Anthropology of the State

В исторических и правовых исследованиях ХІХ-ХХ вв. самое пристальное внимание вызвали положения X таблицы, содержавшей нормы, регламентировавшие погребальные обря ды. Античная традиция сообщает о существовании целого комплекса мер ограничительного характера при погребениях -оговаривалось количество одежды, плакальщиц, флейтисток, употребление вина и благовоний, запрещалось захоронение вместе с умершим изделий из золо та 1 . Еще Б. Нибур интерпретировал нормы X таблицы как попытку ограничения чрезмерных

Овај текст има двојак циљ: да укаже на основне правце у савременим антрополошким проучавањима државе као идеје и система институционалних пракси, и начине на који је тако схваћена држава теорeтизована у истраживањима европског постсоцијализма и бивше Југославије. Антрополошка проучавања источне Европе и промена које су се у Европи десиле од пада Берлинског зида представљају праву лабораторију за антрополошка проучавања државе. Трансформација државног и политичког система централна је карактеристика ових промена и увиди које су донела истраживања источне Европе и бивше Југославије нису само илустрација глобалних политичких процеса, већ значајан допринос антрополошком разумевању савремених политичких процеса. Кључне речи: антропологија државе, марксистичка традиција, наслеђе Редклиф-Брауна, антропологија постсоцијалистичких држава.

La révolution cubaine se trouve confrontée depuis plus d’une décennie à de profonds changements sociaux, économiques et politiques liés à l’insertion toujours plus grande de l’île à l’économie de marché global à la suite de la chute du bloc socialiste. Alors que plusieurs études avancent que Cuba s’engage à son tour dans une période de « transition », une analyse anthropologique de ce contexte révèle un scénario plus complexe. À l’aide de l’examen des nouvelles formes de gouvernance étatique en matière de santé et de recherche universitaire sur l’environnement, ainsi que des pratiques informelles des sujets, cet article analyse comment, à travers l’insertion de nouvelles formes de capital, ces politiques visent à maintenir et à reproduire l’idéologie socialiste dans les institutions locales et les pratiques individuelles quotidiennes en forgeant chez les individus un sentiment identitaire (lerevolucionario) en accord avec la rationalité de la gouvernance socialiste. Cependant, ces p...

ABSTRACTThrough an engagement with historical, epistemological, and ethnographic modes of analyses, I trace how individual bodily practices—that is, practices relating to the body and its health—in contemporary Cuba provide a fertile terrain for examining the multiple pathways through which political subjectivities are created and transformed. Specifically, I highlight the ways in which these practices serve as de facto access to basic health services and supplies and actively contribute to the daily functioning of Cuba's socialist health care system. I argue that scholars must move beyond contrasting rote descriptions of socialism vis‐à‐vis capitalism and, rather, look to new fields of inquiry that address the coproduction and coexistence of different forms of capital and new configurations of statecraft and subjectivity in 21st‐century Cuba. [Cuba, state, capital, bodily practices, subjectivity, socialism]

In 2021 a group of left-wing protesters wrote "basta de polenta" in letters made of the eponymous grain in front of the Argentine Ministry of Social Development (Ministerio de Desarrollo Social). Ridiculing the government's paternalistic policy of distributing superfluous free food to the needy became a viral political joke. As news or as a meme, it was largely consumed and commented on through social networks. Indignation and laughter preceded reflections on the state's moralization of poverty and previous electoral promises to promote red meat consumption among low-income families. Jokes and ironies challenged the "moral economy" promoted by the Frente de Todos ("Everyone's Front") government. A state-created image of the poor and one of the government's moral panics, looting, were ridiculed through polenta jokes. In this way, political and moral practices in relation to crises of consumption were transformed into the consumption of jokes, at the same time that as a right-wing electorate grew.

In what follows, I investigate the workings of high-level presidential discretionary, executive decrees and ground-level bureaucratic encounters through ethnographic evidence. While numerous anthropological studies examined exceptional legal tools and the blurred boundaries between legality and illegality in state entailment (Das and Poole 2004; Biehl, Good, and Kleinman 2007), I aim to demonstrate how exceptional legal tools can be deployed as a form of positive power (Foucault 2003) and how everyday people enact hopes and yearnings (Jansen 2014) in allowing sovereign exceptions to take place, rather than viewing it as just a top-down homogeneous and unidirectional decision-making process.

I trace three dimensions of how post-2013 Egyptian exiles gained legal status in Turkey. Beginning with Turkey’s geopolitically driven migration policies toward Egypt, I then examine how Egyptian exiles leveraged this political context to pursue regularization. While these exceptional presidential decrees appeared discretionary from above, I show how they were both socially embedded within migrant communities and understood by many as expressions of state care rather than just legal instruments.

En 2015, 300 lideres Wampis, pertenecientes al grupo lingüístico Aent Chicham y viviendo al noroeste de la Amazonia peruana, proclamaron la creación del Gobierno Territorial Autónomo de la Nación Wampis (GTANW) para reivindicar su derecho internacional a la autodeterminación como pueblo indígena y proteger su territorio de las industrias extractivas. A partir del análisis del fenómeno de las ausencias de los representantes elegidos de cada aldea wampis en el parlamento del GTANW, donde se decide la política de la Nación Wampis, este articulo propone entender como la representación política estatal que inspiró la estructura de este gobierno amazónico ha sido reapropiada y transformada por los valores y prácticas locales de asamblea y de toma de decisiones colectivas. Estas innovaciones políticas son un ejemplo de cómo se puede conceptualizar una unidad política y un gobierno en las tierras bajas, región donde los grupos son más conocidos en la literatura etnográfica por sus dinámicas perpetúales de fragmentación social y por ser "contra el estado".

