From reasons of state to individual interest: Morality, power and the political category
From reasons of state to individual interest: Morality, power and the political category This article argues that political anthropology has never had a version of the substantivist/formalist debate that shaped…
From parasitic feudalism to responsible hierarchy: The emergence of a “political” vocabulary among the Sora of Tribal India
From parasitic feudalism to responsible hierarchy: The emergence of a “political” vocabulary among the Sora of Tribal India The Sora language reveals a sharp division between the vocabulary of command…
Dó ăyèi! Dó ăyèi! Reclaiming political agency in Burma’s democracy era
Dó ăyèi! Dó ăyèi! Reclaiming political agency in Burma’s democracy era People marching in the streets in Burma in 1988, infuriated by twenty-six years of military dictatorship, demanded the return…
Northwest African perspectives on the concept of the state
Northwest African perspectives on the concept of the state The state of most current political anthropology tends to be the modern nation-state, and relatively few works address questions posed by…
From “limited sovereignty” to decolonization in Ukraine
From “limited sovereignty” to decolonization in Ukraine This article takes up the loaded topic of “Russia in the world of Ukraine.” Now an object of official Russia’s aggressive attention, contemporary…
The clash of sovereignties: The Latvian subject and its Russian imperialism
The clash of sovereignties: The Latvian subject and its Russian imperialism Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is occupying the minds of pundits, scholars, and politicians worldwide and across the political spectrum.…
Towards a critical ethnography of political concepts
Towards a critical ethnography of political concepts This special section approaches “politics” from a specifically ethnographic point of view. It does this by privileging ethnographically derived political concepts rather than…
The utility of ethnography for understanding (the Russo-Ukrainian) war
The utility of ethnography for understanding (the Russo-Ukrainian) war The Russo-Ukrainian war raises the question about the utility of ethnography in understanding interstate war. As anthropology and sociology have historically…
Imperialist ideology or depoliticization? Why Russian citizens support the invasion of Ukraine
Imperialist ideology or depoliticization? Why Russian citizens support the invasion of Ukraine What explains the wide support for the invasion of Ukraine in Russia in the first months after it…
Losing the plot: On method and meaning in traumatizing ethnographic work
Losing the plot: On method and meaning in traumatizing ethnographic work This article takes up the question of “Russia’s influence in the world” by focusing on the impact of Russian…
Surreal events, “TV zombies,” and social media in postsocialist Kazakhstan: Reflecting on violence in Russia’s sphere of influence
Surreal events, “TV zombies,” and social media in postsocialist Kazakhstan: Reflecting on violence in Russia’s sphere of influence Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which came on the heels of violent domestic…
Sovereignty triangles: Emotions and transactions in Central African relations with Russia
Sovereignty triangles: Emotions and transactions in Central African relations with Russia Increasingly over the past five years, the Russian government has been expanding its spheres of influence in Africa, chiefly…
The re-starting of history: Life in changing Russian spheres of influence
The re-starting of history: Life in changing Russian spheres of influence The essays in this collection look into daily life in changing Russian spheres of influence, including Ukraine, Latvia, Kazakhstan,…
A treasury of ideas
A treasury of ideas Go to Source
The nonanimistic worldview of Fritz Krause
The nonanimistic worldview of Fritz Krause In the acknowledgments to the English translation of “Cosmological deixis and Amerindian perspectivism,” Eduardo Vivieros de Castro (: 484) cryptically states that “After this…
The role of volunteers in pilgrimage studies: Autobiographic reflections on belief and the performance of multiple roles
The role of volunteers in pilgrimage studies: Autobiographic reflections on belief and the performance of multiple roles Given the predominantly secular approach towards religion by anthropologists and sociologists, we contend…
Mask and ancestral figure: The motif of the skin and the principle of form
Mask and ancestral figure: The motif of the skin and the principle of form Go to Source
A short biography of Fritz Krause
A short biography of Fritz Krause This brief biography of the German ethnologist Fritz Krause (1881–1963) sketches his life story, some of the intellectual influences that impacted his work, and…
Embodying and fashioning headship: A day in the life of a village headman in the center of Myanmar
Embodying and fashioning headship: A day in the life of a village headman in the center of Myanmar This article proposes an analysis of local politics through an ethnographic exploration…
Goddess in disguise: Transsociality and the aesthetics of living
Goddess in disguise: Transsociality and the aesthetics of living Rosie used to say that there was nobody else like her. Her idiosyncratic way of living was an aesthetic recreation of…