Revisiting the Spiritual Violence of BS Jobs
Anthropologist David Graeber’s celebrated theory of “bullshit jobs” continues to provide a critical window into why modern work is often so useless, soul-sucking, and absurd. This article was…
Anthropologist David Graeber’s celebrated theory of “bullshit jobs” continues to provide a critical window into why modern work is often so useless, soul-sucking, and absurd. This article was…
An anthropologist reports on the impediments to labor organizing—and why it’s still worth trying. ✽ In the notoriously anti-union U.S. South, a Volkswagen plant unionized. After months of…
Societies divide labor by gender and age. A biological anthropologist considers when and why this behavior arose. ✽ In his 1776 book The Wealth of Nations, economist Adam…
An anthropologist shines a light on Romani and Egyptian recyclers whose work has been made illegal, calling for a new way of viewing humanity’s garbage. ✽ One afternoon…
An anthropologist follows a group of men who work in India’s rickshaw industry, revealing how their practices of masculinity and mutual aid shape their responses to intensifying flood…
In a new book, an anthropologist reveals the heavy tolls industries have placed on residents in this eastern U.S. city. Here, she explains how these burdens have only…
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-93323-8 Kristina Nielsen: Call Centers have been the study of multiple linguistic and cultural studies that often focus on the topic of outsour…
Two biological anthropologists analyze archaeological and physiological evidence to debunk enduring assumptions about the gendered division of labor in ancient times. This article was originally publ…
East African runners wearing “super shoes” have outpaced global marathon records. But the shoe fervor—alongside older stereotypes about African runners’ “natural” abilities—means athletes’ hard work o…
In a new book, an anthropologist with long-term ties to northeastern Japan shares stories of how fishing communities have continued making a living in uncertain waters after the…
An Andean community’s use of weighing scales shows how meanings of fairness and justice differ across cultures. THE WIPI SCALE IN PERU On a cool spring morning in…
To learn what conditions are really like for Amazon workers, an anthropologist has joined their ranks. ✽ My first day of work in an Amazon warehouse I was…
In a nearly treeless desert, Ancestral Puebloans built Great Houses with more than 200,000 massive log beams. Where they got the wood has long puzzled archaeologists. THE QUESTION…
Interview with Yun Chen https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520344136/recovering-histories Yun Chen: Recovering Histories is an ethnography of the entanglements between individuals’ lived expe…
An archaeologist traces the current protests in Peru to exploitive labor policies enacted in silver mines during Spanish colonial rule from 1532 to 1800. ✽ Last month, Peru’s…
In the Andes, minga, a form of collective labor, has existed for centuries, often helping communities weather disasters. But how does it work in practice? ✽ Judith grew…
In the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, fishing communities have become part of a complex “assemblage” of human and natural worlds shaped by the global fossil fuel…
An archaeologist considers what farming simulators reveal about humanity’s ancient and evolving relationship with agriculture. ✽ “I hate when I have to harvest at night,” my husband complained…
Interview by Meg Morley https://aucpress.com/product/making-film-in-egypt/https://aucpress.com/product/making-film-in-egypt/ Meg Morley: How do/would you explain the central arguments of yo…
Interview by Xiao Xe https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501746536/a-precarious-game/ Xiao Ke: It was a great pleasure to read about such a fun topic, executed in a rigorous way, …
By MC Forelle This article is based off of the work recently published by the author in New Media and Society, titled “Copyright and the modern car: Colliding…
In 2015, tractor manufacturer John Deere made waves for sending its dealers a letter asserting that when farmers repaired their own John Deere equipment, what they were really…
Screenshot of the Instagram profile of the influencer discussed in the blog. Social media content creator Ishita Mangal (@ishitamangal) uploaded a post with multiple slides on her Instagram…
On a regular day, a Hindi soap opera production set in Mumbai is home to upwards of 100 artists and technicians – production associates, actors, make-up artists, costume…