Queerly Kenyan: On the political economy of queer possibilities
Queerly Kenyan: On the political economy of queer possibilities Go to Source
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…
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…
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,…
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.…
“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…
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…
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…
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,…
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
Primitive mentality and games of chance
Primitive mentality and games of chance Go to Source
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…
“Signs that herald the future”: Lévy-Bruhl and games of chance
“Signs that herald the future”: Lévy-Bruhl and games of chance The response addresses Lévy-Bruhl's 1926 essay, “Primitive mentality and games of chance,” focusing on the gambler's role as an interpreter…
Brexit and the decolonization of Ireland
Brexit and the decolonization of Ireland The response to Brexit in Ireland needs to be considered in relation to the long-term and short-term histories of the relationship between Ireland and…
Brexit as postindustrial critique
Brexit as postindustrial critique Anthropologists and other commentators struggle to make sense of pre-COVID-19 political developments in the postindustrial Global North. Various narratives were created to explain these dramatic events…
Where are our ancestors? Rethinking Trobriand cosmology
Where are our ancestors? Rethinking Trobriand cosmology Reincarnation has been a fundamental tenet of anthropologists’ representations of Trobriand cosmology since Bronislaw Malinowski published “Baloma; The spirits of the dead in…
Malinowski as ancestor
Malinowski as ancestor Jarillo et al. present evidence showing that Trobrianders today do not espouse rebirth, contrary to Trobriand views as described by Malinowski. Closer attention to Malinowski, however, shows…