American Exceptionalism and Violent Protests
It is important to understand that for more than fifty years, American foreign and defense policies such as EUCOM, PCOM, … More
Tag: Social Cultural Anthropology
How the informal economy took over the World by Keith Hart – Finale
The Euro crisis: an episode in the history of money The monetary crisis that has overwhelmed the eurozone of late needs to be seen in this context. The…
How the informal economy took over the World by Keith Hart – Part 3
The demise of national capitalism To talk of the world economy being “informalized” suggests that there is a global rule-system, whereas effective rules are now absent at all…
How the informal economy took over the World – Part 2 by Keith Hart
The dialectics of form “General Forms have their vitality in Particulars, and every Particular is a Man” (William Blake). Most readers of this book live substantially inside…
How the informal economy took over the world by Keith Hart
A la recherche du temps perdu (In search of lost time) The idea of an informal economy was born at the moment when the post-war era of developmental…
Seeing Culture Everywhere: A Book Review by Keith Hart
The authors of this well-written book tell how they were pushed by their editor into writing for a general audience. They have succeeded without sacrificing analytical rigor. They…
Pandemics: Agents of Global Change – Part 2
The Economic and Commercial Impact of Pandemics By now, the COVID-19 influenza outbreak has reached practically all parts of the globe. In the context of discussing the pandemic,…
New Preface to Globalization from Below: The World’s Other Economy by Keith Hart
IV. The informal economy has taken over the World The idea of an informal economy was born in the 1970s when the post-war era of developmental states was…
Pandemics: agents of global change
It was the early 1990s, while working at the American College of Physicians in Philadelphia, I became interested in epidemiology. With all the doctors around (there were twelve…
The Subjugation of Liberal Democracy
Are we witnessing in our lifetime the slow destruction of liberal democracy? Have we exhausted the limits of a political system that has served nations for more than…
Religious Colonizing in Brazil
After Bolsonaro was elected President of Brazil, I sort of lost the desire to write anything more about the country. As a gringo living in Brazil for more…
The Collapse of Societies
By now, the entire world is aware of the historic and unprecedented events occurring in the United States. It seems trite to characterize these events as…
The Mueller Report: Highlights
The Mueller Report is probably one of the most extensive legal investigations in the history of the United States. Certainly, the circumstances necessitating it are historic…
The Horror of War – Part 2
It was Christmas Eve and it just so happened that I pulled guard duty. The post I was assigned to was a 30-foot tower that stood…
The Horror of War – Part 1
With all the violence in the world and the ever growing movement of mankind toward more violence, it appears there is always a war somewhere…
The Virus of Violence
In the study of epidemiology, one has an opportunity to learn about communicable and non-communicable diseases. This curriculum is usually pursued on the graduate level and…
An Anthropologist in the World Revolution – Pt. 2 by Keith Hart
As we approached the millennium, with the dotcom boom roaring away, I wanted to write a book that would sum up 30 years of teaching and…
An Anthropologist in the World Revolution – Pt. 1 by Keith Hart
Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, well-known for his inspiring YouTube lectures and documentary shorts, has received over a hundred application…
Teaching Anthropology in 2018
Recently, a colleague contacted me with a very interesting and specific question. At the time, I was on the road and too busy to address his inquiry. I…
The Struggle for Power by Keith Hart
Book Review: The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ten Rules of Change in the Post-Crisis World by Ruchir Sharma, London: Allen Lane, 2016; pp 464, £25. Ruchir…
The Bitcoin Controversy
Most people have already heard of Bitcoin. However, very few know what it is or how it originated. Many people know that it is some form of “cryptocurrency”…
Brazil’s Dichotomous Treatment of Corruption – PT 2
After the end of the Brazilian military dictatorship, the Liberal Front Party (LFP), Democratic Social Party (PMDB) and Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) dominated the government of Brazil.…
Preface to the Coming World Crisis
Trump’s election has accelerated talk on the left of the end of (neo-) liberalism and the rise of fascism in the West. The prospects for world war seem…
What Anthropologists Really Do
The Summary The new anthropologist is a self-appointed people’s representative in the double sense of writing them up and acting as their advocate. And anthropology is a sort…