Ethnographic Research Research Articles

The Control of “Wandering Women:” The Legacy of Vagrancy Laws in the Contemporary Governance of Migrant Sex Work

Abstract This paper traces the contemporary governance of migrant sex work to early vagrancy laws aimed at controlling poor mobile populations and people not engaging in ‘honest’ labor. The paper argues that these notions of dishonest labor are still visible in the contemporary crimmigration controls. It uses a legal analysis of the development of prostitution and immigration laws together with ethnographic research in the Nordic region as a case study to develop an argument on the bifurcated regulation of domestic and foreign sex work and its roots in the vagrancy laws. It makes the case that with the influx of migrants into the sex trade since the 1990s the governance of commercial sex has shifted from prostitution policies to immigration controls.

Psychedelic Atmospherics

The spaces where psychedelic experiences unfold are never neutral. Whether in dense forests, urban retreats, or clinical settings, these environments shape how psychedelic senses and emotions are experienced. I propose “psychedelic atmospherics” as a concept to explore the affective and perceptual experience of different settings of psychedelic usage. Psychedelic atmospherics offers a lens for understanding the entanglement of materialities, spaces, and environments with cosmological and cultural realities in catalyzing psychedelic experiences. Atmospheric elements can actively shape the psychedelic sessions by guiding, amplifying, or even challenging the visionary and affective qualities that emerge following ingestion. Recognizing the significance of these elements opens new avenues for both ethnographic inquiry and practical considerations for therapy, spirituality, and research.

Care and Living in Community: Softening the Redistribution–Recognition Dilemma in Alternative Housing Initiatives?

ABSTRACT Starting from the case of the Brussels housing project “Care and Living in Community”, this paper aims to contribute to debates on care and justice in the context of alternative housing initiatives and compassionate communities. Drawing on an ethnographic research in the project and using the analytical lens on the ethics of care developed by Joan Tronto, we analyse how different associations conceived a caring community and how various steps of care unfold in the project. The analysis will highlight the potential of an alternative housing initiative in developing a caring community, but also foreground some ethical dilemmas and questions that come along with mobilizing both redistributive and recognitive dimensions.

Manufacturing the Entheogenic Underground

Ethnographic research suggests that people across the United States are increasingly gathering to commune with their creators, to interact with their ancestors, to enter the spirit world, to gain supernatural insights, and to engage in what they otherwise describe as religious or spiritual experiences. In this regard, their actions are not particularly revolutionary or novel. What distinguishes these people is not their desire to have religious or spiritual experiences. Instead, it is the means they employ to occasion these experiences that set them apart, as their rituals and ceremonies involve the consumption of illegal drugs, specifically psychedelics and cannabis, substances they frequently term entheogens. The United States government has granted select groups an exemption from drug prohibition, thereby allowing them to legally consume what are otherwise illegal substances. The vast majority of these practitioners, however, operate without this exemption, thereby confining them to what scholars often term the underground, or the sociocultural, political, or economic spaces thought to operate outside the influence or purview of the state.4 This alleged “absence” of the government is the topic of this paper, which argues that the state is both the primary curator of the so-called underground and that the state’s influence pervades these “underground” communities. To demonstrate this, this essay will discuss the legal structures and case law impacting entheogenic churches in the United States, paying particular attention to the attorneys who advise these churches.

Food, memory, and changing framings of sustainable consumption in Johannesburg

This paper addresses how food, tradition, and memories intersect with how sustainable food consumption is conceived, practiced, and mobilised. Using ethnographic research, the paper examines articulations and practices of ‘good food’ among food system actors and middle-class consumers in Johannesburg, South Africa. It argues that a nuanced and contextualised understanding of foodways and food consumption is required to capture the relationships between food cultures and consumption practices in African contexts, as well as to speculate on emerging pathways to sustainability during contemporary crises through conceptualising eating as an ethical act. After contextualising the research within South Africa’s contemporary food system and the historical legacies that continue to shape it, the paper argues that memory and tradition are central in consumer perceptions of good food. They also enable consumers to viscerally sense both pasts and futures in which they can gain control of their diets, health, and extract some independence from an industrial urban food system that they do not entirely trust. The paper explores the possibilities of combining consumer interest in traditional foods with increasing concern for the biodiversity of underutilised species, and the role of food activists and influencers to promote sustainable food consumption. The paper concludes that a growing interest in traditional foods is emerging at the confluence of fashionable, ‘ethical’ food trends which, if harnessed sensitively, has potential to promote more sustainable foodways.

