Objective functions: (In)humanity and inequity in artificial intelligence
Objective functions: (In)humanity and inequity in artificial intelligence It is hard to say which is more satisfying: the discovery of order in the material world (science), or the imposition of…
Modeling, ontology and wild thought: Toward an anthropology of the artificially intelligent
Modeling, ontology and wild thought: Toward an anthropology of the artificially intelligent The question at the heart of this essay begins with a curious mid-twentieth-century co-occurrence in the Anglo-American world:…
Rhetorical antinomies and radical othering: Recent reflections on responses to an old paper concerning human-animal relations in Amazonia
Rhetorical antinomies and radical othering: Recent reflections on responses to an old paper concerning human-animal relations in Amazonia Notions of animals as social subjects held by Amazonian Indians have played…
Inventing nature: Christianity and science in indigenous Amazonia
Inventing nature: Christianity and science in indigenous Amazonia Based on long-term ethnographic research among the Wari’ Indians from Amazonia, this essay aims to analyze the ontological and moral changes related…
A clash of ontologies? Time, law, and science in Papua New Guinea
A clash of ontologies? Time, law, and science in Papua New Guinea Stimulated by recent discussions of temporality, this essay is about abrupt transitions. What is happening when such transitions…
Mathematical traditions in Ancient Greece and Rome
Mathematical traditions in Ancient Greece and Rome There were different ways of doing mathematics in the ancient Greek and Roman world. This essay will explore historiographical approaches to this diversity,…
Is there mathematics in the forest?
Is there mathematics in the forest? Scholars from different fields and epistemological orientations —including anthropologists, science historians, and mathematicians—have argued that technical and social practices of indigenous peoples, exemplified by…
Different clusters of text from ancient China, different mathematical ontologies
Different clusters of text from ancient China, different mathematical ontologies Sources attesting to mathematical activities in ancient China form at least four distinct clusters of texts, bespeaking at least four…
New publishing demands new magic
New publishing demands new magic Go to Source
Future orientations
Future orientations Go to Source
Deconstructing anthropology: First Annual Stephen F. Gudeman Lecture
Deconstructing anthropology: First Annual Stephen F. Gudeman Lecture This lecture makes a start at deconstructing some of anthropology’s most venerable avatars. Classical theories invoked a certain kind of person as…
What is a polity? 2018 Lewis H. Morgan Lecture
What is a polity? 2018 Lewis H. Morgan Lecture In this revised text of the 2018 Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture, we encounter two communities—one a village in highland Crete, the…
The clash of ontologies and the problems of translation and mutual intelligibility
The clash of ontologies and the problems of translation and mutual intelligibility We face interlocking questions: (a) of translatability/mutual intelligibility and (b) ontology/reality—that is, what is there to be understood.…
Queue-munity engagement: Collaborative Event Ethnography at the Antiques Roadshow in Kent
Queue-munity engagement: Collaborative Event Ethnography at the Antiques Roadshow in Kent Ethnography, Ahead of Print. Go to Source
Strangers in the Neighborhood: Violence and Neighborhood Boundaries
Strangers in the Neighborhood: Violence and Neighborhood Boundaries Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Ahead of Print. New Orleans experienced elevated rates of violent crime throughout the thirty years between 1985 and…
Muslim–queer encounters in Rio de Janeiro: Making sense of relational positionalities
Muslim–queer encounters in Rio de Janeiro: Making sense of relational positionalities Ethnography, Ahead of Print. Go to Source
Exploring tensionless ethnography
Exploring tensionless ethnography Ethnography, Ahead of Print. Go to Source
“Nothing About Us Without Us”: Reading Protests against Oppressive Knowledge Production as Guidelines for Solidarity Research
“Nothing About Us Without Us”: Reading Protests against Oppressive Knowledge Production as Guidelines for Solidarity Research Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Ahead of Print. Drawing from my analysis of sex worker…
Smoothing, striating and territorializing: The assembling of ‘science in the making’
Smoothing, striating and territorializing: The assembling of ‘science in the making’ Ethnography, Ahead of Print. Go to Source
Human Values and Digital Work: An Ethnographic Study of Device Paradigm
Human Values and Digital Work: An Ethnographic Study of Device Paradigm Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Ahead of Print. I examine Albert Borgmann’s concept of device paradigm as a way to…