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Economics, Theory Time Time, from an anthropological perspective, is culturally specific and inseparable from our understanding... June 2025 by Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov	Politics, Theory Populism Populism is a conception of political representation that views ‘the people’ as the primary political actor and the basis of political sovereignty. As populism does not refer to a... March 2025 by Julia Fierman	Religion, Theory Affect Affect refers to sensations and physiological shifts in intensity that may or may not formalise into conceptually distinct and collectively recognized feelings. Compared to emotions... February 2025 by Daniel White, Andrea De Antoni
Religion, Theory Dreams Dreams are commonly defined as involuntary, sporadic events that occur to individuals during their sleep and that encompass visual images, cognitive activity, as well as a range of... August 2024 by Sophie Chao	Kinship, Theory Architecture Anthropologists have shown an interest in architecture since at least the end of the nineteenth century, though not to the extent that may be expected given the prominent position... February 2024 by Marcel Vellinga , Jorge Tomasi	Politics, Theory Race and racism Racism is premised on the idea that humanity could and should be divided into distinct biological groups or ‘races’, and that different races stand in a ranked and hierarchical... November 2023 by Sindre Bangstad, Agustín Fuentes
Health, Theory Mental Health When we talk about mental health, we could seem to be talking about some self-evident reality. However, the very notion of mental health can be seen to both assume and... April 2023 by Mikkel Kenni Bruun	Politics, Theory Infrastructure Infrastructures are the arteries of our contemporary world: roads, railways, airports, ports, pipelines, fibre optics cables, data, and logistics centres. Built above and below... March 2023 by Hannah Knox, Evelina Gambino	Politics, Theory Silence Silence is a common occurrence in everyday social interactions, yet anthropological research, like most research in the social sciences and humanities, has mostly focused on what... February 2023 by Ana Dragojlovic, Annemarie Samuels
Health, Theory Intellectual disability ‘Intellectual disability’ is a widely used psychiatric category that conceives of certain minds as impaired in their development. By approaching intellectual disability from a cross-... February 2023 by Patrick McKearney, Tyler Zoanni	Politics, Theory Photography Human beings have never encountered as many photographs as we do today. They surround us in public spaces, and populate the numerous screens we access in our daily lives.... December 2022 by Brent Luvaas	Politics, Theory Art The definition of ‘art’ is extremely complicated. Its meaning has shifted radically, in particular in the last century. Originally, in Latin, it meant ‘craft’, but then for... September 2022 by Roger Sansi
Religion, Theory Transhumanism The social and intellectual movement known as transhumanism questions the figure of the ‘human’ at the centre of humanism and modern political formations. As part of a broader ‘... September 2022 by Abou Farman	Politics, Theory Prefigurative politics ‘Prefigurative politics’ refers to how activists embody and enact, within their activism, the socialities and practices they foster for broader society. Inspired by anarchist... March 2022 by Guilherme Fians	Politics, Theory Literacy Literacy is a linguistic innovation characterised by the encoding and decoding of language into a system of visual signs whose relevance to daily life in most societies cannot be... December 2021 by Mark Turin, Robert Hanks
Politics, Theory History Anthropology and history are inseparable, sharing concerns with societies other than the one we currently inhabit—whether in time or in space. This entry considers how the relation... November 2021 by Eric Hirsch	Religion, Theory Monsters Monsters are not only key protagonists in myths, legends, fairy tales, fiction, and films; they also haunt cellars, cyberspace, and crossroads. Based on encounters with monsters in... October 2021 by Yasmine Musharbash	Economics, Theory Social reproduction Social reproduction is a lens through which to analyse the persistence of society over time, even as its human and material components keep changing. Its main value is in identifying... September 2021 by Hadas Weiss
Health, Theory Phenomenology Phenomenology is one of the most influential philosophical traditions of the twentieth century and has significantly shaped contemporary anthropological and social theory. This entry... August 2021 by Jarrett Zigon, Jason Throop	Politics, Theory Freedom of speech Free speech is a familiar concept. It is an established ideal of liberalism and democratic politics, and the subject of political debate and conflict across diverse historical and... July 2021 by Matei Candea, Fiona Wright, Paolo Heywood, Taras Fedirko	Politics, Theory Visual anthropology Visual anthropology encompasses two parallel aims: the production of anthropological media (including ethnographic film, video, photography, drawing, interactive media, etc.) as well... July 2021 by Jenny Chio
Health, Theory Medical pluralism Medical pluralism describes the availability of different medical approaches, treatments, and institutions that people can use while pursuing health: for example, combining... June 2021 by Venera Khalikova	Health, Theory Cannibalism Cannibalism, the eating of one’s own kind, is a practice that occurs in both humans and non-humans. Some people consumed their own kin to ensure that their spirits joined those of... June 2021 by Shirley Lindenbaum	Politics, Theory Writing anthropology Writing is key in anthropology, as one of its main modes of communication. Teaching, research, publications, and outreach all build on, or consist of, writing. This entry traces how... February 2021 by Helena Wulff
Religion, Theory Emic and etic The emic/etic distinction originated in linguistics in the 1950s to designate two complementary standpoints for the analysis of human language and behaviour. It has been... November 2020 by Till Mostowlansky, Andrea Rota	Health, Theory Metrics Numbers, enumeration, and the quantification of contemporary life seem to govern our existence more and more. Particularly since the dawn of the twenty-first century, the importance... October 2020 by Marlee Tichenor	Politics, Theory Political ecology Political ecology is a critical research field within anthropology and related disciplines that examines how and why economic structures and power relations drive environmental... September 2020 by Jason Roberts
