Practicing slow scholarship in a hard world
I feel surrounded by a special sense of gratitude, one that I’m unsure I have ever felt before, exactly like […] The post Practicing slow scholarship in a…
Tag: law
Uncovering an Archaeology of U.S. Empire in Panama
An anthropologist investigates how archaeology helped the U.S. colonize the Panama Canal Zone—just as the current U.S. government threatens to retake it. THE GREATER UNITED STATES The United…
At the state’s gate: The uncomplicated coexistence of ideas about rights and hospitality among Syrian refugee youths in Jordan
Introduction In the short story Before the Law, Franz Kafka writes about a man from the country who attempts to […] The post At the state’s gate: The…
South Africa’s Road Out of Colonialism
A lawyer and anthropologist examines the history of the longest road in South Africa and why a proposed extension may repeat past violence. While researching the history of…
Regulating Underwater Worlds: Anthropology, experts & thinking cross culturally about the sea
Thinking about the sea Figure 1: The Sea is Not Empty’, the Women Dreaming emerging from the sea in Marra […] The post Regulating Underwater Worlds: Anthropology, experts…
Meet the smugglers. Decolonising the mind, questioning the border
To A. and O., for better or for worse. The story I want to tell might seem to be about […] The post Meet the smugglers. Decolonising the mind,…
When a Message App Became Evidence of Terrorism
Beginning in 2016, the Turkish government accused anyone with the messaging application ByLock of terrorism. An anthropologist investigates the risks of this kind of digital evidence. ✽ Summer…
Albania’s Waste Collectors and the Fight for Dignity
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…
Grappling With Guilt Inside a System of Structural Violence
Criminals and Gangmembers Anonymous, a 12-step recovery program, has proliferated in California’s carceral system. An anthropologist investigates the program, which sees criminality as a chronic addic…
The Problems of Digital Evidence in Terrorism Trials
An anthropologist uses courtrooms in Turkey as his field site to understand how digital evidence is shifting legal practices. Today most people around the world are using digital…
Reconciliation by Stealth: How People Talk about War Crimes – review
In Reconciliation by Stealth: How People Talk about War Crimes, Denisa Kostovicova considers how best to achieve reconciliation in post-conflict societies, focusing on case studies from the Balkan…
David Griffin discusses page 99 of his dissertation
Members of the Sovereign Citizen conspiracy movement have been described as “paper terrorists” because of the way that they attempt to intimidate their enemies with mountains of nonsensical,…
How Racism Shapes the U.S. Opioid Epidemic
Public health officials say opioid use and related deaths have reached a crisis point in the U.S. An interview with anthropologist and psychiatrist Helena Hansen unpacks the racial…
How Museum Items Go Missing
After alleged thefts from the British Museum, a curator explains the challenges of keeping track of collections—and the legal limitations on returning cultural material to source communities. A…
I Was Penalized for Learning a Language at Home
A researcher explains why the Fulbright-Hays fellowship should change its rules that have kept native and heritage speakers from working where their languages are spoken. ✽ Each year,…
Do Strict Criminal Penalties Protect Animals From Abuse?
In Mexico, a growing animal protection movement often promotes harsh criminal punishment for those who abuse animals. But are these strategies working, or do they lead to further…
Dating the Arrival of Modern Humans in Asia
A team of researchers explains how the discovery of a human skull and jawbone helps push back the timing of modern humans’ migration into Southeast Asia. This article…
Writing Indigenous Oral Tradition to Fight a Dam
In the northern Philippines, the Isnag are documenting their Traditional Stories to sustain their culture and fight a legal battle against dams that would inundate their homelands. ✽…
The Urgency of Envisioning a World Without Police
An anthropologist working in Baltimore argues that safety for Black communities requires an end to policing. That also means taking a hard look at how policing intersects with…
Fair and Balanced—Weighing Coca With a Wipi in Peru
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…
Jennifer Petersen on her book, How Machines Came to Speak
Interview by Joseph Wilson https://www.dukeupress.edu/how-machines-came-to-speak Joseph Wilson: The combination of legal discourse analysis and technology studies in this book is a fascinat…
The Power of Criminal Prosecutors
“Criminal.” It’s a label that can follow someone around for much of their life. But how does a person become a criminal? Anyone who is in prison has…
I Do This for You, Mom
One day, a woman in Baltimore received a text message from her mother wishing her a happy holiday. But something didn’t feel quite right. Jeri Hutton Green is…
A Story of Icelandic Skulls
An anthropologist journeys to the Arctic Circle and finds a surprising story about the human remains that end up in museum collections. “Prime harvest”—that’s how one early 20th-century…