Author: Nora Repo-Saeed

This study investigates sensory experience whilst walking in the era of the polycrisis. Through a walk followed by an interview, an attempt to gather impressions about sensory experiences and ponder how these sensory impressions reflect relations withi…

This article aims to study the impact the 2012 criminalisation of residential squatting in England and Wales has had on the lived experiences and communal logics of squatters in London. Through the story of a former homeless person named Keith, this pa…

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…

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…

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…

It gives me great pleasure to present a new issue of Suomen antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society. This issue contains four peer-reviewed articles, an essay, and four research reports.

A series of biodiversity conservation campaign since 1980s and the establishment of Siberut National Park on Siberut Island (West Sumatra, Indonesia) have seriously unsettled the relationship between the Mentawai and forest as well as between the Menta…

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…

The Murle age system is often presented in a negative light in the South Sudan conflict reporting, which links age-set activities to communal violence, cattle rustling, and the abduction of women and children. Such assessments by outsiders overlook the…

The theoretical aim of this paper is to articulate a novel analytical framework that makes sense of our interlocutors’ apparently conflicting claims about the reality of meritocracy in China. The theoretical argument is rooted in ethnographic fieldwork…

Anthropologists often talk about ‘encounters,’ but what do they actually mean? This term—‘encounter’—shows up everywhere across ethnographic writing and practice, but is itself rarely defined or discussed. ‘Ethnographies of encounters,’ too, are increa…

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…

This article examines how the futures promised by the postcolonial state through various projects leave peasants sceptical about a new government project at the rural margin of India. Focusing on a car factory project undertaken in 2006 by the governme…

Once a large-scale infrastructure such as a railroad, sewage system or power plant is put into place, it not only tends to enjoy a long life, but often also a forceful afterlife. Abandoned railroads may find new uses, while ruined sewage systems or pow…

Growing numbers of children are moving between countries because of their parent(s)’ careers. The temporary labour migration of highly educated professionals – sometimes called career expatriates or transnational corporate elites (Amit 2002; Fechter 20…

People go missing all over the world, but the reasons for disappearances are enormously diverse. Some people are intentionally disappeared by the state: totalitarian and military governments as well as various paramilitary and criminal organizations ha…

Sustaining lives in urban environments depends on infrastructures – buildings, water pipes, sewers, energy distribution, or roads, among others. Their availability is particularly acute in Africa due to rapid urbanization, entrenched inequalities and p…

“The Anthropologist’s Toolkit: Reflections on ethnographic methodology” is a new essay series that peers into the anthropologist’s toolkit to reflect on what ethnographic methodology constitutes in all its multimodal forms. We invite all contributions …

Since the beginning of February this year, Suomen antropologi: Journal of Finnish Anthropological Society has navigated a succession. The previous editors-in-chief, Heikki Wilenius and Tuomas Tammisto, passed their roles on to me, Suvi Rautio, and I ha…

This article draws on ethnographic material from life stories and nonfiction literature and is complemented by fieldwork vignettes. The material is used to discuss how experiences of connections and disconnections between past and present, self and int…

As the dramatic consequences of climate change finally begin to motivate governments around the world to explore how to move away from a dependence on fossil fuels, nuclear power is back on the agenda in the UK as a potential energy source. However, th…

This paper looks at the theme of collaboration through the prism of game design, and especially the example of serious games. At its heart, this is a consideration of two collaborative projects between experts. The first is a current collaboration betw…

Fredrik Barth called attention to two ways ritually transmitted knowledge gains value: knowledge he associated with the figure of the ‘Guru’ valued for being widely shared versus knowledge associated with the figure of the ‘conjurer’ or ‘initiator’ val…

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…

This article explores the story of Sanwar, who fled Bangladesh following persecution for his sexuality, and spent five years struggling for asylum in the UK. Analysing our conversations together with his asylum paperwork, I show how trauma was apprehen…