Building the Human Economy

The author has always been sceptical about the use of value theory in anthropology. Here he considers its scope in relation to a project linked to the publication of The Human Economy: A Citizen’s Guide in 2010. This international project, …

Culture, Exchange, and Global Ecology

A defining feature of an anthropological perspective is that it acknowledges the importance of cultural specificity. As Marshall Sahlins (1976:170) succinctly put it: ‘no object, no thing, has being or movement in human society except by th…

Culture, Exchange, and Global Ecology:

The call by Alf Hornborg for a better consideration of the human dimension in the public discussion of global environmental change, networks of production and consumption, and structures of knowledge and power is a welcome contribution to e…

A British Anthropologist in Finland

I am a social anthropologist born, raised and educated in the United Kingdom. I have however carried out fieldwork in Finnish Lapland, first in 1971-2, for my doctorate, among Skolt Sámi people, and subsequently, in 1979-80, in the distric…

Reimagining Public Anthropology

Public anthropology refers to the dissemination of anthropological knowledge beyond the academy, although no clear-cut definition of the term exists. In this article, we scrutinise the history, meanings, and practices of public anthropology…

‘To Avoid a Strange European Explanation’

This year marks a century since Finnish ethnographer Hilma Granqvist (1890–1972) embarked on her first journey to Palestine, an undertaking that proved intellectually rich alongside becoming a professional impasse. Initially setting out to …

Editor’s Note

This year, the Finnish Anthropological Society turns 50 years old! Hooray! Founded in 1975, the core focus of the Society has remained trained on promoting high-quality research in the field of anthropology and in disciplines closely aligne…

Book Review

Book Review: Venkatesan, Soumhya. Decolonizing Anthropology: An Introduction. Cambridge: Polity. 2025. 252 pp. ISBN: 9781509540600 (softcover), 9781509540594 (hardcover); 9781509540617 (e-book).

Towards More-Than-Human Negotiation

Scholars from all disciplines are becoming increasingly conscious of the co-dependence between humans and more-than-humans. This special collection engages these debates, guided by a question both practical and theoretical: What makes good relationship…

Editorial Note: On Hope

Lately, our daily news is engulfed with billowing clouds of despair as democracy slips away and is replaced with emboldened form of authoritarianism. We live in dark times. Global disasters are multiplying with no end in sight. Powerful institutions ge…

(Re-)Learning to Relate to the More-Than-Human

The lack of concerted action by the majority of the population in the face of the global ecological catastrophe compels us to ponder the deeper cause of inaction: a troubled relationship with the more-than-human world. Redressing this relationship and …

Errata 48 (3)

In Volume 48, Issue 3 of Suomen Antropologi, we published a Lectio Praecursoria by Ioana Țîștea, entitled ‘Creolising Nordic Migration Research: Entangled Knowledges, Migratisations, and Reflexivities’. In the lectio, Țîștea was drawing direct attentio…

Through the Eyes of an Anthropologist

On a cold December evening, in the thick cloud of cigarette smoke and clatter of the cocktail shaker, two women, Suvi Rautio and He Beili tell stories of what it means to see through the eyes of an anthropologist. Speaking to a crowded room of seventy …

On Hesitation

What does it mean to die well? How does assuming responsibility for killing an animal feel?Who gets to decide who dies, who lives, and who kills? While orienting oneself to regenerating life is typical among small-scale diversified farmers, killing and…

The Value of Common Bracken Revisited

Based on a walking ethnography, this photo essay employs sensory ethnography to explore multispecies relationality in steljniki, plots of land traditionally used for grazing and the harvesting of common bracken. Through work in subsistence-based extens…

Conflicts over Duldung and Deportation

A lectio præcursoria is a short presentation read out loud by a doctoral candidate at the start of a public thesis examination in Finland. It introduces the key points or central argument of the thesis in a way that should make the ensuing discussion b…

Becoming an Adequate Child

A lectio præcursoria is a short presentation read out loud by a doctoral candidate at the start of a public thesis examination in Finland. It introduces the key points or central argument of the thesis in a way that should make the ensuing discussion…

Digital Threads, Interwoven Scenes

A lectio præcursoria is a short presentation read out loud by a doctoral candidate at the start of a public thesis examination in Finland. It introduces the key points or central argument of the thesis in a way that should make the ensuing discussion b…

Editorial Note

Happy 2025, readers! It gives me great pleasure to present this year’s Winter Issue of Suomen antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society. This issue contains three peer-reviewed articles, three book review essays, and four research rep…

Women and Kula

This article argues that the hosting of kula partners is an important part of the exchange system that requires more attention. Women’s management of their households and resources, their training of children, and the internal networks that provide for…