Out Trump’s Mouth with Haitian History
A Haitian artist responds to the “shithole” remark. The day after President Trump referred to Haiti and the continent of Africa as “shithole countries,” Jerry Rosembert Moïse, a…
Engagements with Ethnographic Care
On care and self-care as an anthropologist and rape crisis advocate. I came to my work with survivors of sexual violence, initially, out of care. Care about the…
On Not Being Seen
Visibility in the field can be fraught with methodological and ethical dilemmas. “Go ahead inside. I need to get a few things from the trunk,” I told Destiny…
A Nuclear Advocacy Dilemma
Advocacy anthropology does not always mean aligning oneself with an underdog. Nicolas Raymond/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Since the establishment of our discipline, anthropologists have fretted over the questi…
Writing and Research in a Conflict Zone
For the activist-scholar research can mean navigating between different audiences, modes, and ethics of representation. When the Kony 2012 video went viral, it sparked numerous conversations about Wes…
Introduction to “Ethnographer as Activist”
Grappling with Ethnography and Advocacy in the Field What follows is a transcribed conversation between the authors. It has been edited for length and clarity. iStock Haley Bryant:…
Awkward Objects of Genocide
The Holocaust and Vernacular Arts in and beyond Polish Ethnographic Museums “Krematorium” (“Crematorium”), Władysław Chajec (1904-1986), 1965, Kamienica Górna, Poland. Inventory No. 31395, Collection …