Interembodiment: Relational living and interconnected thinking.

ABSTRACT The Committee (later Council) on Nutritional Anthropology was organized in the mid‐1970s to bring together the anthropology of food and nutrition that spanned archeology, evolutionary biological and physical, sociocultural, and also theoretical, applied, and policy‐engaged interests. This essay, drawing on my personal and professional experiences and prior American Anthropological Association contributions, outlines the history of the Society for Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN) with reflections on its 1970s origins, 1980s institutionalization, and 1990s through 2010s transitions. As touchstones, with reference to my research, writings, and advocacy, it emphasizes changing conceptualizations and approaches to hunger and human rights, with special attention to the challenges of breaking the links between hunger and conflict.

ABSTRACT This article examines an Indigenous‐led approach to conservation developed through more than 17 years of collaboration between Ailan Awareness, a community‐based organization in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, and an anthropologist working in the region. Our partnership is grounded in kinship, reciprocity, and long‐term accountability, and it demonstrates how conservation can be reimagined as an Indigenous resurgence practice rather than an externally imposed model. Drawing on ritual traditions such as Vala , which integrates socio‐spiritual authority with ecological restoration, and institutions such as the Ranguva Solwara Skul , which fosters intergenerational knowledge transmission, we show how biocultural diversity is enacted as both a political claim and an ecological necessity. Ethnographic, ecological, and archival research conducted in partnership with local communities reveals that conservation here is inseparable from Indigenous sovereignty, spiritual obligation, and cultural revitalization. We argue that these efforts constitute biocultural sovereignty: a mode of environmental governance that centres customary law, ancestral ties, and collective decision‐making. By situating conservation within the lived moral fabric of kinship and community life, our work challenges dominant conservation paradigms and offers pathways for decolonial, place‐based environmental practice. Ultimately, we show that conservation grounded in kinship and love sustains both ecological and cultural futures.

This Letter to the Editor critically engages with the “Borrowed Magic” roundtable held at the 2025 American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting, reading it through the author’s research on the Goddess cult as a device for historiography and theology. The letter examines the unresolved tension and resulting theological aporia between the “woman-centered” symbolic continuity of Goddess traditions and emerging non-binary frameworks. It further analyzes the generational conflict between authority rooted in long-term embodied practice and performative, aesthetically driven ritual forms circulating in digital environments. Discussions on the anti-colonial ethics of “research refusal” in bio-archaeology and the reproduction of historical knowledge through multimodal methods, such as sonic alchemy, are integrated into the analysis. The letter argues that contemporary spiritual communities are not merely ethnographic objects but active “laboratories of epistemology” where authenticity, memory, and gendered power are continuously renegotiated.

Abstract This conversation began as a roundtable at the 2023 joint meeting of the American Anthropological Association and the Canadian Anthropology Society in Toronto. The roundtable was part of the Executive Program and was intended as a follow-up to Kisha Supernant’s keynote presentation, which was entitled ‘Truth before transition. Reimagining anthropology as restorative justice.’ Considering the sensitive nature of the topic, we responded to a selection of written questions from the audience rather than taking open questions. The discussion was webcast, then transcribed and redacted. This article includes a portion of the question period as well as a contextual introduction that was not part of the initial conversation.

In this 21st century, the enormous scale and extent of social inequalities and ecological devastation prompt us to revisit the relevance and positionality of anthropology as a discipline and a societal project. how then to address systemic change and transformation both within and outside the discipline of anthropology? We, as a collective of anthropologists from Switzerland and Europe, including members of the Swiss Anthropological Association (SSA), the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) and the Swiss Graduate School of Anthropology gathered in Ascona from june 3 to 5, 2024. Hosted by the interface commission at the Centro Incontri Umani, we deliberated on the need and potential pathways for a transformative anthropology considering the triple planetary crisis, structural inequalities and deepening conflicts. drawing on initial discussions hosted by the Interface Commission in 2022 around the theme of "imagining new anthropological futures", the Ascona meeting sought to take stock of contemporary conversations on the future of anthropology, and of practices aimed at transforming the discipline to tackle current challenges.