In 2015, 300 Wampis leaders, belonging to the Aent Chicham linguistic group and living in the northwestern Peruvian Amazon, proclaimed the creation of the Territorial Autonomous Government of the Wampis Nation (GTANW) to claim their international right to self-determination as an indigenous people and to protect their territory from extractive industries. By analysing the phenomenon of the absences of elected representatives from each Wampis village in the GTANW parliament, where the policies of the Wampis Nation are decided, this article proposes to understand how the state political representation that inspired the structure of this Amazonian government has been re-appropriated and transformed by local values and practices of assembly and collective decision-making. These political innovations are an example of how political unity and governance can be conceptualised in the lowlands, a region where groups are best known in the ethnographic literature for their perpetual dynamics of social fragmentation and for being “against the state”.

This paper examines the literary work of Colombian poet, sociologist, and ethnographer Estefanía Ciro Rodríguez, focusing on her poetry collection Artefactos Explosivos Inmateriales (2018). Through poetry, she transforms her ethnographic research into narratives of cocaleros—coca field workers—in the Caquetá region. A key aspect of her work is the complex relationship between the coca leaf and farmers, especially women, within the policies implementing the 2016 peace agreements between President Santos and the FARC-EP. The study highlights how poetry can enrich ethnographic discourse and reveal the agency of those subjects who struggle for balancing their livelihood with the stigma of "illegality" tied to coca cultivation.

The intersection of biopolitics and microbiology takes on an even more radical form when considering the concept of pathogenic biolinguistics. Xenobacillus glossophagii, theorized to encode linguistic structures within host organisms, disrupts the binary separation between biological and semiotic systems. By interfering with linguistic cognition rather than physiological substrates, this bacterium subverts Foucauldian frameworks of biopower, necessitating an extension of biopolitical analysis to account for nonhuman semiotic agency. Foucault’s conceptualization of power as a regulatory force over populations finds an unexpected challenge in Xenobacillus glossophagii, a microbial entity that not only evades biopolitical control but actively corrupts the mechanisms of meaning itself. If governance relies on the legibility of subjects, then a pathogen capable of destabilizing cognitive structures represents an epistemological crisis. This shift compels a reconsideration of how power operates—not merely as a hierarchical force exerted upon passive biological subjects but as a contested domain of microbial agency and linguistic parasitism. Xenobacillus glossophagii exemplifies the entanglement of biological and discursive governance, illustrating the evolving dynamics of contemporary biopolitics. As microbial life continues to shape human health, cognition, and governance, the Foucauldian notion of biopower must adapt to accommodate these emerging bio-semiotic complexities. This case urges a reconceptualization of biopolitics, moving beyond its traditional focus on human populations to include the unpredictable and resistant forces of microbial existence.

Debates about freedom of expression raise questions about what constitutes its limits. At the level of practice, some individuals or groups of people may impose limits through violence, either direct violence or “proxy violence,” especially when it comes to matters regarding the exercise of faith, such as a blasphemy case, which is irrational in nature and not governed by secular laws. The case of Charlie Hebdo, and in the context of Indonesia, the case of Alexander Aan—a self-proclaimed atheist who served a jail sentence after being charged with tarnishing the image of Prophet Muhammad—how how such limits were imposed. I argue that such acts are not acceptable, and are not legitimate. Freedom of expression may be in need of limits, but in order to be acceptable and legitimate, these limitations need to be obtained through public deliberation, wherein all parties concerned are free and equal in participation. This enhances the level of acceptance of public deliberation outcomes. The...

While examining the livelihood practices of indigenous communities rooted in the Eastern Himalayan Region comprising Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Northeast India, the editors of this volume inform readers about the symbiotic relationships people nurture with their surrounding food systems.

Whether Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden are traitors or heroes is one of those “debates” that is yet to be settled, judging by the never-ending stream of op-eds, polls, interviews, and the like. The question has almost become a rite of passage: are you with us or with them, left or right? Geoffroy de Lagasnerie’s The Art of Revolt is not an account of these whistleblowers’ deeds, but rather an interrogation of the categories and assumptions implicit in such questions. To couch the discussion in terms of legality or illegality, loyalty or disloyalty, is to accede in advance to the authority of the law or the state and to one’s own position as their legal subject. Lagasnerie, on the contrary, insists on the novelty and singularity of the movement represented by Assange, Manning, and Snowden, in that it repoliticizes these fundamental assumptions, puts them back on the table, and invites us “to imagine other modes of relation to the law, the nation, citizenship” (6).

