Charlie Hebdo
Let’s say some guy in a bar starts mouthing off against another patron’s mother. He says she’s a fat moose with a ginger beard, and it’s funny…
Tag: politics
hope: the first anthropological emotion
During the comments from the Anthropology and Storytelling panel at the #AAA2014 meetings: “The first anthropological emotion is hope” (Carole McGranahan). As McGranahan clarified in a fol…
乌镇时代 | Wuzhen Times
The first World Internet Conference was held November 19-21, in the scenic water village of Wuzhen (proudly endorsed by 7,000 years of history). English-language tech bloggers and news…
Cultures of Dependency
fundamental social change is hard to achieve because cultures of dependency are deeply entrenched in the local political culture. In political theories of social change like Marxism, under…
“humans just like us” (Michel-Rolph Trouillot 2003:137)
Reading Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s final chapter in Global Transformations, “Making Sense: The Fields in which We Work” and reflecting on what I’ve been teaching in Cultural Anth…
About Progress
Last Saturday, I published a post in Norwegian about the populist Progress Party, currently a junior partner in a Conservative-led government around here. It hadn’t occurred to me that…
About Progress
Last Saturday, I published a post in Norwegian about the populist Progress Party, currently a junior partner in a Conservative-led government around here. It hadn’t occurred to me…
About Progress
Last Saturday, I published a post in Norwegian about the populist Progress Party, currently a junior partner in a Conservative-led government around here. It hadn’t occurred to me…
Abu Nidal and his children
Some years ago, I found myself in the passenger seat of a car trying to make its way through the city centre of Lahore. The traffic was confusing.…
Abu Nidal and his children
Some years ago, I found myself in the passenger seat of a car trying to make its way through the city centre of Lahore. The traffic was confusing.…
Abu Nidal and his children
Some years ago, I found myself in the passenger seat of a car trying to make its way through the city centre of Lahore. The traffic was confusing.…
Invest your emotion elsewhere
People tend to call me a rationalist, and that's not really something I have a problem with. I don't think philosophical ideas should be a matter of identity…
The Kids are more than all right
Both are seventeen. They are too young to vote in places like the US. But we need more of them! Malala! All around the world people know this…
The Return of the Colonial
What logic connects Ferguson, Gaza and east Port of Spain? What cultural logics connect recent confrontations in Ferguson, Gaza, and east Port of Spain? The short answer is…
Jared Diamond and Future Public Anthropology
It was an honor and pleasure to be discussant for Margaret Mead and Jared Diamond: Past Publics, Current Engagements, organized by Alex Golub for the 2013 American Anthropological…
berners-lee on snowden
It’s been almost eight years that I ↵last quoted ↑Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, here at xirdalium. On 1st August 2006 I republished the following…
Keti Koti 2014 – Celebration, Protest, Commemoration
“The chains are cut” (Keti Koti in Surinamese – Sranantongo) is the Emancipation Day, in which the end of slavery in Suriname is remembered (legally 1963, de facto…
Keti Koti 2014 – Celebration, Protest, Commemoration
“The chains are cut” (Keti Koti in Surinamese – Sranantongo) is the Emancipation Day, in which the end of slavery in Suriname is remembered (legally 1963, de facto…
Keti Koti 2014 – Celebration, Protest, Commemoration
“The chains are cut” (Keti Koti in Surinamese – Sranantongo) is the Emancipation Day, in which the end of slavery in Suriname is remembered (legally 1963, de facto…
Keti Koti 2014 – Celebration, Protest, Commemoration
“The chains are cut” (Keti Koti in Surinamese – Sranantongo) is the Emancipation Day, in which the end of slavery in Suriname is remembered (legally 1963, de facto…
Squeaky Dolphin
From an article about the anxieties of big data by Microsoft researcher Kate Crawford. 2014 is the year we learned about Squeaky Dolphin. That’s the Pynchon-worthy code name…
Britain is a ‘Christian Country’, apparently
David Cameron has recently claimed that the UK is a 'Christian country' and has said that he will act as a 'giant Dyno-Rod' for Christian organisations here (implicitly…
Walling Roma in
The “Roma wall” Wikipedia page accounts for the apparently growing governance practice of walling Romani households in (or out). The page presents cases in Czech Republic, Romania and…
Walling Roma in
The “Roma wall” Wikipedia page accounts for the apparently growing governance practice of walling Romani households in (or out). The page presents cases in Czech Republic, Romania and…