Introduction: In this study, we aimed to explore how Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) in post-disaster Palu, Indonesia, manage their sexual identities under religious conservatism, patriarchal norms, and heightened moral surveillance following the 2018 earthquake. Within this religiously conservative and disaster-affected context, our objective was to understand how MSM employ impression-management strategies to navigate visibility, stigma, and safety, and to analyze their implications for mental health, healthcare-seeking behavior, and overall well-being. This study addresses gaps in the literature by situating MSM experiences within Indonesia’s sociocultural and religious frameworks, thereby contributing to regional and cross-cultural analyses of LGBTQ+ identity negotiation in Southeast Asia. Methods: This qualitative phenomenological study employed in-depth interviews, photo-elicitation, and digital ethnographic observation over six months in Palu. A total of twenty-five MSM participants aged 18–40 were purposively recruited to ensure diversity of experience and social background. Sampling continued until thematic saturation was reached, meaning no new themes emerged during ongoing analysis. Data collection included semi-structured interviews and analysis of interactions on online platforms (e.g., Telegram, BlueD, and Instagram). Visual materials contributed to the coding framework by illustrating non-verbal expressions of impression management, later integrated into thematic synthesis. Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Muhammadiyah Palu, following the British Psychological Society (BPS) and American Anthropological Association (AAA) ethical codes. Participants provided verbal and written informed consent, and all identifying details were anonymized. Results: The primary outcome of the study was an understanding of how MSM in Palu adaptively navigate identity, stigma, and safety through impression management. Key findings revealed that MSM maintain dual personas—performing heteronormativity in public (front-stage) while expressing their authentic identities within digital backstage spaces. Selective disclosure of sexual orientation was governed by contextual trust, relational safety, and fear of institutional stigma. Digital platforms functioned as crucial psychosocial and health-navigation spaces, enabling solidarity and access to information. However, overreliance on digital interactions sometimes intensified isolation and reproduced inequalities linked to digital literacy and class. While these adaptive strategies ensure survival under moral surveillance, they inadvertently reinforce structural stigma by normalizing concealment and restricting public visibility. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study contributes to understanding how Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) in Palu construct survival and well-being through impression management under conditions of religious-patriarchal stigma and disaster-induced moral tightening. It illustrates that dual personas, selective disclosure, and digital backstage practices function both as protection and as mechanisms that perpetuate invisibility. These findings inform the design of culturally sensitive, confidentiality-centered health interventions, emphasizing peer navigation, digital outreach, and faith-inclusive stigma reduction. Future studies should investigate the long-term mental health impacts of sustained concealment and digital dependency, advancing inclusive policies and provider training across Indonesia’s public health systems and the broader Southeast Asian region.

The article explores the trajectory of Marina de Vasconcellos, considered Brazil’s first professional anthropologist, noted for her pioneering role during a period when anthropology was still being established as a discipline in the country. Vasconcellos’s recognition as the first professional anthropologist is primarily based on two key aspects: a) her rigorous academic training in anthropology and b) her role as an anthropology instructor in higher education. The study focuses on the development of her career and the impact she had on Brazilian anthropology, particularly through her close collaboration with Arthur Ramos, a central figure in the anthropology of the time, with whom she worked as an assistant professor for nearly a decade. Beyond her academic role, Vasconcellos played a significant part in the institutionalization of anthropology in Brazil. Not only did she teach at the National Faculty of Philosophy, where she mentored and influenced a new generation of scholars in the field, but she also actively contributed to scientific societies. Her involvement in organizations such as the Brazilian Society of Anthropology and Ethnology and the Brazilian Association of Anthropology was essential in creating spaces for dialogue and cooperation among anthropologists, promoting the development and consolidation of the discipline. In summary, the article highlights Marina de Vasconcellos’s central role in the professionalization and institutionalization of anthropology in Brazil, paving the way for future generations of anthropologists.