II. EMENTA Cultura, relativismo e etnocentrismo. Conceitos de etnia, raça, gênero, sexualidade, identidade, diversidade, diferença. Debates sobre saúde no campo antropológico. Concepções de saúde em diferentes contextos socioculturais (brasileiros, africanos, indígenas, asiáticos, europeus). Abordagens antropológicas sobre valores, religiosidades, preconceitos, tabus, crenças em suas relações com o campo da saúde. III. OBJETIVO GERAL Introduzir conceitos básicos de antropologia, como cultura e etnocentrismo e concepções culturais do corpo, da saúde e da doença. IV. OBJETIVOS ESPECÍFICOS Abordar noções de biopolítica e biopoder na constituição das práticas e discursos sobre a saúde das populações, a medicalização e refletir sobre os medicamentos sob uma perspectiva antropológica. Deslocar a visão biomédica à luz de concepções, práticas e eficácia de tratamentos em culturas não ocidentais e populares. V. CONTEÚDO O curso está dividido em duas grandes partes. Na Unidade I, o foco recairá na constituição da Antropologia como campo disciplinar e seus conceitos-chave para compreensão do mundo a partir de sua lente. Na Unidade II, observaremos a pluralidade temática do subcampo da Antropologia da Saúde a partir de uma lógica da Antropologia Política da Saúde. Para isso, discutiremos questões como Alimentação, Saúde no estado de Goiás e marcadores sociais da dominação (diferença). VI. METODOLOGIA As aulas assumirão caráter dialógico, ou seja, contarão com a exposição dos textos e argumentos centrais da bibliografia obrigatória pelo docente, assim como com a participação intensa e crítica das/os discentes, que terão protagonismo na disciplina. Para o bom funcionamento da dinâmica do curso, a leitura da bibliografia indicada é imprescindível. VII. PROCESSOS E CRITÉRIOS DE AVALIAÇÃO i. Assiduidade e participação, a partir de reflexões e questões apresentadas em aula-10%; ii. Apresentação de um dos textos obrigatórios da ementa-20%; iii. Avaliação 1-30%; iv. Avaliação 2-40 % VIII. CRONOGRAMA* UNIDADE I: O campo da Antropologia Aula 1-10 de março Apresentação da disciplina Aula 2-17 de março: O que é antropologia?

El derribo de las estatuas chavistas estuvo ligado a las relaciones particulares de estas dentro del culto popular de María Lionza. Las estatuas de Chávez no solo representan el poder actual, sino que estarían ontologizadas al quedar “cargadas” con el espíritu del líder que ahí reside.

This article revolves around a puzzle: the persistence of patient dissatisfaction with the health services as a mass phenomenon in a Kurdish province, Hakkâri, through the 2000s, despite the striking and tangible improvements enacted by the Turkish state. This is, I argue, related to the deeply entrenched conviction on the part of Hakkârians that their lives count for little in the eyes of the Turkish state. Rooted in the history of state-Kurds relations, this conviction manifests itself in Hakkârians' deep distrust of the very basis of health services received, like the skills and intentions of health staff, causing many Hakkârians to underestimate service improvement. Thus, it is concluded, patient satisfaction among an ethnically subordinated group with health services provided by a dominant ethnic group may be unavoidably informed and perhaps overwhelmingly determined by an awareness of the wider ethno-power context and its history, irrespective, that is, of material improvements.

This article revolves around a puzzle: the persistence of patient dissatisfaction with the health services as a mass phenomenon in a Kurdish province, Hakkâri, through the 2000s, despite the striking and tangible improvements enacted by the Turkish state. This is, I argue, related to the deeply entrenched conviction on the part of Hakkârians that their lives count for little in the eyes of the Turkish state. Rooted in the history of state-Kurds relations, this conviction manifests itself in Hakkârians' deep distrust of the very basis of health services received, like the skills and intentions of health staff, causing many Hakkârians to underestimate service improvement. Thus, it is concluded, patient satisfaction among an ethnically subordinated group with health services provided by a dominant ethnic group may be unavoidably informed and perhaps overwhelmingly determined by an awareness of the wider ethno-power context and its history, irrespective, that is, of material improvements.

This contribution aims to summarize the development of immigration in Italy over the past 20 years. The analysis shows a gap between political propaganda and the public policies implemented. This leads to the paradox that the presence of foreign nationals has increased during periods governed by center-right governments despite their hostility to immigration.

Akha Ghanr is, for Akha communities, a “highly pragmatic system of customary law encompassing an entire way of life”, or it could be better described as “Ancestral ways”, acknowledging the role and leadership of their ancestors, something that is central to Akha identity and culture. How it has changed over time is the subject of Micah F Morton’s new book, Enchanted Modernities which explores the evolving role of Akha Ghanr within Akha societies across China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Akha Ghanr isn’t a religion in itself but rather an intricate set of ancestral cultural practices that shape Akha society. How Akha Ghanr has adapted to modernity and high rates of Christian conversion is a crucial part of this book, as is the role of neo-traditionalists seeking to both preserve Akha Ghanr and adapt it to the realities of modern life.

By definition, crises and disasters interrupt the flow of everyday life, signalling dramatic, and often traumatic, occurrences that are out of the ordinary. This is the sense in which these terms are used in the pages of the press, as well as in much of scholarly literature on disasters. At the same time, as Kai Erikson was the first to note in the closing pages of his classic study of the Buffalo Creek flood, much of modern experience takes place in the midst of what he calls «chronic disasters», ones that «gather... force slowly and insidiously, creeping around one’s defenses rather than smashing through them» (Erikson, 1976, p. 255). Such disasters, he suggests, are less visible, yet they trigger the same effects: «a numbness of spirit, a susceptibility to anxiety and rage and depression, a sense of helplessness, an inability to concentrate, a loss of various motor skills, a heightened apprehension about the physical and social environment, a preoccupation with death, a retreat i...

