The Restitution of the Dead
On the 7th of September 2017, Syrian national Mouaz Al-Nass, a singer and drummer, recorded and then uploaded a video of himself reciting the adhan, the Islamic call…
Tag: politics
Were Peace Medals the Price of Loyalty?
Gift-giving is common to all human societies; it’s one of the behaviors that makes us human. We give gifts to celebrate holidays, birthdays, and weddings, not to mention…
Soe Lin Aung: Three theses on the crisis in Rakhine
By now, the main contours of the recent events in Rakhine State, in western Myanmar, are well-known. On August 25, an insurgent group calling itself the Arakan Rohingya…
How Did Humans Get So Good at Politics?
Then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, hugs his son Donald Trump Jr. during a rally at Ohio University Eastern Campus in St. Clairsville, Ohio, in June 2016.…
More than Local Arrangements: How Conference Logistics Can Speak to Values by Sarah Pickman
In the fall of 2016, my colleagues Tess Lanzarotta, Marco Ramos, and I met as the core organizers for the “Critical Histories, Activist Futures” conference to hammer out…
Critical Histories, Activist Futures: Science, Medicine and Racial Violence by Sarah Pickman
A Reframed (and Reflexive) Conference Report Organized and Edited by Tess Lanzarotta and Sarah M. Pickman After a conference ends – after the last paper coffee cup…
Surplus value and care
D.D.Kosambi’s summary of Buddhist political economy circa 500bc. From ‘The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline’ 1964. (P113 1996 reprint by Vikas Publishi…
Fake News: Questions and Resources for Back to Class and All Year Round
Ah, fake news. As a phenomenon, its truthiness is both fascinating (from an epistemological perspective, at least) and highly troubling (from the perspective of anyone who cares about…
Web Roundup: Opioids as a National Emergency by Katherine Warren
After several years in the headlines, the U.S. opioid crisis has been in the news this summer as the federal government debates its status as a national emergency.…
Wrestling with “The Donald”
Nothing better epitomizes the content-free showmanship of President Trump’s governing style than the White House Rose Garden ceremony he held in May after the House passed their version…
Statues – 1970 Kolkata.
Mrinal Sen’s great film Interview begins with a few shots of the removal of colonial statues from the Maidan in Calcutta, shipped off to a closed space in…
Teaching Disability Studies in the Era of Trump by Pamela Block
In spring semester of 2017 we (Pam Block and Michele Friedner) co-taught the graduate course “Conceptual Foundations of Disability Studies.” Though the readings were the same as in…
Syllabi resources for challenging systemic racism, colonization, and more
In the wake of the horrific, racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia this past weekend, it is important for anthropologists to think about our voice in university classrooms as…
The Ku Klux Klan and the Value of Shame
A recent Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, drew close to 1,000 counterprotestors. Steve Helber/Associated Press On July 8, Charlottesville, Virginia, witnessed the value of…
Wisdom Without a Country
In the oasis of his studio, Constantin Brâncuși revolutionized sculpture by drawing out the “being that is within matter”—the cosmic essence or spirit that exists underneath the surface.…
The Refugee in Anthropological Perspective
Over the past decade, we have witnessed new and ongoing crises around the world that have forced many people to uproot their lives in order to seek refuge…
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.…
Do Americans suddenly like Obamacare? Contextualizing opinion polls and media narratives by Jessica Mulligan
“Repeal and replace” has been the rallying cry for opponents of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare), the signature domestic policy of the Obama administration that expanded…
Tweeting religion in Indonesia: when political arenas go viral
Postill, J. and L.C. Epafras forthcoming 2017. Tweeting religion in Indonesia: when political arenas go viral. American Ethnologist (virtual issue) The popularity of social media in Indonesia, combi…
God or Geology? The Genesis of Ram’s Bridge
An army of monkey warriors helps construct a bridge from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka, as depicted in the Ramayana. Dinodia Photos/Alamy Stock Photo This…
‘Ungoverned Spaces’?
by Magnus Marsden **Previously published at Hurst’s blog.** In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Manchester, the term ‘ungoverned spaces’ has returned to the forefront of public debate ab…
Materiality and politics in Latin America.
Via Ricardo Andres Labra Mocarquer Symposium in Santiago, Chile. November. The way “things” are analyzed in the contemporary world had changed, from antiquarians to different approaches…
Patrick Neveling: “Vote like humans”: Elections in a posthuman political economy
This post is part of a feature on the 2017 UK elections, moderated and edited by Patrick Neveling (SOAS, University of London). As I left Bournemouth train station…
Michael Jennings: UK Election 2017 manifestos and international development: Common ground and clear water
This post is part of a feature on the 2017 UK elections, moderated and edited by Patrick Neveling (University of Bern). With the election coming up today, I…