Comparisons and contradictions: The tactics of subversive archaism in anthropology and the nation-state
Comparisons and contradictions: The tactics of subversive archaism in anthropology and the nation-state Go to Source
On resistance and pluriversal voices of subversive archaism
On resistance and pluriversal voices of subversive archaism Go to Source
Subversive comparisons
Subversive comparisons Go to Source
Ti binni ruyubi, beyond binaries and median points: Methodological reflections on brownness in the field and intersectional reflexivity
Ti binni ruyubi, beyond binaries and median points: Methodological reflections on brownness in the field and intersectional reflexivity Using theoretical debates about how to deploy reflexivity in ethnographic research to…
From a museum of Others to a museum of Selves: Repatriation, affective relations, and social values of archaeological human remains
From a museum of Others to a museum of Selves: Repatriation, affective relations, and social values of archaeological human remains The mummy of the Altaian Princess is one of the…
Is subversion just another version of state aversion? Notes on Herzfeld’s Subversive archaism
Is subversion just another version of state aversion? Notes on Herzfeld’s Subversive archaism Go to Source
Scales of subversion
Scales of subversion Go to Source
Unable to see the diagnosis: Harmed bodies and oil extraction in Peruvian Amazonia
Unable to see the diagnosis: Harmed bodies and oil extraction in Peruvian Amazonia This article discusses two distinct notions of harm, wakllichishka and oil harm, and two distinct ways of…
Migration, village sociality, and mistrust: An exploration
Migration, village sociality, and mistrust: An exploration This article examines the phenomenon of migration in India’s villages. Drawing on research in Jharkhand and Maharashtra and selected village ethnographies it illustrates…
There was no future in the past: Time and the environment in rural Namibia
There was no future in the past: Time and the environment in rural Namibia To explain how Namibian pastoralists envision the future of the climate and the environment, I develop…
Video footage and the grain of practice
Video footage and the grain of practice In his essay on the cockfight, Clifford Geertz charted a now familiar course in anthropological argument. He showed how the minute details of…
Ethnography as creative improvisation: Exploring methods in (post) pandemic times
Ethnography as creative improvisation: Exploring methods in (post) pandemic times This article discusses the possibilities and limitations of digital creative methods developed by the author in response to lockdown and…
Uncanny ethics: Locating the coordinates of the ethical in the COVID-19 pandemic
Uncanny ethics: Locating the coordinates of the ethical in the COVID-19 pandemic The recent anthropological focus on “ordinary ethics” emerges out of a concern to attend to the ethical aspect…
The logic of magic: Reading Wittgenstein’s remarks on Frazer’s The golden bough
The logic of magic: Reading Wittgenstein’s remarks on Frazer’s The golden bough This article centers on a close reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Remarks on Frazer’s The golden bough, showing how…
Economy, emulation, and equality: Sociogenesis in the postsocialist capitalocene: Gudeman Lecture, University of Minnesota, March 21, 2022
Economy, emulation, and equality: Sociogenesis in the postsocialist capitalocene: Gudeman Lecture, University of Minnesota, March 21, 2022 Economy and emulation are freighted concepts. They draw attention to universal phenomena, the…
Magic, metaphysics, and methods
Magic, metaphysics, and methods Go to Source
The sacred unbound: Insufficient rituals, excess life, and divine agency in rural Tamil Nadu
The sacred unbound: Insufficient rituals, excess life, and divine agency in rural Tamil Nadu Dissonances between human expectations and actual experiences of sacred presence and actions—as materialized in unexplained deaths,…
Home as a second skin: A contribution to a theory of magic (of tidying)
Home as a second skin: A contribution to a theory of magic (of tidying) In this article, I describe a “magical” dimension in the work of home organizers (HOs) in…
Reflections on Unwritten Letters and the neorealism of contingency
Reflections on Unwritten Letters and the neorealism of contingency Go to Source
Relational filmmaking: Reflections in response to comments on Unwritten Letters
Relational filmmaking: Reflections in response to comments on Unwritten Letters Go to Source