In Lebanon, Solar Power Is Booming. Why?
An anthropologist explores whether Lebanese turning to solar power is a story of resilience, environmental triumph, or something else. ✽ I recently returned to Lebanon, where I have…
Tag: politics
Oct 22 1965 Sydney arrests
The report on this 1965 anti-war protest is marginally better than most current press release churnalism, of course it favours the Police and the future PM McMahon (who…
A Mass Shooting in the “Evangelical Vatican”
The recent violent attack on Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, happened in a place shaped by decades of anti-LGBTQ organizing by evangelical Christian groups. ✽…
What Commentators Get Wrong (and Right) About North Korea
An anthropologist argues that unfair portrayals of North Korea as a hopelessly irrational hermit state has huge implications for policy and security. ✽ This month, North Korea tested…
Q and A with Professor Tim Newburn on Orderly Britain
We speak to Professor Tim Newburn about his new co-authored book, Orderly Britain, written with Andrew Ward, which explores facets of daily life – dog mess, smoking, drinking, parking, queuing,…
Beveridge Revisited: Why does poverty still stalk the UK?
On the 80th anniversary of the Beveridge report, the five ‘giants’ he sought to slay are alive and well and stalking this green and pleasant land. A new book…
Making a Multispecies Community in the Texas Hill Country: AAA2022 Talk
Below is a recording of the talk I am giving in person at the 2022 annual American Anthropological Association meeting on November 10. Video of my talk
Heritage Forensics Is Tackling Devastating New Forms of Cultural Erasure
In the Caucasus, researchers are using aerospace technology to expose the clandestine obliteration of Armenian cultural heritage. These new methods of archaeology will prove necessary in the global…
Brazil’s Pendulum of Politics
“There’s a struggle that repeats itself throughouthistory, over and over again – the oppressorsagainst the oppressed.”—Simon Bolívar Interestingly, when Simon …
REVIEW: The intimate life of dissent
The Intimate Life of Dissent examines practices of refusal and resistance through the friendships, kinships and solidarities which withstand and obstruct them. The authors of this edited volume…
Study Study Study – then read like Bhagat Singh
Most interesting post of the day, and by far, has been this attached article on Bhagat Singh and anarchism, shifting to socialism. A few points fist though. I…
Seeing Is Not Believing
“We bet on mining,” peasant leaders (dirigentes) say of the decision to permit one of the world’s largest open-pit copper mining projects on lands occupied by Quechua-speaking communities…
When Women Answer the Call of Duty
From Syria to Ukraine, the sight of women taking up arms to fight for a cause calls audiences to attention. Why? ✽ In 2019, the video game Call…
Archaeology at the Borders of the Refugee Crisis
Archaeological methods, which are typically used to study the past, can also illuminate the experiences of today’s displaced people. This article was originally published at Knowable Magazine and…
What’s Behind the Backlash to Lightyear’s Animated Kiss?
What do Twitter debates over Disney-Pixar’s recent family film tell us about today’s parenting politics in the U.S.? ✽ On June 17, Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation…
An Archaeology of Personhood and Abortion
Opinions about fetal personhood and abortion have fluctuated enormously throughout history and differ in surprising ways between cultures. ✽ After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade…
Selected Ho Chi Minh, in translation.
Have this in my hand, having helped translate a part of it, cannot recommend it more highly. The full Đường Cách Mệnh trans will follow next year, also…
Book Review: The Digital Border: Migration, Technology, Power by Lilie Chouliaraki and Myria Georgiou
In The Digital Border: Migration, Technology, Power, Lilie Chouliaraki and Myria Georgiou explore how digital technologies are shaping experiences of migration today, focusing particularly on the 2015…
In recovery
After two months of radio four brainwash, it is good to be in recovery, getting back to normal with Radio M-L and happy to leave the sinking remain/brexit…
Book Review: COVID-19 Collaborations: Researching Poverty and Low-Income Family Life during the Pandemic edited by Kayleigh Garthwaite, Ruth Patrick, Maddy Power, Anna Tarrant and Rosalie Warnock
In COVID-19 Collaborations: Researching Poverty and Low-Income Family Life during the Pandemic, Kayleigh Garthwaite, Ruth Patrick, Maddy Power, Anna Tarrant and Rosalie Warnock bring together contribu…
“You hurt our monuments, you hurt our heroes, you go to jail for ten years”: Contested histories at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021
Minutes before Trump told his supporters to march on the US Capitol and to “fight like hell,” he reminded them of a “little law” against attacking national monuments:…
Book Review: The Richer, The Poorer: How Britain Enriched the Few and Failed the Poor by Stewart Lansley
In The Richer, The Poorer: How Britain Enriched the Few and Failed the Poor, Stewart Lansley explores how public policy has shaped economic inequality in Britain since the nineteenth century.…
Stop Projecting Nationalism Onto Stonehenge
English Heritage beamed eight portraits of Queen Elizabeth II onto Stonehenge, sparking controversy among archaeologists and the general public. Raj Valley/Alamy In late May, eight images…
Stop Projecting Nationalism Onto Stonehenge
In late May, eight images of the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II were projected onto the megaliths of Stonehenge to celebrate the monarch’s 70 years on the throne.…