Is War Inevitable? Consider the Ancient Maya
Two archaeologists show how investigating tactics, weaponry, and the logistics of battle helps answer questions about social conflict in the human experience. ✽ Arresting trails of light arc…
Tag: war
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…
Tim Page
Fighting the lurgie seemed the right time to read Tim Page’s book on train trips in Vietnam 20 years after his war photo stint – the Dennis Hopper…
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…
Maria Gunko: Violent faces of the Russian state
“Our whole state manifested itself in [Verkhniy] Lars, in a concentrated form: violence, mess, corruption, and indifference” – told me Vadim, who left Russia through Georgia shortly after…
Letter to Jane
Lecture on Jean-luc Godard’s film “Letter to Jane” – much to discuss at TDTU.
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…
We All Love Roses
SAPIENS Poet-in-Residence Jason Vasser-Elong reflects on horrific cycles of violence—and highlights injustices that are often papered over. We All Love Roses – Listen Some say it’s human nature…
We are probably all black centipedes at heart
Dream note: I have to arrange my own boat, a massive crustacean-covered barge rowed with huge crab/octopus like mechanical oars and a front that folds over with a…
Netaji aggregator post
I do not want to attract new madness, the old madness does well enough. Here, a summary of various items of fun fact* where *I use the term…
Don Nonini: The China Conundrum and The Current Conjuncture
Strategic Ambivalence or Disguised Conflict? China’s Reactions to Russia’s War on Ukraine and to Covid Why does China’s response so far to the Russian invasion of Ukraine “not…
Focaalblog: New Times? Confronting the Escalating Crises of Global Capitalism
Karl Polanyi Research Center for Global Social Studies and the Commission on Global Transformations and Marxian Anthropology – IUAES, in cooperation with the Working Group for Public Sociology…
Céline Cantat: The reception spectacle: on Ukrainian displacement and selective empathy at Europe’s borders
Since the beginning of the Russian offensive on Ukraine on February 24th, over 5 million people have registered for temporary protection programmes and other schemes across Europe. By…
Denys Gorbach: Ukrainian identity map in wartime: Thesis-antithesis-synthesis?
The cultural and linguistic heterogeneity of Ukraine is a well-known fact, used and abused in explanations of the ongoing war. Having taken root in the early modern period…
Volodymyr Artiukh: The political logic of Russia’s imperialism
The debate around the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including the previous contributions in FocaalBlog, has shifted from the ‘either NATO or Russia’ dichotomy to a more nuanced exchange…
Sexist methods of warfare: How does war affect women?
Anthrodendum welcomes Aleksandra Cejovic, a Montenegrin anthropologist based in the United States whose work is focused primarily on female embodied experiences, mainly menstrual and sexual health. Se…
Đồng Tháp poses the urgent questions for today.
Juxtaposing decayed US v Soviet war crap or a flower that blooms in slime. a Huey and a MIG and sundry other remnants from the pond in the…
Markus Virgil Hoehne: Perpetuating conflict through democratization: Presidential elections in Somalia
Presidential elections will happen in Somalia on Sunday, 15 May 2022. This will most likely not bring peace and stability to the war-torn Somali society. To the contrary,…
Haunted by a Secret War
In Old Sepon in Savannakhet province, Laos, a temple wall riddled with bullet holes and shrapnel scars hints at war’s remains. Leah Zani Excerpted from Strike Patterns: Notes…
Don Kalb: War: New Times
It is now becoming overly clear that this cruel and unjustifiable war in and on Ukraine is not going to last ten days – as the strategists in…
Antonio De Lauri: The idea of a clean and efficient war is a dangerous lie
The war in Ukraine resuscitated a certain dangerous fascination for war. Notions such as patriotism, democratic values, the right side of history, or a new fight for freedom…
Martin Fotta: Towards Anti-War Anthropology: On EASA, CEE and NATO
One of the casualties of Putin’s war on Ukraine will be European critical social science. While the war has instigated important discussions about ‘US-plaining’, ‘Westplaining’ and about Russian…
An Open Letter from African Students from Ukraine who fled to Germany (with an Introductory Text on the Situation of African Students in Germany by Ziga Podgornik Jakil)
Hide Press Release (10 Less Words) Ziga Podgornik Jakil, in Collaboration with African Students from Ukraine (Figure 1: Aid for refugees at Berlin main station. Author: Leonhard Lenz.…
The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis’ Double Standard
Watching the war unfold in Ukraine due to the recent Russian invasion, I, like many others, have been gripped by heartbreaking images of refugees arriving to the borders…