The encroachment of certain influential individuals who employ cronyism, patronage, and networking into the recruitment and hiring processes of employees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a widely discussed issue in media and public discourse. However, it remains an underexplored subject within scholarly research. This paper seeks to address this gap by providing a comprehensive overview of this phenomenon over time. Drawing upon Jamie Peck's concepts of labour incorporation and labour allocation, while also examining the prevalence of illegality and informality, this study argues that these 'influential individuals' or 'well-connected actors' have assumed the roles and responsibilities traditionally held by labour market actors and institutions. Consequently, this has exacerbated long-standing malpractices within the Congolese labour market. The interference of these 'influential individuals' disrupts the normal functioning of the Congolese labour market, even as proponents of these practices offer justifications for their actions. Employing qualitative interviews and documentary research, this study traces the historical origins of such interference, dating back to the colonial era.

▪ La movilización legal de Cherán: El camino por el derecho a la autonomía, parte del libro colectivo: Rastros de las luchas de los pueblos indígenas en México por su “derecho a tener derechos”. Pp. 219-253. México: FFyL. Noviembre 2024. ISBN 978-607-30-9788-8

The question of whether or not there were slaves and slavery in the Inca
state (or Tawantinsuyu) has long been disputed in historiography, as has the
general question of the dependence of people in the Inca state and the nature of their dependency. This debate is an expression of the continuous search for theoretical frameworks for Inca history, which have been based largely on various European models and terminologies. The various forms of dependency existing in the Inca state have been interpreted in the context of evolutionary models of economic and social evolution, where one category of dependents, the yanacona, were regarded as possible slaves. According to John Murra, the dispute about the yanacona is as old as the anthropology of the Inca state.

viewed freedom and nature as jointly threatened by the "second nature" of technological society (whose critique by his friend Jacques Ellul owed much to him), defined by total mobilization as revealed in world wars as in industrial development. Its roots intertwine with those of the modern State made possible by the Christian distinction of the spiritual from the sacred violence inherent in religion and politics, returning unchecked in both guises. Charbonneau's thought thus provides an ecological counterpoint to René Girard's mimetic theory.

Muslim charities and community organizations have assumed a significant role in refugee support since the Syrian catastrophe: in Jordan and Canada, as elsewhere, they deliver food aid, house orphans, and organize remedial education. But Islam is more than just a resource for humanitarian projects. The Dread Heights details how the Islamic tradition guides refugees, relief workers, and religious scholars in a world of brutal sieges and mass displacement.

Through an ethnography of religious imagination and theological argumentation, Iqbal demonstrates what is at stake beyond secular frames for migration and relief. Even as refugees become objects of humanitarian concern suspended between national orders, The Dread Heights brings another suspension into view: a form of life whose gestures are illuminated by the Quranic figure of the Heights. Iqbal’s ethnography pursues an unsentimental lucidity across the search for refuge, the trials of creational existence, and the ultimately enigmatic divine decree. In the shadow of war, beyond humanitarian order, Islam offers an orientation to the devastation of the present.

The primary focus of the paper is the study of the colonial construction of the Gorkha identity and its later day crisis. Taking the colonial encounter as the historic moment of its evolution, the paper makes an attempt to map the formation of the Gorkha identity over the last two hundred years or so by locating the process of formation within the colonial public sphere that emerged in Darjeeling in the early part of the twentieth century. The paper tries to cast new light on the nature of contestation and conflation between the colonial identity or the martial identity inscribed on the body of the Gorkha by the colonial discourse of "martial race" and the cultural identity that was emerging in course of time. It also tries to establish the fact that the colonial forms of representation of the "Gurkhas" as the "martial race" is still the dominant form of representation foreclosing all other forms of representation that had become possible as a new self-identity emerged with the cultural renaissance in Darjeeling and elsewhere. It also looks into the problem of double consciousness of the deterritorialised Gorkha subjectivity that is torn between two seemingly conflictual impulses of a primordially constructed notion of the Gorkha jati (community) and the demands of a modern nation-state. The paper also argues that the Gorkha identity has somewhat failed in securing a political space for its cultural identity leading to deep fissures in its multi layered identity. "Critique is the movement by which the subject gives itself the right to question truth on its effects of power and to question power on its discourses of truth…in a word, the politics of truth.

A ALTERNANCIA POLÍTICA alcanzada el 2 de julio del 2000 constituye un parteaguas en la historia de los derechos políticos en México. Por vez primera los ciudadanos alcanzaron su mayoría de edad e impusieron al régimen autoritario su voluntad política. Sin embargo, lo que es una verdad en el nivel macro-social no lo es en el nivel regional. Como cualquier análisis de las cifras muestra, el régimen autoritario conserva una enorme capacidad para coaccionar y comprar el voto de los sectores más pobres de la población. En el plano de la ciudadanía política persiste un grave déficit que no es posible ignorar. Pero la ciudadanía, cabe recordarlo, no se agota en su dimensión política. 1 Como ya lo indicó el autor clásico en el tema, T. H. Marshall,* la ciudadanía implica el goce efectivo de los derechos humanos, civiles, políticos y sociales. Aun sin compartir la visión evolucionista de este autor, estamos de acuerdo en que la ciudadanía constituye un conjunto articulado y coherente de derechos de diferente índole cuyo ejercicio irrestricto constituye la prueba de existencia de la ciudadanía misma. En otras palabras, el criterio empírico de definición de la ciudadanía es, precisamente, la aplicación y el goce de los derechos que hoy por hoy incluyen formalmente la inmensa mayoría de las constituciones de los Estados nacionales del mundo.