Front and back cover caption, volume 41 issue 5 Front cover caption, volume 41 issue 5 WHEN EMPATHY BECOMES REVOLUTIONARY In December 2014, at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, hundreds of anthropologists transformed the lobby of Washington's Marriott Wardman Park Hotel into a site of collective mourning and protest. Bodies sprawled across the marble floor, participants held signs declaring ‘Black lives matter’. One invoked anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston's searing words: ‘If you are silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it.’ This die‐in, organized in response to the killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and countless others, marked a moment when the discipline, built on crossing cultural boundaries to understand different ways of being, refused to remain silent about state‐sanctioned violence against Black communities. A decade later, Chip Colwell's guest editorial in this issue reminds us why this moment of professional witness has acquired a new urgency. In an era when empathy itself has become politically contested, dismissed as weakness by authoritarian movements, stripped from government vocabulary as ‘woke’, anthropology's methodological commitment to suspending judgment and entering other worldviews becomes a revolutionary act. As Hurston knew, and as Colwell affirms, silence equals complicity. The die‐in embodied the first act of empathy: identifying with humanity's suffering. Yet Colwell challenges anthropologists to undertake a second act: using ethnographic methods to understand injustice ‘in all its dimensions’, examining not only victims but also the systems and worldviews that perpetuate harm, including those of perpetrators. A third act demands empathy toward ourselves, recognizing the limits of what any single individual can achieve, and the risks associated with immersing oneself in others’ pain. This deeper empathy transforms protest into sustained ethnographic engagement. The bodies on that lobby floor embody anthropology's distinctive tradition of bearing witness across difference, from Cushing's defence of Zuni land rights to contemporary struggles for racial justice. In times when authorities deride understanding ‘the other’, ethnography becomes essential revolutionary work towards a new future. Back cover caption, volume 41 issue 5 GLOBAL FRAGILITY In this photograph from Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Melissa Demian consults with a local community group on violence prevention work that, until recently, was supported by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Local practitioners methodically planned for sustainable peace‐building while their distant institutional partner was being dismantled overnight. In her article in this issue, Demian reveals how USIP's sudden collapse exposes the fiction that fragility is confined to certain geographical regions. USIP partners in Papua New Guinea spent months developing violence prevention strategies, building community networks, and translating abstract policy into concrete local actions, believing they were part of a 10‐year American commitment to addressing conflict drivers in Papua New Guinea, a partnership framed through contemporary security concerns and historical obligations dating to the Second World War. Yet in March 2025, these partners suddenly lost their access to USIP resources, the project suspended in administrative limbo. Ironically, those designated as requiring ‘stabilization’ continued their work while the stabilizers proved unstable. The community members gathered here, deemed vulnerable to state fragility by international policy, have demonstrated more resilience than the Washington‐based organization meant to assist them. Who truly occupies positions of precarity in the global development landscape? Local peace‐builders in Morobe Province, despite operating in a so‐called ‘fragile state’, maintained their networks and secured alternative funding. Meanwhile, USIP, with its half‐billion‐dollar headquarters and congressional mandate, was shut down at executive whim. Perhaps the real fragility lies not in the grassroots organizing of Papua New Guineans, but in the fickleness of distant powers whose commitments evaporate as quickly as their geopolitical anxieties shift.

Abstract In the first of two interviews on the issue of academic freedom, the editors of American Ethnologist interviewed Hayal Akarsu, president of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, and Heath Cabot, president of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology, about the restrictions faced by scholars and students in Europe and beyond. In a wide‐ranging discussion, Akarsu and Cabot consider historical cycles of repression, surveillance, and censorship. Police on campuses and legal attacks on protesters are creating atmospheres of fear; the academic precariat has new incentives to self‐discipline. Safety rhetoric and accusations of anti‐Semitism have been weaponized to silence legitimate criticism of the state and settler colonialism. More optimistically, Akarsu and Cabot see opportunities for systematic documentation and global community building to resist the suppression of academic freedom. Ultimately, they suggest, the distinction between free speech and academic freedom—knowledge based on research—is critical. Yet allowing all sides to participate in debate remains a critical element of changing minds and creating spaces of learning, not spaces of exclusion.

