A Grammar of Perseverance
Reflections on Race, Poverty and Violence in Orange, New Jersey It’s a muggy mid-June Saturday afternoon. A large inflatable moonwalk occupies the asphalt, and kids line up for a chance to ricochet into space. The elementary school grounds have been transformed into a block party with games, prizes and a movie-housestyle popcorn machine. I sit […]
“This is America” Reviewed
Introduction by Rylan Higgins On May 5, 2018, when actor and musical artist Donald Glover released “This is America” under his musical performance name Childish Gambino, it garnered an astonishing amount of attention. Soon after its release, the powerful and, for some, controversial music video became a global sensation. Its impact was especially explosive in […]
When State Replaces God
Following every international or domestic terrorism act committed by a Muslim, the American-Muslim community divides under political pressure on the issue of whether or not Muslims should take collective responsibility and communally condemn the acts of a few individuals. On one hand is a group of Muslim activists and organizations who condemn and account for […]
Throw a Survey at It: Questioning Soldier Resilience in the US Army
The banquet hall at the Philadelphia hotel hosting the 2011 Second World Congress for Positive Psychology was packed as keynote speaker Martin Seligman approached the podium. As the unofficial spokesperson for the bourgeoning field known as “the science of human happiness,” the former head of the American Psychological Association does double duty as both a […]
Bollywood and Violence
Irfan Ahmad, a political anthropologist, writes in Al-Jazeera about Bollywood and violence in India: On July 31, a shocking incident took place at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), one of South Asia’s top universities. In a dastardly attempted murder, shortly before noon, Akash Kumar, 23, and a student of Korean studies, entered the classroom […]
Refusing to Look Away: The Act of Killing and the Indonesian genocide of 1965
The Act of Killing (2013). A Film by Joshua Oppenheimer. In the mid 1990s I was conducting transcultural psychiatric research in Bali, Indonesia, exploring the relationship between Balinese culture, individual experience, and the long-term outcome for severe mental illness. Engaging in person-centered ethnography, I interviewed a number of individuals on a weekly or monthly basis […]
Outreach and Activism in Lebanon: A Dynamic Struggle for Gender Equality in Wake of the Arab Spring
Editor’s Introduction: From an anthropological perspective, “education” embodies more than just formal schooling. In this post from Lina Abirafeh, a Gender Based Violence specialist working with the United Nations, we are introduced to the kinds of collaborative, culturally responsive campaigns designed to promote gender equality and end violence against women in the Middle East. To […]
Health Workers’ Lives On The Line
In December, nine Pakistani health workers, most of them women, were murdered as they went door-to-door delivering polio vaccines to the children of their neighbors. Media attention to this event has focused on the fact that the CIA recently used a fake vaccination campaign as a cover when searching for Bin Laden, claiming to be […]
Arming Ourselves to Death
When I was a graduate student I remember reading an account by an anthropologist of Africa who watched helplessly as local communities responded to a virulent epidemic by coming together not to develop public health measures but to identify and kill the witches presumed to have caused the epidemic. I feel just like that helpless […]
Circumcision and Human Rights
For both Jews and Muslims, circumcision is a religious and cultural practice. Within the last few weeks, Germany outlawed the practice of male circumcision for any but the strictest medical reasons. An atypical alliance of Jews and Muslims successfully challenged the German court's ruling and Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised to make religious circumcision practices […]