Normative anti-antinormativity?
Normative anti-antinormativity? Go to Source
By means of squirrels and eggs: Kinship and mutual recognition among the Khmu Yuan of Northern Laos
By means of squirrels and eggs: Kinship and mutual recognition among the Khmu Yuan of Northern Laos This article explores the relevance of an ostensibly unpretentious gift exchange of squirrels…
Flores de Mayo in Rehovot: Ritual and rhetorical strategies of Filipinos’ presence in Israel
Flores de Mayo in Rehovot: Ritual and rhetorical strategies of Filipinos’ presence in Israel A Catholic Filipino community in Rehovot, Israel, celebrates the traditional feast of Flores de Mayo every…
The selfie speaks a thousand words: Negotiating masculinity, intimacy, and sameness through the photograph in Pune
The selfie speaks a thousand words: Negotiating masculinity, intimacy, and sameness through the photograph in Pune While the selfie has come to symbolize notions of selfhood in the age of…
The slip of a philosopher and the sinking of the ship: Translation, protest, and the Iranian travails of learned politics
The slip of a philosopher and the sinking of the ship: Translation, protest, and the Iranian travails of learned politics This article examines the politics of translation in Iran in…
Queerly Kenyan: On the political economy of queer possibilities
Queerly Kenyan: On the political economy of queer possibilities Go to Source
Epistemophilic obsessions: Espionage, secrets, and the ethnographer’s will to know
Epistemophilic obsessions: Espionage, secrets, and the ethnographer’s will to know As a young ethnographer, I was weirdly obsessed with closed doors and what was going on behind them. To some…
Kufala! Translating witchcraft in an Angolan–Chinese labor dispute
Kufala! Translating witchcraft in an Angolan–Chinese labor dispute Drawing on fieldwork conducted at a Chinese state-owned enterprise brought to Angola in the postwar reconstruction boom, this article devotes sustained attention…
“Please call my daughter”: Ethical practice in dementia care as an art of dwelling
“Please call my daughter”: Ethical practice in dementia care as an art of dwelling This article aims to extend the current understanding of ethical practice within a dementia context, in…
A tree of many lives: Vegetal teleontologies in West Papua
A tree of many lives: Vegetal teleontologies in West Papua In this article, I analyze the ontology of the African oil palm among indigenous Marind communities in Merauke, West Papua.…
Miracle, magic, or science: Ritual bathing in modern India
Miracle, magic, or science: Ritual bathing in modern India The paper addresses ritual and quotidian aspects of bathing in thermal springs at Bakreswar, a Hindu pilgrimage site in India. Ascetics,…
On gambling, divination, and religion
On gambling, divination, and religion This comment on Levy-Bruhl’s essay on gambling has three parts. The first raises some linguistic and analytical questions and identifies some deficiencies in the author’s…
Gambling; or, The art of exploiting chance to nullify it
Gambling; or, The art of exploiting chance to nullify it For Lévy-Bruhl, “primitive mentality” can shed light on the “passion” that drives the casino player, gambler, or financial speculator to…
Diasporic baraka
Diasporic baraka In this paper I reflect on two interconnected phenomena associated with Lebanese migration: a high incidence of gambling among immigrants and the experience of migration itself as a…
Gambling and divining are not similar but “neighboring practices”
Gambling and divining are not similar but “neighboring practices” In a paper published in 1926, Lévy-Bruhl suggests a close affinity between the mentality of the gambler and the diviner, putting…
Seeing numbers: Interpretations of dream images and urban uncertainty
Seeing numbers: Interpretations of dream images and urban uncertainty This article explores the interpretive and divinatory practices and strategies used in the South African street-based lottery game fafi. The game,…
Reincarnation redux
Reincarnation redux Jarillo et al.’s attempted refutation of Malinowski’s claims as to Trobrianders’ “universally” shared belief in baloma reincarnation fails. Contrary to their claims, Malinowski’s “Baloma” article (1916) documented wide,…
Introduction: “Lévy-Bruhl on gambling”
Introduction: “Lévy-Bruhl on gambling” After his most successful book, La mentalité primitive (), Lévy-Bruhl published in The Criterion, a journal then directed by poet T. S. Elliott, an article entitled…
Primitive mentality and games of chance
Primitive mentality and games of chance Go to Source
Believing the unbelieved: Reincarnation, cultural authority, and politics in the Trobriand Islands
Believing the unbelieved: Reincarnation, cultural authority, and politics in the Trobriand Islands Go to Source