ABSTRACTThis article is a slightly revised version of the 2021 Past President's address delivered virtually at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. I reflect on refusing the terms of dominant sensemaking in education and suggest that one of the most productive parts of our work is when it calls us into relationships and to engage deeply with the diverse desires for life and justice that children, families, and communities hold.

Abstract The European Association of Social Anthropologists was the first anthropological association to speak out against the genocide taking place in Gaza. On the 25th of October 2023, the Executive Committee published a statement unequivocally condemning the violence perpetrated by the state of Israel against Gazans. Following the publication of the statement, easa received a number of reactions, both positive and negative. In this text, I reflect on what the statement and some of the negative reactions to it revealed about empire anthropology within the context of the association. I dwell on one reaction, formulated by a group of former members of easa’s past executive committees, which stated that easa should not express political stances, and conceptualize it as a form of empire anthropology. I explore what is at stake (and for whom) in speaking out and conclude with a reflection on the kinds of public anthropology that can emerge from the current moment.

ABSTRACTThe papers presented in this special section were originally prepared for the American Anthropological Association's fourth annual symposium on anthropology and entrepreneurship, held in Toronto in November 2023 and sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. This special section follows two compilations from earlier Foundation‐sponsored symposia. The Foundation has provided support to the Association to recognize innovative ways of thinking about entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on (1) entrepreneurial behavior and the social, cultural, and economic institutions that facilitate the emergence and ongoing support of such behavior; (2) innovative approaches to entrepreneurship training and development; (3) partnerships and financial instruments that support new enterprises; and (4) innovative approaches to enterprises that explicitly aim to serve public interests and/or urgent social needs.

ABSTRACT At the 2022 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Seattle, WA, we organized a session called “Landscapes of Surveillance Care in Reproductive Health.” This introduction to our special issue represents a sustained conversation among panelists and other scholars regarding the complicated ways that surveillance and care play upon each other in our own ethnographic research and what we might learn from them.

In what Tomas Gerholm called the “world system of anthropology,” dominated by the United States, Great Britain, and France, the history of anthropology outside these central countries is rarely told. Japan is no exception, despite having one of the largest anthropological associations in the world in terms of membership. To fill this gap in knowledge, this article first describes the development of Japanese anthropology, with particular attention to its origins in the late nineteenth century, when the Ainu were a major object of study, and to Japan’s colonial past in later periods. The relationship between anthropology and folklore studies is also discussed. The article then explains why Japan has been relegated to the periphery in terms of the power imbalance in the academic world system. Japan is not alone in this regard, and the attempt by many concerned people to redress the imbalance has recently led to the “world anthropologies” project. After examining how this project has evolved, the article offers some practical suggestions for its implementation.

This introduction to the special section on ‘Transnational family ties and accompanied research in anthropological field research’ deals with research that is conducted in the company of family members. It is a topic that, although still marginalized, is receiving increasing attention, as the review of the literature on the subject to date in the paper shows. Accompanied field research leads to collaborative knowledge production and raises important ethical questions that need to be explored further. Reflections on the multifaceted realities of anthropologists, including the impact of their family ties in research settings, provide important insights into positionality, relationality and family normativity. This introduction underscores the importance of theoretical and epistemological discussions of accompanied fieldwork and explores the reasons why they are still scarce and often ignored. The special section takes into account the realities of transnational researchers. All articles are co-authored by researchers with transnational family ties. The authors have conducted research in their spouses’ countries of origin, accompanied by their partners and children. They discuss how this research setting influences their positionality as researchers, highlighting the role of their spouses and other family members in anthropological knowledge production. The articles are the results of a panel of the working group ‘Family in the field’ at the conference of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA) 2023.

