#Review: Moving by the Spirit
In Moving by the Spirit: Pentecostal Social Life on the Zambian Copperbelt, Naomi Haynes provides a compelling ethnographic study of the centrality of Pentecostal Christianity in contemporary Zambia.…
Tag: Religion
Ep. #14 Thesis writing, picturing cults, Muslims with caste, & fieldwork boredom: this month on TFS
Ian (1:25) starts us off by asking, just how well-written does a thesis need to be? “As anthropologists, basically what we do is write… whether it’s writing your field notes,…
Book Review: London Youth, Religion and Politics: Engagement and Activism from Brixton to Brick Lane by Daniel Nilsson DeHanas
In London Youth, Religion and Politics: Engagement and Activism from Brixton to Brick Lane, Daniel Nilsson DeHanas offers an illuminating comparison of the lives of Christian and Muslim young people…
Book Review: Fragile Conviction: Changing Ideological Landscapes in Urban Kyrgyzstan by Mathijs Pelkmans
In Fragile Conviction: Changing Ideological Landscapes in Urban Kyrgyzstan, Mathijs Pelkmans offers an ethnography of everyday life in a former mining town in southern Kyrgyzstan that focuses on the…
Do Clothes Make a Messiah?
[no-caption] Livioandronico2013/Wikimedia Commons This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. Over the past few decades, the…
#Podcast Interview Round Up: The Best of February
Did you forget to give a Valentine’s Day present to your ears? Don’t worry, because you can still make amends through the gift of anthropology podcasts. Yes, it’s…
How Billy Graham Married Evangelism and Anthropology
In 1960, Billy Graham met with Maasai people while preaching throughout Africa. James Burke/Getty Images On March 2, millions watched the funeral of the Rev. Billy Graham, one…
Islamic Law Is Alive and Well in the U.S.
The complex interplay between American society and immigrants’ religious beliefs has a long and rich history in the U.S. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Teenage girls who are forced to…
The Death of a Hungry God
[no-caption] Paul Keil One evening in August 2014, a wild elephant was accidentally killed in Gajbari village* in Assam, a state in northeast India. He was a young…
Are Religious People More Moral?
While religious practices might remind participants of specific moral codes, they do not make followers more moral, overall, than unbelievers. Dimitris Xygalatas This article was original…
Like a Skin
For those of us who have grown up in the ‘West’, we tend to think of religion as a customizable category. Some of us are born into a…
The Struggle to Protect a Tree at the Heart of Hopi Culture
To Hopi traditionalists—Hopis who practice traditional culture—the humble one-seed juniper tree has deep cultural meaning. Mark Sykes A rumbling, low boom unfurled over the land like a cu…
Hobby Lobby’s Antiquities Trouble
The Department of Justice’s case against Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. is one of only a few instances in which illegal antiquities were confiscated, but investigations into smuggled artifacts…
Consecrating Science: new book on science, myth, and the Anthropocene by Lisa Sideris
A title soon to be released that is worth adding to your “to read” list from Lisa Sideris, published by University of California Press. A bit of a…
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…
What Religious Beliefs Reveal About Post-Truth Politics
As part of a traditional ritual, elderly Bidayuh practitioners invite the rice spirit and other spirits to participate in the festivities at the sangar, or bamboo altar. Liana…
On the Craft of Writing w/ Dr. Anita Hannig
How do academics write for a variety of audiences? Is routine a necessary part of creating? How many times will Ryan mention Stephen King? In this episode of…
On the Craft of Writing w/ Dr. Anita Hannig
How do academics write for a variety of audiences? Is routine a necessary part of creating? How many times will Ryan mention Stephen King? In this episode of…
‘Those are our Eiffel Towers, our pyramids’: Why Standing Rock is about much more than oil
Standing Rock is cast as an environmental protest, but the Native American Water Protectors are part of a religious tradition that predates Christianity On May 15, the Dakota…
Eating People Is Wrong—But It’s Also Widespread and Sacred
This 15th-century depiction of cannibalistic practices was inspired by Marco Polo’s writings about traveling through Asia. Bibliothèque Nationale/Wikimedia Commons This article was origin…
Pandora’s Brew: The New Ayahuasca Part 7
Conclusion: It’s all fun and games… As I mentioned in the first post of my series, anthropologists and ethnobiologists have played an outsized role in studying and popularizing…
Spring (northern hemisphere) Anthropocene books out now or soon…
A few recently released or soon to be released titles (not counting my own) on various aspects of the Anthropocene. Clive Hamilton’s Defiant Earth: The Fate of Humans…
Islam Nusantara: Conferentie over een vreedzame Islam.
Door Freek Colombijn. Van 27-29 maart vond in Nederland de “1st Biennial International Conference on Moderate Islam in Indonesia” plaats. De conferentie was georganiseerd door de Nederlandse afdeling…