When the queen of transvestites revealed it all? Performative politics of queer life writing in Turkey’s era of confession

ABSTRACT After the coup d’état of 1980, as a neoliberal regime was gradually established in Turkey, confession gained unprecedented power as a disciplinary technology. Several queer subjects created auto/biographical texts and performances as they negotiated the gendered and sexualised politics of confessional citizenship. Ümit Oğuztan’s documentary novel Kraliçe Sisi [Queen Sisi] (1991) was of exceptional significance. Oğuztan claimed to narrate the high-end trans sex worker Seyhan Soylu’s life and her sexual experiences with Turkey’s elite. The author employed archival and ethnographic research methods and performative writing techniques to create a truth effect while preventing trouble with the law. By queering iconic figures, Kraliçe Sisi proposed an alternative perspective on the past and explored the possibility of a different future. This example of liberal pornography queered its readers by providing an opportunity for identification and empathy, and by producing non-normative sexual desires in and through their bodies. The accounts of the book’s trans readers show how this notorious text performed a work of activism and changed lives. Rather than an unconditional investment in liberatory politics, however, Kraliçe Sisi harbours strong ambivalences and discriminatory discourses, revealing the diverse, at times unsettling forms queer literature and memory practices can take.

Envisioning ‘Jefore’ and Its Attributes: Evidence from Gurage Rural Landscape

Contemporary understandings of landscapes are focusing on their attributes for sustainable human-environment interactions. This article explores the socio-cultural, aesthetic, and therapeutic attributes of Jefore as a peculiar socio-ecological landscape of Gurage countryside. As research design and tools of data collection, ethnographic research design and ethnographic data collection tools such as key informant interviews, focus group discussions, observations, and a transect walk were used to generate data from three districts of West Gurageland. Scoring from diverse data sources, Jefore is the long-existing local landscape tradition. It has diverse attributes that embeds aspects of Gurage's life such as identity, social interactions, socio-cultural and economic productions, livelihoods, and well-being. For socio-cultural attributes, it remains the core of cultural production and reproduction, social interactions, social alliances, identity as well as heritages for the group. Aesthetic and therapeutic attributes magnify the wider well-being associations of the landscapes for its embodiment effects. Largely, maintaining Jefore landscape tradition ensuring sustainable socio-ecological landscape values and attributes that serve long generations. Hence, diverse stakeholders need to consider indigeneity of Jefore landscape and its diverse attributes in the midst of their decisions and interventions.

Infrastructures, Riverscapes, and the Governance of Mobility: The Evros/Meriç River and the Infrastructuring of Nature

AbstractThis paper investigates the interplay between infrastructures, geophysical environments, and mobility regimes by focusing on the Evros/Meriç River, as the border between Turkey, Greece, and the EU. Situated in the fields of Infrastructure Studies, Mobility Studies, and Critical Border Studies, this paper examines how border regimes are enrolled in the riverscape, thereby shaping who can cross the river‐as‐border and under what conditions. Through an interdisciplinary research practice of “montaging”, which integrates ethnographic research, literary and visual analysis, cartography, and textual analysis, this paper analyses how geophysical environments and socio‐technical formations co‐constitute racialising border regimes. Using the conceptual framework of infrastructure as ecology, this paper highlights the relationality between geophysical environments, border regimes, and how people‐on‐the‐move navigate these landscapes. In so doing, this paper explores a critical way of thinking about “natural borders” and “infrastructures” and aims to put forward analytical tools for documenting and analysing bordering practices.