En este trabajo esbozo algunas cuestiones que se han presentado en el devenir de los nuevos quehaceres antropológicos, los cuales integran otras perspectivas teóricometodológicas, con el fin de crear una nueva Antropología Física y poder enfrentar el reto de describir, analizar, interpretar y buscar nuevas alternativas explicativas sobre
los diversos fenómenos que acontecen en el ser humano. Estos paradigmas nos han permitido abordar el cuerpo a partir de nuevos campos que tratan de integrar al sujeto
desde una perspectiva biológica y social en constante interacciòn

The article dwells on peculiar features of entries made to annals of
the Chunqiu period (771—453 BC), which may be singled out while analyzing the Chunqiu Zuozhuan text or, to be more specific, its textological comments. We thought it reasonable to devide the two notions: annals as original entries of deeds of one ruler and chronicles as collections of entries of several rulers from annals inevitably rewritten and brought together.
Noting down entries to annals was a sacred act and a matter of national
importance, it was part of the cult venerating the dead rulers. It appears that there existed requirements concerning norms of denoting in the text monarchs and aristocrats. In case of living persons it was observed
a certain order of writing down title, personal name and regnal
name, in case of the dead persons it was important to either mention or
omit a posthumous name. A great number of requirements to registration
of entries in annals were related to the matter of either mentioning or
omitting deeds (jǔ 舉) of rulers in various spheres of their ritual and political
activities. Annalist da shi should note down each significant deed
of a monarch undertaken in the field of politics or ritual. A deed could be
of relation to either home policy or foreign policy of a kingdom: annals
also contained entries (based on data of above-mentioned notifications
(fu)) on certain deeds of rulers of the states with which alliances (meng
盟) had been concluded. The research work made allows for one important observation. There are grounds to believe that the compiling editor of the Chunqiu (probably, Confucius himself) compiled its text with the help of the
chronicle of the Lu kingdom but while making entries he was drawing
upon the survived texts of the annals taking them as samples. The reason
was the fact that these texts dated back to the Zhou ritual norms developed
during the Western Zhou period and maintained during the Chunqiu
period at least within the Zhou wang domain. Thus a most important
task was performed: the text of the didactic chronicle was brought up to
the Zhou standard. But that doesn’t mean that the compiler of the Chunqiu
turned away all the information amassed during the years of the
chronicles having being written down. Certain entries were kept as they
showed improper deeds of monarchs and their consequences — the information concealed in annals.

In both Bolivia and Benin, the state presumes that citizens can navigate its bureaucracy even if it does not provide them with the requisite literacy skills. However, bureaucratic procedures are highly characterised by literacy and digital literacy and people with little or no literacy require alternative strategies to manage them. This article contributes to debates on (il)literacy and bureaucracy studies by looking at the learning practices of persons with little or no literacy competence in La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia, and Parakou, Benin. It investigates their ways of coping with such bureaucratic requirements and especially how they manage to acquire specific literacy abilities in order to complete procedures. Our conclusions are based on empirical data obtained through various kinds of interviews and participant observation that we carried out during more than 12 months of fieldwork.Our article shows how participants have independently acquired literacy competence on their own ...

From houses to roads, infrastructure provides a unique lens through which to explore social and political change. Serving as an important conduit between states and individuals, infrastructure provides governments with a powerful tool to mould citizens and control populations. Yet, at the same time, it also provides individuals and collectives with a platform to challenge the state and forge alternative forms of citizenship and politics. Infrastructure therefore often reconfigures social and political relations in unexpected ways and never dutifully follows the scripts of politicians, bureaucrats, and engineers. Latin America provides fertile terrain to explore these issues. The region has been subject to extensive foreign intervention for centuries and much of its infrastructure has been primarily constructed to benefit colonial and imperial powers. Yet it has also been an important site of resistance, and infrastructure has been central to these struggles, including indigenous eff...

In both Bolivia and Benin, the state presumes that citizens can navigate its bureaucracy even if it does not provide them with the requisite literacy skills. However, bureaucratic procedures are highly characterised by literacy and digital literacy and people with little or no literacy require alternative strategies to manage them. This article contributes to debates on (il)literacy and bureaucracy studies by looking at the learning practices of persons with little or no literacy competence in La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia, and Parakou, Benin. It investigates their ways of coping with such bureaucratic requirements and especially how they manage to acquire specific literacy abilities in order to complete procedures. Our conclusions are based on empirical data obtained through various kinds of interviews and participant observation that we carried out during more than 12 months of fieldwork. Our article shows how participants have independently acquired literacy competence on their own to achieve their goals and resolve highly relevant issues. For them, literacy is not so much an end in itself but a means of dealing with the state. During bureaucratic procedures, concurrent processes of illiteracising and literacising, as well as processes of learning and unlearning literacy, take place. We conceptualise and amplify the notion of this learning and unlearning with the terms "literacising" and "illiteracising" as processual and relational. Thus, we interpret literacising in the context and during the experience of bureaucracy as an instrument through which individuals try to affect, cope with and control bureaucratic procedures.

