Some of the most recent articles from open access anthropology journals (beta)
I explore how Yoruba people ascertain who is junior, who is senior, and the mark of equality beyond obvious age, as well as the social function of these distinctions in everyday life. The social ranking of people as either senior, junior or mate is an …
This article introduces the special issue “Becoming (Un)Equal in Age: Seniority and Superiority in African Societies”.
Following the transformative journey of Kenyan geothermal professionals throughout a training programme in Iceland and back to their homes, I argue that such long-term training in foreign countries can function as a rite of passage. The collective expe…
In this article, I will reconsider the naming and kinship relationships of the !Xun San in north-central Namibia from the perspective of child socialization. I will thereby deconstruct the naturalized view in which ‘relative age’ (a concept to indicate…
This contribution begins with the puzzle as to why there are kinship and naming systems that distinguish junior from senior, elaborately and systematically, even though these practices are embedded in substantially egalitarian societies. The case under…
Pre-school age children in European contexts are known to use labels like ‘big’ and ‘small’ to orient to age differences, very often to highlight differences in physical and social competence (Häll 2022). This research report explores Datooga-speaking …
The paper describes changed elderhood in Sukuma-speaking villages in Tanzania through a combined situational and cultural analysis, starting with the traditional role of (re)generation and medicine in practices of greeting. Elderhood, I argue, has chan…
Spencer (1965, 1988, 1993, 2003) theorizes two distinct strands in the life course of a Maasai male. The first strand is the building of a cattle herd and a family, and the second is developing involvement in the age class system. The second strand is …
This paper examines the emic concepts pertaining to age in Ngəmba, a language spoken in the Western Region of Cameroon. It explores both the terminological concepts available in the language for talking about age and their usage in everyday speech. Dra…
This article is about gerontological proverbs in Swahili folkloric discourses. The question posed in this study is as follows: how is old age depicted according to Swahili paremiology? To answer this question, 49 popular Swahili gerontological proverbs…
Concepts of seniority and elderhood were important structuring elements in many societies of precolonial Africa and were connected with social status. This changed with the European colonization of Africa, and strongly affected traditional cultures of …
This study examines linguistic manifestations of age-grade status among the Iraqw, a Southern Cushitic ethnic group in northern Tanzania. It identifies how life stages or age grades are conceptually distinguished in Iraqw terminology and then looks at …
Cherubini B. (dir.) 2022. Patrimoine et œnotourisme, vers une recomposition culturelle du monde vitivinicole. Bordeaux : Presses Universitaires Bordeaux.
Cet ouvrage ouvre sur le propos de B. Cherubini qui questionne l’alliance entre œnot…
Review: We will not be saved: a memoir of hope and resistance in the Amazon rainforest, by Nemonte Nenquimo and Mitch Anderson. London: Wildfire, 2024. 368 pp., plates.
This text reviews some of Jean Langdon’s most important classical and contemporary writings about shamanism, highlighting her key contributions to the area, as well as her relevance to the anthropology of health and Indigenous health policies. The …
Os Pirititi são um grupo indígena “isolado” pouco conhecido, que ocupa um território altamente ameaçado na divisa entre os estados do Amazonas e Roraima (Brasil), e tem majoritariamente rejeitado todo tipo de contato e encontro. Os Waimiri Atroari …
The Pirititi are a little known ´isolated´ Indigenous group occupying a highly threatened territory on the border between Amazonas and Roraima states in Brazil who have rejected all previous attempts at contact and encounter. The Waimiri Atroari pr…
This ethnographically inspired article investigates the ways in which the Karipuna Indigenous people in Rondônia defend their land in the Western Brazilian Amazon against forces of deforestation and dispossession. I focus on the Karipuna’s plurival…
Asserting the importance of analyzing Indigenous involvement in the extraction and trade of nonhuman entities against the backdrop of Amazonian perceptions of personhood, this article investigates the risks and opportunities that coca commercializa…
La región del Alto Río Negro-AM es considerada una de las áreas con mayor intensidad de multilingüismo en Brasil e incluso en el mundo. Hay un total de 23 pueblos indígenas que hablan lenguas de las familias lingüísticas arawak, tukano y hup, yuhup…
Nas paisagens etnográficas do Noroeste Amazônico brasileiro se encontra o Rio Vaupés, na Terra Indígena do Alto Rio Negro, no Município de São Gabriel da Cachoeira. Nessas paisagens, os povos do Vaupés fazem o Bahsé Ahpose, o adocicamento das águas…
Manioc flour is currently considered one of the main foods consumed by Indigenous peoples in the Northwest Amazon. It is fundamental both to the traditional diet and to adding an “Indigenous flavor” to urban dishes. This article presents an analysi…
Despite its relevance for analyzing many distinctive native imaginaries and societal values, childbirth remains a relatively neglected theme within Amazonianist scholarship. Yet, birthing can be shown to structure contemporary struggles around kins…
precarity emotions secularization Fukushima Pure Land Buddhism Since the triple disaster of 2011, parents in Fukushima Prefecture have been raising their children under a cloud of uncertainty about possible radiation in their environment. This article …
folklore tricksters horror infanticide adaptation retelling violence The Assamese film Kothanodi (2015) radically demonstrates how film adapts to folklore, rather than the other way around. It actively contributes to the folkloric tradition, notably th…