Racial burdens, translations, and chance
Racial burdens, translations, and chance Go to Source
Review of Jens Kjaerulff. “Situating time: New technologies at work, a perspective from Alfred Gell’s oeuvre”
Review of Jens Kjaerulff. “Situating time: New technologies at work, a perspective from Alfred Gell’s oeuvre” Go to Source
Hesiod’s Theogony and analogist cosmogonies
Hesiod’s Theogony and analogist cosmogonies Philippe Descola’s work on ontologies has created new possibilities for exploring the rich connections between creation myths and their ontological underpinnings. This has proven fruitful…
Ghost twitter in Indigenous Australia: Sentience, agency, and ontological difference
Ghost twitter in Indigenous Australia: Sentience, agency, and ontological difference By distinguishing between attributions of sentience and agency we begin to take crucial analytical steps to consider ontological and cosmological…
Constructing cosmoscapes: Cosmological currents in conversation and contestation in contemporary Bolivia
Constructing cosmoscapes: Cosmological currents in conversation and contestation in contemporary Bolivia This article explores how cosmological currents contest and converse with one another to compose a shifting “cosmoscape” in Kaata,…
Situating time: New technologies at work, a perspective from Alfred Gell’s oeuvre
Situating time: New technologies at work, a perspective from Alfred Gell’s oeuvre A scholarship on “time” has emerged that pays attention to the ways contemporary economic life and information technology…
A timely encounter and a loss
A timely encounter and a loss Go to Source
Italy as a national luxury brand for Chinese consumers: Global promotion and identity discontent
Italy as a national luxury brand for Chinese consumers: Global promotion and identity discontent Italy has emerged as a leading producer of luxury goods on the international stage, while China…
The alienating inalienable: Rethinking Annette Weiner’s concept of inalienable wealth through Japan’s “sleeping kimono”
The alienating inalienable: Rethinking Annette Weiner’s concept of inalienable wealth through Japan’s “sleeping kimono” Based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in Japan, this article focuses on collections of gifted…
Free AccessNobodies and somebodies: Power, bureaucracy, and citizenship in a London rehousing hub
Free AccessNobodies and somebodies: Power, bureaucracy, and citizenship in a London rehousing hub This article draws on ethnographic research to examine the bureaucratic matrix of temporal, material, and legal scales…
The spaces of luxury in global cities: The consumption and appropriation of São Paulo’s upscale malls by the elite and the poor
The spaces of luxury in global cities: The consumption and appropriation of São Paulo’s upscale malls by the elite and the poor According to Arjun Appadurai (1996), global flows are…
Experiencing presence: An interactive model of perception
Experiencing presence: An interactive model of perception This essay brings literature in experimental psychology and visual perception into conversation with psychological anthropology to propose a new theory of presence. We…
“A mad exuberance”: The globalization of luxury
“A mad exuberance”: The globalization of luxury The issue of the circulation of luxury commodities and of the evolution through which it is going becomes fully meaningful when addressed within…
When ethics runs counter to morals
When ethics runs counter to morals In the present conjuncture, Brazilian social anthropologists are facing a major challenge to their work. I suggest that this happens because of anthropology’s central…
Hybrid warfare in Brazil: The highest stage of the military insurgency
Hybrid warfare in Brazil: The highest stage of the military insurgency Since 2013, Brazil has undergone various moments of political turbulence, ultimately culminating in the seizure of power by the…
Pedagogies of value: Marketing luxury in China
Pedagogies of value: Marketing luxury in China In just a few years, China has become one of the world’s largest markets for Western luxury products. Marketing professionals play a key…
Consuming belief: Luxury, authenticity, and Chinese patronage of Tibetan Buddhism in contemporary China
Consuming belief: Luxury, authenticity, and Chinese patronage of Tibetan Buddhism in contemporary China This essay examines two domains in which wealthy Chinese seek to cultivate social distinction. The first section…
From hope to hate: The rise of conservative subjectivity in Brazil
From hope to hate: The rise of conservative subjectivity in Brazil This essay focuses on the voters of Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro in Morro da Cruz, a low-income community in…
“The revolution we are living”
“The revolution we are living” This article presents three ethnographic scenes extracted from Brazilian urban life, the earliest dating from 2013. It reflects on the rise of the extreme right…
Ethnographic views of Brazil’s (new) authoritarian turn
Ethnographic views of Brazil’s (new) authoritarian turn In this introduction to Currents, we argue for the potential of ethnography to aid in understanding the present. Extended periods of fieldwork allow…