The article is devoted to the theoretical and applied aspects of the martial anthropology and its formation as a separate scientific branch at the late 20th – early 21st century. In Western European and American anthropological studies, scientists often complain that little attention is paid to military topics. The main reason for ignoring military problems by academic science in Western democracies is the fear of researchers that they will be suspected of cooperation with state security agencies, since this sometimes contradicts ethical norms, for example, the code of the American Anthropological Association (hereinafter – AAA). However, after the events of 2001 (terrorist act in New York), the issue of cooperation between anthropologists and state authorities have become more relevant. These events have made it clear that the existing AAA code of ethics is insufficient in a situation where anthropology is of a great importance to the national security of a state, and a significant community of «practicing anthropologists» may face ethical dilemmas. At the late 2000s, in the process of constant scientific discussions about the significance of anthropological methods in modern wars and about the specifics of cooperation between anthropologists and the military, the formation of martial anthropology as a separate discipline has taken place. Militarism today is an integral part of a global society, and it is especially typical for modern Ukraine, which for ten years has been forced to defend its territory from aggression by the Russian Federation. Military culture is inherent in constantly operating armies and paramilitary formations, as well as for the entire Ukrainian society, because military efficiency today is the key task for the state. One way or another, Ukrainians are constantly forced to think about war, even when they are in relative safety (in particular, abroad). Therefore, a thorough study of the military cultural and historical traditions of Ukrainians and their modern life is one of the priority areas for modern ethnological science. Analysis of various approaches to the study of military culture, theoretical and applied aspects developed in the world humanities is critically necessary for modern ethnological research.

The researchers who are part of this dossier are members of the Working Group on Anthropology of Communities, Futures and Utopias in Latin America, affiliated to the Latin American Anthropological Association (ALA), and of the Research Network on Communities, Utopias and Futures (RIOCOMUN). The studies and reflections contained in this dossier are nourished by the discussions provoked by meetings and dialogues that have been taking place in the network for more than three years. The texts strung together for this issue of Encartes show different historical and cultural contexts in different states of the country and abroad: Baja California, Jalisco, Michoacán, Veracruz, Chiapas; and in the north Patagonian region of Argentina. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

In 1928, the American Anthropological Association declared that "Anthropology provided no scientific basis for discrimination against any people on the ground of racial inferiority, religious affiliation, or linguistic heritage" (Guthrie, 1976/1998/2004, p. 30). In 1945, Jung denounced race theory as a pseudo-science. In 1950, UNESCO released its statement denouncing race. Long discredited as scientifically invalid, the race concept still holds uncanny value and significance for Americans and Europeans. In effect, the concept seems to be mysteriously linked to the limited accessibility and the limited economic support that is allotted to people of colour, internationally. This paper will explore the global implications of Jung's expressed attitude towards people of colour prior to 1945, which I identify as an attitude of white supremacy, an attitude that stands in direct contrast to the analytical ethos, as expressed by the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP). This attitude may promote the continuance of racialized beliefs and behaviours within the planning and provision of care to individuals in need of medical and mental health services. It is requested that a written acknowledgment of harm be added to the works of C. G. Jung.

Abstract The articles in this special issue are the outcome of the panel: “Papers in Honor of Faye Ginsburg: Visual and Media Anthropology in the Middle East,” which was held virtually for the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings of November 2021. The reach of Ginsburg's work as well as her mentorship through the creation of NYU's Graduate Program in Culture & Media has shaped the ethnography of media and visual anthropology across a diversity of geographic regions. In this particular issue, we bring together scholars of SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa, a term that more broadly encompasses what is often referred to as the Middle East) whose projects are deeply influenced by Ginsburg's scholarship on shared anthropology, collaborative media practices and cultural activism. This introduction includes excerpts from a conversation with Ginsburg.