Posting at the Margins
The “memeification” of political discourse in the 2018 Mexican presidential elections. Brandon Hunter-Pazzara “Okay, let’s start the memes,” posted a member of a community Facebook page in the…
Tag: Violence
We Need to Talk About “Gun Violence”: Reflections on Terminology and Contexts of Violence by Joe Anderson
Among the many political challenges of our time, gun violence in America has emerged as one of the most divisive. A retreat into partisan communities prevents us from…
Processing Settler Toxicities: Part II
This second instalment of a 2+ part post is adapted from a presentation at the 2018 Cultures of Energy Symposium at Rice University. Many thanks to everyone who…
The Trauma of Helping Asylum-Seekers
The United States’ detention of asylum-seeking women and children brings additional trauma to immigrants, such as this woman from El Salvador, who already carry many painful stories. Legal…
Guest Post: Anthropology’s front-lines: Notes on crisis, coloniality, and violence
[The following is a guest post by Proshant Chakraborty. Proshant is an applied anthropologist and research consultant based in Mumbai, India. He obtained his master’s in Social and Cultural Anthropolo…
How Volcanoes Destroy and Nurture Societies
The explosion must have been deafening. Clouds of black and gray likely erased the horizon as the earth and sky thundered violently. As smoldering debris rained down on…
Intimacy and Violence
A shaft of afternoon light began to stream through the window of the clinic room. Observing the light reflected in my eyes, she now saw in them the…
Letting Silence Have a Voice in #MeToo
On December 9, 2017, #MeToo ralliers in New York City, many of whom are survivors of sexual violence, took a stand against prominent men who have reportedly committed…
Fragile Security or Fatale Liaisons? Reflections on 2 March 2018 Attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, by Sten Hagberg
On Friday 2 March 2018 around 10 o’clock, two coordinated of terrorist attacks took place in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The first attack involved gunmen seeking…
For Preppers, the Apocalypse Is Just Another Disaster
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS My first encounter with a group of preppers in St. Louis, Missouri, started at the bar of a restaurant about a decade past its prime.…
The Revolution that Wasn’t (Yet): Reflections on Iran’s protests two months out
I still remember vividly the words of an informant who, when asking him about his vision of a freer Iran, responded adamantly, “we don’t need more freedom, what…
Grief Can Make Us Wise
A candlelight vigil on February 15 honored the victims of the recent mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Jim Rassol/Getty Images In the first hours…
DragNet: January 16 – January 31, 2018
Image from projects.bettergov.org DragNet is back, with a recap of a number articles that came up last month in our twitter feed. In World News, we have a…
Can the Hunt for Skeletons Help Heal a Nation’s Wounds?
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS The abandoned Nicosia airport in Cyprus is a strange place for an anthropology lab. But there I was—at the end of a humid spring day…
What Really Happened on Easter Island?
The famous statues of Easter Island have long been a source of awe and wonder. John Elk III/Alamy Photos This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been…
REDUX: “Cleaning Up the Streets” #AnthroState
Hillbrow, Johannesburg: It’s April 2008. I am in the lobby of the Ambassador Hotel, one of Johannesburg’s most happening nightclubs since the Apartheid era. As with the Hillbrow…
Is the Clock Ticking Toward Doomsday?
Each January, the science and security board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists unveils an estimate of the likelihood that humanity will self-destruct. They do so by…
Unpicking an (A)moral Anthropological Stance: Ongoing Violence in Myanmar
REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain Introduction by Maaike Matelski In June 2015 the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology organized a seminar on account of the increasing number of Rohingya refug…
Refugees and Police Violence in Calais
An anthropologist reflects on ethical responsibility and everyday violence. Sitting on a bench in a beautiful town-center park in Calais, we speak to a number of Ethiopian refugees…
Could Group-Organized Violence Be Rooted in Empathy?
The Samburu people, pastoralists who live in northern Kenya’s semiarid lands, have a rich oral tradition recounting stories of their ancestors. In the late 19th century, one story…
How Culture Allows for War and Peace
Some researchers argue that human warfare develops out of innate tendencies for collective violence and that only culture, or reason, keeps violent and aggressive urges in check. But…
No One Right Way to Peace
When the United Nations drafted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, it established a vision of peak humanity, articulating what the assembly considered appropriate rules for…
Compassion Sets Humans Apart
When considering the question of whether humans are a naturally aggressive and violent species, it might be good to take a deep breath and have a look at…
How Have Attitudes Toward Extremism Changed Over Time?
Words are more than their dictionary definitions. Amir Ridhwan/Shutterstock This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. The …