This article critically examines the enduring impact of coloniality on contemporary global structures, emphasizing the matrix of oppression that continues to shape racial, gender, and economic hierarchies. By analyzing the Colombian Truth Commission’s Final Report, it illustrates how decolonial and intersectional perspectives expose systemic violence, epistemic injustice, and the persistent marginalization of historically oppressed communities.

The study foregrounds how the colonial legacy influences modern institutions, particularly in the areas of transitional justice, environmental destruction, and socio-economic disparities. It highlights the importance of counter-hegemonic narratives in challenging dominant historical accounts and calls for a paradigm shift that recognizes nature itself as a victim of conflict.

Rather than a mere critique, the article serves as a call to action, advocating for the dismantling of Eurocentric power structures and the reconfiguration of justice through decolonial struggles. It argues that truth-telling, when centered on the voices of the Wretched of the Earth, can be a catalyst for systemic transformation, both in Colombia and beyond.

Коллективная монография посвящена важным аспектам фундаментальной для общественных и гуманитарных наук проблеме исторического многообразия форм социокультурной организации. Ее теоретической основой является концепции гетерархии и гомоархии, активно разрабатывающиеся в отечественной и зарубежной науке. Гетерархия и гомоархия рассматриваются как проходящие через всю историю человечества фундаментальные принципы социокультурной организации, определяющим образом влияющие на формы, в которые социокультурная организация облекается в конкретных обществах, и проявляющиеся в том числе во взаимодействии гетерархических и гомоархических начал в отдельных обществах и во взаимоотношениях между в целом преимущественно гетерархическими и гомоархическими обществами. Фундаментальные теоретические проблемы исследуются на весьма обширном и разнообразном конкретном материале.

This essay places David Graeber's consistent focus on imagination and possibilities into conversation with social studies education. In a sociopolitical climate characterized by neoliberalism, militarized borders, and political censorship of social studies teaching and learning in P-12 schools, it is crucial that social studies teachers and teacher educators in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere continue to engage in pedagogies that are critical and responsive, providing students with representations of the past and present that, rather than reproducing the status quo, playfully imagine alternative futures that are more equitable, just, and free. Building from Graeber's work in direct civic action, this essay offers ideas for how standardized social studies concepts can be reconfigured in affecting, life-giving ways.

본 연구는 김아람의 저서 『난민, 경계의 삶: 1945~60년대 농촌정착사업으로 본 한국 사회』 (역사비평사, 2023)에 대한 비평으로서, 저자의 논지를 ‘난민 통치’의 관점에서 비판, 재발견, 확장하는 데 초점을 맞춘다. 이 책은 해방부터 1960년대까지 분단과 한국전쟁, 냉전과 산업화의 격동 속에서 이동을 강요당했던 한국인들을 ‘난민’으로 명명하고, 이들을 대상으로 한 정부의 농촌정착사업을 방대한 문헌·구술 자료를 통해 탐색함으로써, 글로벌 난민 레짐의 문법과 빈곤·복지 연구의 도시중심성에 균열을 내고 난민 배치를 확장했다.
저자는 한국전쟁 전후 난민이 처한 권력 구조, 사회적 맥락, 정부 사업의 실제를 깊이 있게 규명했으나, 난민을 독자적인 실체가 아니라 ‘난민 통치’ 과정의 산물로 이해했다면 새롭게 길어냈을 통찰과 쟁점이 적지 않다. 여기서 핵심은 정치적 주권의 행사와 사회 공학, 국가의 지배와 사회의 종속·저항으로 명확히 양분되지 않는 통치의 모세혈관적 성격이자, 우리 역사의 특정 순간에 무엇을 생각할 수 있고 없는지에 따라 통치 활동은 가능해지기도, 제약을 받기도 한다는 ‘문제화’이자, 다양한 통치술의 형태가 변화 가능한 역사적·우연적 결과물이라는 잠재성의 발견이다.
본 서평은 이 책에서 ‘체제형 난민’으로 범주화된 월남민과 달리 이른바 ‘사회형 난민’이—“고아, 부랑인, 도시 철거민, 실업자와 영세민” 등으로 나열될 뿐인—‘역사 없는 사람들’로 남은 비대칭성, ‘난민’으로 명명된 사람들에 대한—또는 이들 사이의—차별, 낙인, 적대를 조장하는 품행의 정치에 주목함으로써 범주화가 사실상 어려운 사람들을 ‘인구’로 관리하는 작업의 자의성을 쟁점화한다. 또한, 난민 구술자를 ‘진리’의 담지자로 단순화하기보다 그의 발화를 ‘진리 주장’으로 두텁게 분석할 필요, ‘억압받은 피해자’와 ‘고난을 극복한 주체’라는 이분법을 넘어 난민 당사자의 삶의 경험과 재현 방식을 보다 입체적으로 탐색할 필요를 제안한다.


