“We don’t have to whisper”: Fieldnotes from Odesa
I met Engineer Yakiv[1] on board a merchant ship I had joined just south of Sri Lanka in early 2013. I was there to study seafarers’ perceptions of…
Tag: Violence
Slavery, Sustenance, and Resistance
Archaeology helps re-imagine a fuller range of experiences, including how people ate, innovated, and rebelled. In this episode, “slave cuisine” opens a window to honor the legacy of…
5 Questions About War Virtually
Join us for a free 25-minute live Q&A between former SAPIENS Media and Public Outreach Fellow Yoli Ngandali and anthropologist Roberto J. González about his new book, War…
Requiem for a War Robot
An experimental robotic pack mule, the Legged Squad Support System, walks alongside U.S. Marines on patrol. Sarah Dietz/U.S. Marine Corps Excerpted from War Virtually: The Quest to Autom…
‘Call to Arms: Silver and Lead’ Campaign Review
‘Call to Arms: Silver and Lead’ campaign review Posted December 10, 2034 by Julie Annie (staff writer at Génial Gaming) Answering the Call to Arms (yet again)…
Writing Life No. 18: An Interview with Stefania Pandolfo by Basit Kareem Iqbal
The anthropologist Stefania Pandolfo approaches ethnography as not just the depiction of a world but as what addresses and displaces both the writer and the reader, where ethnography…
Ep # 87: Squatters in The Stag: Adrian Watts on Activism & Squats
The Familiar Strange · Ep # 87: Squatters in The Stag: Adrian Watts on Activism & Squats Before we dive into today’s episode we’d just like to add…
#MeToo Anthropology and the Case Against Harvard
On February 4, The Harvard Crimson broke the news of an open letter, signed by 38 faculty members, in support of John Comaroff. This prominent professor of anthropology…
“Cowboys and Indians”—When Dirt Rocks Are Dynamite
The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Silver Screen Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images “With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fi…
Who gets to be ‘Myanmar’ at the ICJ?
The Myanmar military will appear at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on 21 February 2022. Their main interest does not lie in defending the…
Heritage out of Control: Human bones as inherited waste of Europe
Central and Eastern Europe – known as “Bloodlands”, the area where Nazi and Stalin’s atrocities met, leaving behind many sites marked by mass killings – provide an obvious…
Heritage Out of Control – (B)Lasting Bombs
On January 30, 2021, more than 8000 inhabitants of Göttingen, Germany, had to evacuate their homes. Four suspected WWII bombs had been detected underground, and in order to…
Heritage out of Control: Don’t trash my holocaust
It was an ordinary, unseasonably cool, summer day in a sleepy town just forty minutes outside of Berlin. Oranienburg once was home to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, one of…
Street Affects in Kashmir
This piece offers an ‘inside-out’ perspective on everyday life in a militarized space. As a researcher and a Kashmiri, the writer is struggling to document the ordinary-everyday lives…
The Emotional Logic of a Black Poetics: Truth, Metaphor, Beauty, Joy
In this free live event, Poetry Editor Christine Weeber and SAPIENS Public Anthropology Fellow Eshe Lewis will speak with Justin D. Wright, a doctoral student in sociocultural anthropology…
Lessons We Learn
“Lessons We Learn” is part of the collection Lead Me to Life: Voices of the African Diaspora. Read the introduction to the collection here. The past flashes like…
Riot
“The Voice of Diaspora” is part of the collection Lead Me to Life: Voices of the African Diaspora. Read the introduction to the collection here. Her arm is…
Middle Ground
[no caption] Clelia Michelini/Getty Images “Middle Ground” is part of the collection Lead Me to Life: Voices of the African Diaspora. Read the introduction to the collection h…
Are We So Different?
“Are We So Different?” is part of the collection Lead Me to Life: Voices of the African Diaspora. Read the introduction to the collection here. Her piece was…
They’ll Steal Your Eyes, They’ll Steal Your Teeth
[no-caption] Attila Haag/EyeEm/Getty Images “They’ll Steal Your Eyes, They’ll Steal Your Teeth” is part of the collection Lead Me to Life: Voices of the African Diaspora. Read the…
When Asked if the World Would End They Answer No
A sign marks the Kodiak Baptist Orphanage site on Woody Island, Alaska. Abigail Chabitnoy If you missed the introduction to “When Asked if the World Would End They…
Matrilines
If you missed the introduction to “Matrilines,” you can find it here. Where are the women in this story, Emaq? Only birds lacking fur. [aside,] Grounded birds lack…
Matryoshka Song
If you missed the introduction to “Matryoshka Song,” you can find it here. I put an awl case on my belt around my waste, just like the placard…