How a Megadam Disrupts the Flow of Water—and Money
In Northeast India, a controversial hydropower dam moves toward completion—causing great uncertainty for downstream dwellers whose livelihoods depend on the river. ✽ At the peak of summer monsoon,…
In Northeast India, a controversial hydropower dam moves toward completion—causing great uncertainty for downstream dwellers whose livelihoods depend on the river. ✽ At the peak of summer monsoon,…
A translator’s notes are refashioned into a poem calling for justice for Indigenous peoples in the Philippines displaced by a megadam. “Translation Notes” is part of the collection…
New archaeological research reveals insights into the first-known seafarers to brave ocean crossings from Asia to the Pacific Islands more than 50,000 years ago. This article was originally…
A poet-historian reflects on women’s labor carrying memories and the past. ✽ memory is a washerwoman who knows that when the blood is poisoned, you have to slaughter…
By Fred Wojnarowski, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology, LSE. At COP28, water was everywhere. COP28 was based on the first UN Water Conference in March, which…
The proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, along California’s Central Coast, would be the first of its kind in the U.S. to be nominated by Native peoples. ✽…
(Nota del equipo editorial): Nos complace presentar esta pieza publicada en español, previamente publicada en inglés, como parte del compromiso que ha asumido Engagement de ofrecer contenido en…
In this Mad Max–like California landscape, artists and activists are inventing renewable alternatives to the capitalist system that’s developing but also destroying the region. ✽ Dusk at the…
A poet interrogates the garden of Eden origin story by reimagining it against the backdrop of East Africa’s coastal environment. Coastal Eden – Listen in the evening, frangipani…
An anthropologist shares his story of the environmental, sociocultural, and political consequences of a hydropower dam in India for communities living downstream. Discussions about the impacts of da…
An anthropologist takes us on a journey “down the line” to explore what freediving can teach us about ourselves and kinship with the sea. ✽ Face down in…
Tracing 75 years of Israeli war photography, an anthropologist explains how images that reframe disproportionate violence as proof of victory have intensified in the war on Gaza that…
Much of the water that enters homes in metro Guadalajara, Jalisco is toxic. Water from the tap is used to wash dishes and water plants, but for decades…
Forty years ago, four hippos arrived in Colombia. Drug trafficker Pablo Escobar illegally imported them as part of his project to build an open-door zoo at Hacienda Naples,…
Each night and day in the industrial port of Ciudad del Carmen (Campeche, Mexico), dozens of Pemex oil platform workers roll their small suitcases across the concrete as…
July is part of the heavy rainfall season of South America’s northernmost savannas, known since colonial times as the Llanos (Plains/Grasslands) and, more recently, from a biogeographical perspe…
Inspired by Feld’s (2015) work on sound, in this collection of essays, we bring five ethnographers from Latin America to think about their research through the sounds of…
By Laura Betancur Alarcón (Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems-IRI THESys at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) and Ana María Arbeláez-Trujillo (Water Res…
By Maira Hayat, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame. The three essays by Habib, Alarcón and Arbeláez-Trujillo, and Mamidipudi take the reader to worlds of…
By Colleen Linn, Wayne State University. Groundwater is difficult to observe (Ballestero 2019, Walsh 2018), and is an elusive substance despite being the most relied upon drinking water…
By Peter Habib, Department of Anthropology, Emory University. I came across it on a blazing Monday, tucked away next to a small dikkān (corner store) and a complex…
By Sita Mamidipudi, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Too Salty Najma and her family are Muslim fishworkers who live half a mile away from…
By Sayd Randle, College of Integrative Studies, Singapore Management University. Walking along a covered aqueduct’s path through the desert, water can seem remarkably contained, cleanly se…
By Melisa Escosteguy (Non-Conventional Energy Research Institute-INENCO-CONICET, Universidad de Salta) and Maria Labourt (Department of Sociology, University of Southern California). Transform…