4 May: Who Do We Commemorate Today? It is a recurring pattern in the Netherlands as we reach 4 and 5 May: Who is included and who is excluded from whom we commemorate? Let’s examine indirect knowledge transmission in South Africa and how this translates into the Dutch context. Maike Lolkema • May 04, 2017
How to Deal with Puzzling Brokers in Ethnographic Fieldwork? As anthropologists, we rely heavily on gatekeepers. They are crucial figures in facilitating our access to the field and they might profoundly influence our ethnographic experience. But what to do when your main gatekeeper behaves like a puzzling broker? Irene Moretti • April 21, 2017
‘No Cash, Friend. Digital India.’ 48 Hours in the Indian Cashless Economy In November last year, without any previous warning, prime minister Modi declared 86% of India’s currency worthless overnight. Is India ready for a cashless economy? I put it to the test and spent two days navigating New Delhi without cash. Tim van de Meerendonk • April 07, 2017
Moved by the Spirit: Sensing the Divine in a Dutch Pentecostal Church God is disappearing from the Netherlands, according to a 2016 survey. But this is misleading. New religious movements such as Pentecostalism are growing worldwide. For my MA, I made a film about 3 months’ fieldwork in a Dutch Pentecostal community. Annelise Reid • March 31, 2017
Dinner Time at the ‘Vulture Restaurant’ Feeding vultures with carcasses of dead cows is an innovative way out of two perceived problems in Nepal: how to get rid of unproductive, but still sacred cows, and how to help the endangered vultures to prevent them from going extinct. Gerard Persoon and Babu Ram Lamichhane • March 21, 2017 • 2 comments
A discourse of displacement: the local infrastructure of populism The allegedly disenfranchised whites play a central role in this year's election cycle in Europe. How are we to understand the populist moment and what role can ethnography play in these analyses? Part 2 of Paul Mepschen's populism blog series. Paul Mepschen • March 13, 2017
‘Hairstyle Politics’: Decolonizing Beauty Standards In the seventies having a beard meant you were a ‘hippy’; now it’s the sign of a ‘hipster’. Over time, many hairstyles have been stereotyped. Now, the natural hair movement attempts to liberate black people from suppressive postcolonial norms. Lisa Schaeffer • March 02, 2017
Engaged research: should anthropologists be involved in activism? To what extent can anthropologists be involved in social or political activism? How events like the 1965 People’s Tribunal on Crimes against Humanity can help us to reflect on the nature of engaged anthropology. Ratna Saptari • February 08, 2017 • 4 comments
48 hours of digital detox: can you survive without your digital devices? Digital Anthropology students stayed offline for 48 hours to understand their relationship with digital technologies. How did they survive without devices? Their experiences ranged from strong 'FOMO' to empowerment. What would digital detox mean to you? Zane Kripe • January 16, 2017 • 1 comment
