Doing ethnography in my own backyard is no doubt going to be an awkward affair.

Seems to me that one of the most important things anthropology can do is to humanise one group of people to another group of people. Dehumanisation leads to lynchings, pogroms, and all that nastiness, but also casual, careless wars (does the phrase ‘Can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.’ sound familiar?) and absurdly [...]

I’m a decent essayist and, I think, a good ethnographer. But on my thirteenth post, I still don’t know how to blog.

‘You know… I’ve never really had a good pizza.’

How can an unsure invisible man drown out the testimonies of a slew of ex-Gitmo detainees with faces and names?

The other day, whilst reading Rosie O’Donnell’s free verse r blog, I was wondering what it was that drove the semi-famous to blog. Evidence indicates that I’ll soon be able to answer this question from personal experience:

“The rate of suicide bombings - the seemingly endless supply of people prepared to blow themselves up - leaves a western audience utterly bewildered. What kind of psychology motivates people to such violent extremes? The incomprehension prompts revulsion that this form of warfare is historically unprecedented and reveals a peculiar, aberrant irrationality - a kind of inhuman madness. All too quickly, Islam is blamed for deluding its believers into martyrdom with promises of 72 virgins; the old prejudices about Islam as a faith uniquely associated with violence and unquestioning belief are fanned into life again…”

http://www.pathawi.net/b-log/feed/ — Use it.

Why context matters