Review: Eating Tomorrow
Wise, Tim (2019) Eating Tomorrow. Agribusiness, Family Farmers, and the Battle for the Future of Food. New York: The New Press. ISBN 9781620974223 Ellen Messer, Ph.D. (Tufts University…
Tag: Mexico
From Mexico to the Moon
Five stories about Mexican entanglements with outer space. Paloma Romano Andrade, La alegoría mexicana en el cosmos. Winner of first place in the “juvenile” category of the Third…
Accumulation by media saturation
Palapa-lined beach on the East Cape of BCS, Mexico. Photo: Ryan Anderson, 2012. Recently, I was at the doctor’s office (I’m fine, thanks) and I started sifting through…
America: Imagine an America without Her
What might world history have looked like if there had never been a United States, or if it ceased to exist before the 20th-century? Is “America” an “exceptional”…
In the Journals, January-February 2019
From: Diane M. Nelson, “Low Intensities,” Current Anthropology 60, no. S19 (February 2019): S122-S133. Welcome back to In the Journals, a brief look at just a few…
Birth as Ritual/Ritual as Birth
Cultural anthropologist, Robbie Davis-Floyd, is considered by many as the Queen of Childbirth Studies. A Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of…
Against Intervention in Venezuela: The Case of the Caribbean Community
As discussed in the previous article, the membership of the Organization of American States is in fact not at all united around support for foreign intervention and recognition…
On Responsibility (and Laziness) by Anne E. Pfister
I am a cultural anthropologist who conducts research with deaf children and their families in Mexico City. Echarle ganas is a Mexican colloquial expression that roughly translates to…
Review of 2018, Part 4 (October–December): Nationalism, Deglobalization, plus the US exit from Syria
OCTOBER Where US–Canada relations were concerned, as well as Trump’s trade strategy, NAFTA was the leading event opening the month of October. The US–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) On Monday,…
Review of 2018, Part 3 (July–September): The Trade War plus Cold War II
JULY June was a month so heavily saturated with key turning point events, that it seemed like the longest month of the year—but then July came. Already, on…
Review: Eating Nafta
Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Policies and the Destruction of Mexico. Alyshia Gálvez. University of California Press. 2018. 260pp. ISBN:9780520291812. Joan Gross Oregon State University Alyshia Gá…
What Can Witchcraft Do in Mexico?
Although it rarely results in accusations, violence, or exclusion, witchcraft has implications for relations of power and authority in Mexican Catholicism. In late September 2017, in the quiet…
From Crystal Skulls to the Caste War
Intersections of Tourism, Archaeology and Heritage in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico Figure 1. Tourists admire the “El Castillo” pyramid at the site of Chichen Itza in Yucatán,…
The Trade War is Here: Some of the New “Facts of Life”
In Madeleine Albright’s new book, dramatically titled Fascism: A Warning, she slams the anti-globalization crowd, claiming yet again that globalization is here to stay—it’s a “fact of life…
Posting at the Margins
The “memeification” of political discourse in the 2018 Mexican presidential elections. Brandon Hunter-Pazzara “Okay, let’s start the memes,” posted a member of a community Facebook page in the…
Better Off Without NAFTA, Part 3: Mexico—Armed Rebellion, Mass Migration, Flat GDP
Getting Past the Propaganda We are routinely told that Mexico has grown into the “one of the more robust emerging economies with exports of about $1 billion a…
Better Off Without NAFTA, Part 1: Introduction—the US, Trump, and Facts and Fictions about Winners and Losers
Canada, Mexico, and the US: we could argue that any one of these nation-states “lost” because of NAFTA while the others “won”. That is Donald Trump’s position: that…
¡Un Saludo! An Audiovisual Conversation on Movement, Technology, and Memory in Cumbia
Cumbia sonidera is Mexico’s bass-heavy, sound-system reinterpretation of music originally emanating from the Colombian northwest. During performances, the sonideros (DJs) mix songs and get on the mic …
Alex E. Chávez on his new book, Sounds of Crossing
https://www.dukeupress.edu/sounds-of-crossing Interview by William Cotter William Cotter: In the introduction to your book you mention that for Mexican migrants, transnational forms of music making c…
Where (You Might Think) There’s No Tienda
This fourth installment of the series, “Latinx Foodways in North America,” introduces the work of Teresa Mares, Associate Professor in Anthropology at the University of Vermont. Mares̵…
The Anthropology/Poetry Nexus–An Interview with Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor
Can artists and social scientists inhabit the same universe? Melisa (“Misha”) Cahnmann-Taylor embodies that nexus. Her advanced degrees include an MFA in poetry . . . and a…
La Pista de Baile, PST LA/LA & LACE
I am excited to be collaborating with Colectivo AM (Mexico City) and LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) on “La Pista de Baile.” Below is the description of the…
Remembering the Mexican Revolution with Aunt Julia
Growing up in Austin, Texas, Diez y Seis — Mexican Independence Day — always seemed to hold an official, albeit minor, status in the state capitol. This was…
Remembering the Mexican Revolution with Aunt Julia
Growing up in Austin, Texas, Diez y Seis — Mexican Independence Day — always seemed to hold an official, albeit minor, status in the state capitol. This was…