A Nation of Shopkeepers – review
Dan Evans’s A Nation of Shopkeepers explores the growth of the “petty bourgeoisie” in the UK following Thatcherism, as the rise of home ownership, small landlordism and changes to the…
Tag: politics
The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule – review
In The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule, Angela Saini explores the origins of patriarchy, debunking biological determinism and highlighting the role of nation building, social norms, and…
Cultivating Modern Farms Using Ancient Lessons
An anthropologist examines what past farmers can teach us about adapting to climate change amid—and sometimes against—powerful political influences. This article was originally published at The Conve…
Imphal as a Pond
As civil war continues to rip apart and threaten communities and families in Manipur in Northeast India, a poet reflects on those who leave and those who stay…
Mark LeVine on his book Heavy Metal Islam
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520389380/heavy-metal-islam Lara Sabra: Your book has shown that especially in the Middle East, which suffers from censorship and authoritarian regimes, art ca…
The folly of little kings
On Monday, May 25th, 2020, Cuba’s new president, Miguel Diaz-Canél, involuntarily found himself in the spotlight. Diaz-Canél had become the Cuban head of state two years before, and…
Anthropology and absurdity: Introduction
Anthropology is often seen as the discipline that makes “the strange familiar and the familiar strange”. Here, however, we are staying with the strange in the form of…
Spotlighting War’s Cultural Destruction in Ukraine
An archaeologist, anthropologist, and film expert examine the staggering amount of damage to cultural heritage caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine. This article was originally published at The…
The Responsibility of Witnesses to Genocide
Palestinian narratives of their own dispossession are routinely dismissed—making witnessing Israel’s ongoing onslaught on Palestine that reignited in 2023 an urgent task. But witnessing is not enough….
The Politic of Cats – Stimulus Respond
I had occasion to revisit this from 2007 again today: politics-of-catsDownload
Living as Stateless Palestinians in Jordan
Israel’s war on Gaza that erupted in 2023 continues a long history of systemic displacement of Palestinians. Over 2 million Palestinian refugees currently live in Jordan in indefinite…
The Revolution Will Be Hilarious: Comedy for Social Change and Civic Power – review
Caty Borum‘s The Revolution Will Be Hilarious: Comedy for Social Change and Civic Power considers how comedy intersects with activism and drives social change. Borum’s accessible text draw…
How solidarity with migrant people is stifled at the France-UK border
Over 150 organisations called for citizens to mobilise against the new, controversial French immigration law deemed ‘an ideological victory’ by far-right leader Le Pen. They condemned this latest…
Sudan: cessation of war appears long way off
Written by Jehron Muhammad “If this war (in Sudan) last for several years… the country that we knew as Sudan, …
A Theory of Everyone: Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going – review
In A Theory of Everyone: Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going, Michael Muthukrishna contends that the core issue affecting Western societies is increasing energy…
Earlier I Had Nightmares, Now I Have Insomnia
A Kashmiri poet-anthropologist records the restless despair many feel under Indian occupation. If you missed the introduction to “Earlier I Had Nightmares, Now I Have Insomnia,” you can…
30 Minute Methods – Ned Rossiter
Tuesday 23 January 2024 at 4pm HCMC time: online – all welcome Topic: 30 Minute Methods TDTU – Title: Reflections on Organized Networks and Collective Research Methods Join Zoom…
Subversive Archaism: Troubling Traditionalists and the Politics of National Heritage – review
In Subversive Archaism: Troubling Traditionalists and the Politics of National Heritage, Michael Herzfeld considers how marginalised groups use nationalist discourses of tradition to challenge state a…
Smytta Yadav: Shifting Landscapes: Urbanization, Religious Transformations, and Cultural Resilience in Delhi
In the midst of India’s extensive urbanization, with more than 34% of the population dwelling in urban areas as of 2021, as per the World Bank, the complex…
A Long Road Ahead
SAPIENS’ 2023 poet-in-residence questions where peace of mind can come from for Indian-occupied Kashmir. If you missed the introduction to “A Long Road Ahead,” you can find it…
This Militarization
A poet-anthropologist conveys her life when she was coming of age under the increasing mobilization of military forces in Indian-occupied Kashmir. If you missed the introduction to “This…
Documenting the Kashmir Conflict Through Poetry
SAPIENS’ 2023 poet-in-residence sketches the history she speaks to in three poems from Indian-occupied Kashmir. “Speak up for your lips are not sealed, and your words are still…
Best of SAPIENS 2023
In another year of exceptional challenges and hardships, anthropologists tackled a range of issues and questions about what it means to be human. Here are some of SAPIENS’…
Support the Troops: Military Obligation, Gender, and the Making of Political Community – review
In Support the Troops: Military Obligation, Gender, and the Making of Political Community, Katherine Millar analyses “support the troops” discourses in the US and UK during the early years…