Observations and reflections
Four Poems, Spring 2018 1) I remember you, abuela. The tortillas and the way you touched the comal to check the temperature. I want to ask you things…
Tag: Memory
#Review: Working the System
Working the System is a great book. It holds the promise of its subtitle and offers a deep ‘political ethnography of the new Angola’. Through rich ethnographic snippets…
Western Science Is Finally Catching Up to Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Indigenous groups in northern Australia have observed—and even indicated in ceremony and story—kites and falcons, or “firehawks,” deliberately transporting lit sticks in order to spread fire. …
Unearthing Knowledge: Forensic Anthropology and Technologies of Memory
What is commonly known as the Colombian conflict refers to more than six decades of enduring violence. During these years, a number of peace agreements have been signed…
#Review: White Faces. Reframing memory #PerformanceArt
“It was so special” appears in simple white letters on a black screen while the performer Yadgar Bakir is speaking in a calm voice about childhood events that…
A Belated Homecoming for Missing U.S. Marines
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS Growing up, writer Clay Bonnyman Evans had heard all sorts of stories about his mother’s father, 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman Jr. Evans’ grandfathe…
To Dwell in Seams
Fashion as Buried Forms of Diasporic Memory I keep returning this one memory. As a kid, I go down the steps to the basement of my parent’s New…
Reconsidering How We Honor Those Lost to War
Cities in the southern U.S. are currently under pressure to take down statues of Confederate leaders, whose publicly sanctioned presence is a constant source of injury to many.…
The Revolutionary Power of Andean Folk Tales
Andean folktales—such as those recounting deals made with merpeople in watery underworlds—are not as innocuous as one might think. James Brunker/Magical Andes Photography In the 1700s, an…
The Many Hands Shirt: Reuniting a Family and an Heirloom
In late 2013, I got an out-of-the-blue call from Stella Iron Cloud, a member of the Oglala Lakota (a.k.a. Oglala Sioux) Tribe of South Dakota. She asked if…
An Alternative Theory Hits Home in Mexico
Proponents of Family Constellations—a fast-growing therapy around the globe—claim it helps participants find strength, clarity, and peace. David Williams/SAPIENS It’s a stormy evening in …
Book Forum — Nayanika Mookherjee’s The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories, and the Bangladesh War of 1971 by Todd Meyers
Andrew Brandel has organized an extraordinary and diverse set of commentaries on Nayanika Mookherjee’s The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories, and the Bangladesh War of 1971 (Duk…
A Story of Two Stones #newtonloss
On a cold December day in 1995, after finishing my daily studies as a junior high school student, I was trying to catch the bus to go back…
The Long Count
Time. Astronomers, philosophers, physicists, anthropologists, politicians, geographers, and theologians have all pondered the nature and meaning of time. Is it linear or cyclical? Is it reversible? (P…
Rubber Barons’ Abuses Live On in Memory and Myth
The Kukama people who live along the lower part of Peru’s Marañón River tell intergenerational myths that recollect the violence and trauma of the rubber era, which peaked in…
On Miniatures: a dialogue
In a new series of postings, we draw two research projects on miniatures together in dialogue: Miniatures Matter Jonathan Walz, Rollins College Jonathan Walz is an anthropologist who…
The Lost Jingle Dress
The Lost Jingle Dress is my first published piece of creative non-fiction. The story lauds the small, tight-knit community of Jasper, Alberta. I wrote it in 2014, and…
The Lost Jingle Dress
The Lost Jingle Dress is my first ‘published’ piece of creative nonfiction. The story lauds the small, tight-knit community of Jasper, Alberta. I wrote it in 2014, and…
Gathering the Genetic Testimony of Spain’s Civil War Dead
The remains of many soldiers and citizens who died during the Spanish Civil War, which lasted from 1936 to 1939, have never been recovered. The development of genetic…
Let’s Keep Arguing About Flags and Statues
The Confederate flag, which many people see as a symbol of America’s racist past, continues to spark debate. fauxto_digit/Flickr Last summer, the Confederate flag was finally taken down…
Creative Collaborations: The Making of “Lissa (Still Time): a graphic medical ethnography of friendship, loss, and revolution” by Sherine Hamdy
Is there a widely accessible yet conceptually rigorous way to convey anthropological insights into the lived complexities and bioethical dilemmas that attend managing chronic illness in two vastly…
Ephemeral Layers: Coffee, Snapchat, and Violence
For decades, ephemeral layers at archaeological sites have been the bane of my existence. The moment I read, hear, or have to confront it at an excavation, my…
Inside the Fukushima Exclusion Zone: Place and Memory after Disaster
Savage Minds welcomes guest blogger Pablo Figueroa. Pablo is an assistant professor in the Center for International Education at Waseda University in Tokyo. In this position, he teaches courses on glo…
“We cannot give up hope” – A conversation with Gish Amit on his book #Palestine
Gish Amit is a historian who has been involved in non formal education for twenty years. He taught cinema and literature at the Arab Democratic School in Jaffa,…