This study critiques, reexamines, and expands upon Aram Kim's book, Refugees, Lives on the Border: Seeing Korean Society through Rural Resettlement Programs in the 1945-60s, from the perspective of “refugee goverance.” Kim’s work, based on extensive historical research, effectively challenges the grammar of the global refugee regime and urban-centric poverty studies, thus re-assembling refugee studies in meaningful ways. While Kim thoroughly explores power dynamics, social contexts, and the operations of government resettlement programs for refugees around the time of the Korean War, this review highlights the potential for new insights if refugees were viewed as a product of governing practices. This critique examines the atbitrary nature of managing people who cannot simply be reduced to “populations” by addressing contradictions in refugee categorization and the politics of conduct that fosters discrimination, stigma, and hostility toward and among those named “refugees.” Additionally, it underscores the importance of analyzing refugee narratives as “truth claims” rather than simplistically viewing refugess as bearers of “truth.” Finally, the review calls for moving beyond the binary of “oppressed victims” and “survivors of hardship” to explore the complexity of refugees’ lived experiences and representations.

Desde un diálogo con las tesis de Louis Althusser sobre la eficacia propia de los elementos de la superestructura, particularmente la política, en esta intervención exploro la relación entre práctica antropológica y administración estatal, indagando en la forma en que la primera se ve sobredeterminada por la segunda. Analizo cómo la antropología contribuye a la administración de las diferencias “sociales” al pretender fundamentarlas según procedimientos específicos, avalados por nociones como la de “ontología”, entre otras, que le dan despliegue analítico. Sugiero que la antropología –devenida en ciencia del orden– y la gestión estatal coinciden en el afán de fundamentar las diferencias de modo de hacerlas gobernables en sus propios cursos de acción, estructurados entre sí. Finalmente, propongo una reflexión sobre la posibilidad de sustraerse a esta razón administrativa desde unas formas de acción llamadas “prescriptivas”, que no dependen de la necesidad de fundamentar previamente las relaciones sociales y sus componentes en pos de plasmar alianzas políticas y hacer efectivos los enunciados que las configuran.

This article explores the intricate convergence between eroticism and political discourses in Hindu-majority India, focusing on how sexual fantasies are deeply intertwined with ethnic and religious identities and imaginations. Through an ethnographic analysis of pornography sites, the article attempts to answer two questions – first, to what extent is there a politicization, particularly an ethnicization, of sexual desires and fantasies within the context of Hindu-majority India? And second, in what ways do the two forms of sexual representation—online sexual abuse and pornography consumption—intersect within the broader framework of the power-pleasure matrix? Through ethnographic evidence and visual analysis, the article argues that in contemporary Hindu-majority India, political ideologies infiltrate erotic imaginations, rather than pornography simply permeating political discourses. It reverses the scholarly focus by revealing how political mobilization actively shapes sexual fantasies, blending religious and ethnic identities with desires of domination and submission. This contrasts with much of the existing work, which investigates how sexual discourse influences politics rather than the reverse. The article discusses how online porn, social media, and political forums form an affective ecosystem in which political ideologies, particularly Hindutva, concretize power-pleasure dynamics enlisting both active participants and passive bystanders to create the vision of a Hindu Rashtra.

Questo studio affronta l’analisi di alcune difficoltà di ordine concettuale coinvolte nell’individuazione dei limiti alla revisione costituzionale: la concezione del potere di revisione come tipo di “potere costituente”; la diversità dei criteri di separazione concettuale tra le modifiche costituzionali 'secondo costituzione' e 'contrarie alla costituzione'; e l’influenza dei concetti costituzionali sull’identificazione dei tipi di limiti e degli specifici limiti alla revisione costituzionale all’interno di un dato ordinamento giuridico. I problemi sopra menzionati verranno esaminati da una prospettiva teorico generale, utilizzando gli strumenti tipici della filosofia analitica recepiti dalla teoria del diritto.

Stories," offers a deep dive into themes of existential despair and alienation. Published after his death, this compilation explores the intricacies of the human experience, providing keen insights into modern life. The English translation by Alexander Starritt plays a crucial role in making Kafka's unique voice accessible to new readers. Starritt has done an excellent job capturing the subtlety of Kafka's writing, preserving the eerie surrealism and existential richness that characterizes the original German text. With great sensitivity to Kafka's tone and themes, Starritt ensures that the intricate layers of meaning and the rhythm of Kafka's language shine through.

On doit sans doute aux oppositions politiques des xive et xve siècles d’avoir mis en lumière le rôle de l’espion et la pratique de l’espionnage. Cette étude pose le cadre théorique et pratique qui permet de parler de la fonction de renseignement au Moyen Âge. Il traite de la terminologie, des sources antiques, bibliques, arabes et byzantines et de leur influence sur la pratique de l’espionnage en Occident. Il dégage quelques concepts : ceux de cycle de renseignement, de plan de recherche ou de désinformation. L’ensemble s’appuie sur l’étude du cas lyonnais, aux prises avec les ambitions bourguignonnes, entre 1417 et 1422. En effet, la prise de décision par les chefs de guerre est en grande partie le résultat de la recherche, du traitement et de l’utilisation du renseignement.

