‘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
Food for Anthropologists: Hare or Rabbit for Christmas? During Christmas dinner preparations, one might wonder: 'rabbit or hare this year?' But when you look at this dilemma from an anthropologist’s perspective, the answer becomes loud and clear. Jan Jansen • December 19, 2016 • 1 comment
A Show of Horses and Men The compelling portraits French-Algerian artist Mohamed Bourouissa shot of black men in Philadelphia provide food for thought. Louisa Rutten • December 08, 2016 • 1 comment