Economics, Theory Gifts As one of the oldest forms of social actions that bind people together and as an arresting example of the universality and diversity of humanity, gift exchange has long been a focus... July 2020 by Yunxiang Yan	Kinship, Theory Childhood Children, as the youngest members of our species, exist in all human societies across space and time. But societies differ widely in their understandings of childhood as a... June 2020 by Catherine Allerton	Religion, Theory Magic Attempts to define and describe magic must reckon with this concept’s slipperiness, as magic is often understood against what supposedly it is not: typically, ‘proper’ religion and ‘... October 2019 by Matteo Benussi
Politics, Theory Revolution Revolutions encompass political mobilizations that attempt rapid transformations of both the nature of political authority and wider social, political, and economic structures.... October 2019 by Alice Wilson	Religion, Theory Animism Animism is a particular sensibility and way of relating to various beings in the world. It involves attributing sentience to other beings that may include persons, animals, plants,... June 2019 by Katherine Swancutt	Economics, Theory Games Though there is no universally accepted definition for what constitutes a ‘game’, games are typically defined as goal-oriented, rules-based activities closely associated with the... May 2019 by Max Watson
Religion, Theory Divination Divination is a widespread cultural practice that takes varied forms worldwide. It can be diagnostic, forecasting, and interventionist, in the sense of changing the receptor’s... April 2019 by Diana Espírito Santo	Politics, Theory Anthropocene ‘The Anthropocene’ is a term that is increasingly used to define a new planetary epoch: one in which humans have become the dominant force shaping Earth’s bio-geophysical composition... January 2019 by Liana Chua, Hannah Fair	Economics, Theory Digital anthropology ‘The digital’ is defined here as new technologies that are ultimately reducible to binary code. These have made many cultural artefacts easier and quicker to both reproduce and to... August 2018 by Daniel Miller
Kinship, Theory Relations To make a topic from one of anthropology’s principal means and objects of study, investigating relations through relations, is offered in the spirit of reflexive enquiry. The entry... May 2018 by Marilyn Strathern	Religion, Theory Animals What role do nonhuman animals play in human social life? This question has long interested anthropologists, who have provided various answers, themselves reflective of broader... May 2018 by Thomas White, Matei Candea	Kinship, Theory Ethnography Ethnographic fieldwork, carried out according to the method of long-term participant-observation, is what defines social anthropology. The method is inductive and open-ended. As such... February 2018 by Signe Howell
Politics, Theory Deleuze This entry takes on two subjects. First, it addresses the influence that anthropology had on the work of the mid-twentieth century French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, and second, the... January 2018 by Jon Bialecki	Economics, Theory Tourism Tourism is a new phenomenon in world history, but today more people travel long distances for this purpose than for any other. This entry traces some main contributions... November 2017 by Rupert Stasch	Politics, Theory Voice Voice is a salient category in our contemporary lives. We speak of marginalised groups ‘lacking voice’ and celebrate their efforts at ‘raising their voices’; we are advised to listen... October 2017 by Marlene Schäfers
Religion, Theory Ontological turn, the ‘Culture’ is in many ways the most fundamental of anthropological concepts. Yet it has been the subject of a range of critical interventions in the course of the discipline’s history,... May 2017 by Paolo Heywood	Religion, Theory Ethics / morality It is possible to argue that the anthropology of ethics has always been part of the discipline but also that it is a radically new and transformative venture. This entry explains why... May 2017 by James Laidlaw	Politics, Theory Science 'Science' features twice in anthropology. On the one hand, science is an object of anthropological enquiry, in much the same way as ‘kinship’, ‘religion’, or ‘nationalism’.... October 2016 by Matei Candea
Religion, Theory Values The concept of values has recently re-emerged as the object of explicit theoretical attention in a number of disciplines, including anthropology. The aim of this entry is to review... September 2016 by Joel Robbins, Julian Sommerschuh	Economics, Theory Gambling Gambling occurs when a person commits one or more valuable items (a ‘stake’) to an event or series of events packaged together, and where the result determines a loss or win at a... September 2016 by Anthony Pickles	Politics, Theory Citizenship What is citizenship? The word itself is now used in a wide range of arenas, from citizenship education in schools to development agencies’ programmes of good governance, and public... September 2016 by Sian Lazar
Politics, Theory Human rights Human rights, as described in documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are a set of moral and legal principles that apply to all human beings irrespective of... September 2016 by Harri Englund	Region, Theory Mediterraneanist anthropology The Mediterranean is one of the most underrated areas in anthropological imagination. On the one hand, its shores have furnished the most complex formulations of the unfolding... September 2016 by Naor Ben-Yehoyada	Region, Theory Landscape When we think about landscape, we tend to think of natural scenery, empty of people; of a view, spread in front of our eyes; or of a backdrop, a stage for people’s movements and... September 2016 by Paola Filippucci
Kinship, Theory Matriliny Matriliny is a way of reckoning kinship descent and belonging through the female line. This entry discusses some of the forms matrilineal kinship may take in practice before... September 2016 by Jessica Johnson

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