In his seminal article The Pare atd tbe ,.lrcpictaus in the Jaina 'I'radition, P Jaini has argued that the e<luation of ascetic putiw (iuddlta) ar-rd ausp (nafigala) u'as a historical innovation of Buddhists and Jains, u'ho "atte assimilate the ascetic ideal into tttaigala, not bv degrading the iaddba, b bv raising ntanga/a to a new status which incorporated both the u.orlcllt tlre supramundane idd/ta.In this nerv scheme, anything u'hich u,'as not consiclered to be a-ilddba: activities u'hich u'ere not producri\-e of sah'a ever, this aidd/ta u'as subsequentlv subdivided into the mundane pure ( the mundane impure (ainbha)".2 As a c<lnsequence, mauga/a \\'as not onl for worldly, meritori<.rus activities (po,lto), but came to refer "both to scendental @tdd/:a), as u'ell as to that portion of the mundane sphere pure (iabha)" by virtue of "an association u,ith the "trulv" hol.s' (naiga/a Todav, most practisingJains agree that, ultimatelv, onh' acts of re are trulv auspicious. But u'hether or not material acts rif rvorship (piiti gious gift g,ning (dtiu) can also be classified as fc.rrms of renunciation ( conundrum that clivides the Jain commur-riw.o The classical account of t inteqpretation of puriq' and auspiciousness, mentioned br' -laini, is Umasvati's Tath.'aftba .\'itra, which endorses auspicious acts of charitr. ( compassionate help tirr all Living beings as a means of adr.ancinq on th salvation (nok:a niryn).s Auspicious acts (ifulta), it states, produce go II u'ish to thrtnk Acan'a Tulsi anrl Acinr llahaprajna for their generous su research fcrr this naoer. '1"ini 1985' 90. 3 lbid. a In the medieval ir,it'akicira literature of the image-rvr-rrshipping traclition sented "as a mere aspecr ctf dina" (\\'illiams 1983:216). s Tath.'anha .lilra (-I'S) 6.13.

When state authorities rule through top-down policies and regulations in order to achieve and retain their monolithic and elite-driven social-engineering projects, the discontent of ethnic, political, ideological and religious groups surges up through political and public mediums. The modern nation-state's maneuvers around the controlling of life and death along with its instrumentalization of miscellaneous forms of violence, terror, and fear have appeared as novel control mechanisms which constantly shape subjective and collective lives and memories. 1 Therefore, studying the state requires comprehensive, broad and deep research to understand it as a political entity armored with a 'state of exception'. 2 It also necessitates an analysis of the effects and the encroaching of the state on the everyday lives of ordinary people who are anticipated to be obedient citizens. When speaking on the difficulties of studying the state, Philip Abrams defined the state as 'not the reality that stands behind the mask of political practice' but 'itself as the mask which prevents our seeing political practice as it is'. The intricate question of what the state is, along with 'the Foucault effect' 4 in the social sciences and humanities in the 1990s, has resulted in the growth of ethnographic and theoretical studies addressing diverse forms and practices of the state. The literature on state formation, power and its diverse ideological, physical and psychological apparatuses along with novel ruling mechanisms have burgeoned in spite of 'practical and conceptual difficulties'. Therefore, going beyond the ambiguity and elusiveness of the subject matter, this article emphasizes the difficulties of studying diverse mechanisms of the modern authoritarian secular state as a political body and as an ethnographic site. The ultimate task of this work is to document difficulties of investigating the effects of the authoritarian secular Turkish nation-state and its apparatuses on social fabric and memory. As an anthropological and oral history study of everyday practices of authoritarian and 'assertive' 7 secularism during the single-party regime era in Turkey (1923-1950), this paper emphasizes the importance of the life stories and personal testimonies of ordinary citizens who witnessed this era. 8 Firstly, it should be noted at the beginning that an analytical study of relations between the state and society with a particular focus on precarious times, breaking points, times of turmoil (coups d' etat) and internal political clashes in the history of the country has been a puzzling, fearsome and intimidating task for social scientists with a critical perspective. Secondly, the 'statist' formation of social sciences and academic institutions in Turkey has also prevented critical and independent approaches that attempted to go beyond ideological boundaries dictated by Kemalist ideology. Researchers who questioned the official historiography and the statist ideologies struggled within the mainstream Kemalist and Turkish nationalist body of the academy in Turkey and have been cast out in one way or another for a significant period of time. Consequently, it can be argued that one of the reasons behind the late arrival of critical ethnographic studies in academia regarding the formation of the Turkish state, with a particular focus CONTACT Ramazan Aras

Ethnographically inspired by Palermitan antimafia public events, this paper discusses the dynamic formation of the Italian public sphere. It focuses on the discursive and other performative processes that make up the social milieu seen as antimafia or indeed “the antimafia”. My aim is to show how the public sphere is that social area where the very idea of what is (the) public becomes a matter of public contestation. The Italian public sphere pertaining to antimafia, a morally charged phenomenon that enjoys high social consensus, is not a unified normative space. Words and different rhythms of uttering can contribute to the creation of various publics and the eventual (im)possibility of a shared public space, even when antimafia events are staged in the same urban district. In that way, a seemingly coherent conceptual space like the antimafia allows us to delve into the contradictions, micro-normativities and inner polemics of the applicability of the idea onto the lived, material space. This separation is particularly important, since antimafia is constantly mobilized in Italy to separate the virtuous from the non-virtuous, and even the corrupt. The paper draws from recent ethnography in Palermo, focusing on events of important visibility for the “antimafia establishment”.