“The Return of my Grandfather Napoleon”: Ancestor worship, impiety, and collective possession in North Honduras

AbstractThis paper analyzes Dolores's case of collective spirit possession as a paroxysmic form of possession idiom, serving as a powerful and creative internal mechanism that both safeguards and revitalizes the core structure of ancestor worship. Drawing on my ethnographic research in North Honduras since 2009, my study reveals that rather than leading to the erosion of possession rituals, entropic forces, such as resistance, modernity, and impiety serve as vital resources, reinforcing the foundations of ancestor worship. This paper explores possession idioms and striking events, such as contagion, abduction, dramatization, illness, and death to highlight the resilience of a possession‐based religion as a self‐sustaining total social system rooted in “tradition,” yet shaped by a dynamic interplay of historical, cultural, and personal experiences. While traditional interpretations of spirit possession have viewed possession cults as forms of protest against hegemonic power—“a weapon of the weak” used to gain respect and process trauma—I suggest that spirit possession is multifaceted, ambiguous and underdetermined, operating within a social theater where critique, social irony, impiety, historical consciousness, and the carnivalesque intersect.

(Un)mapping the Punjab Onto Singapore’s Gurdwaras: Diasporic Territorialities and Decolonial Spaces of Sikh Socialisation

ABSTRACT This paper explores an alternative territorial sensibility – ‘diasporic territoriality’ – that is rooted in the search for belonging outside of a putative ‘homeland’ amongst dis/placed communities. Drawing on ethnographic research with 26 members of Singapore’s Sikh diaspora, we examine the everyday spaces of diasporic belonging that simultaneously reproduce and resist colonial imaginings of Punjabi territory. Many first-generation diasporas continue to define themselves through regional affiliations inherited from colonial legacies, with Singapore’s gurdwaras serving as a spatial ‘fix’ for mapping territorial logics from the Punjab. However, these colonial imaginaries are increasingly contested and ‘unmapped’ by younger generations who seek to socialise in alternative spaces of belonging based on shared pieties and upbringing. By reimagining belonging beyond essentialist framings of home-diaspora connections, the idea of ‘diasporic territoriality’ contributes to decolonising prevailing understandings of territory and belonging. Doing so provides a provocative counterpoint to re-evaluate state-sponsored narratives of integration within the context of multiculturalism.

Pedagogies of awareness and subterfuge: The interpretive labor of domestic worker organizing in Buenos Aires

AbstractIn 2013, Argentina passed Law 26844, transforming domestic workers' status from “servants,” with almost nonexistent labor rights to “workers,” with rights virtually equal to all other workers under the law. Since then, domestic workers' legal equality has stood against the intersectional inequalities they still endure vis‐à‐vis their employers and that challenge advancement to their labor rights. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Buenos Aires between 2016 and 2018 with domestic workers' rights advocates, this article investigates how they contend with these challenges. It examines the interpretive labor they engage in as they encourage workers to undertake situated strategies to advance their labor rights. These strategies consist of increasing workers' knowledge of their rights while, simultaneously, encouraging them to execute dissembling practices to claim and access them. These dissembling practices allow workers to perform the appropriate behaviors according to intersecting master categories of social differentiation in a context of systemic intersectional inequality. Concurrently, they enable workers to avoid direct confrontation with their employers, thus helping them to enforce their rights without jeopardizing their means of subsistence. Through these pedagogies of awareness and subterfuge, advocates create a space in which the law can be effected, promoting workers' agency without compromising their livelihoods.

Stand-up comedy in Finland: the local Adaptation of a global genre

This paper presents an anthropological study of stand-up comedy in Finland as a particular case in the global spread of stand-up to ask, how is the genre adapted to local contexts? In recent decades not only the consumption but also the performance of stand-up comedy has become a global phenomenon; numerous countries have local comedy scenes and stand-up is performed in various languages and different cultural contexts. Based on archival sources and original ethnographic research I discuss the 30-year history of stand-up in Finland and how widespread knowledge of English and consumption of international media have contributed to its development. Stand-up in Finland is performed in Finnish and Swedish, as well as English, which has become the lingua franca for many comedians when performing abroad or to international audiences. I also look at the particularities of language and culture that have both challenged and enabled embracing stand-up in a nation known for its reticence.

Theories of mind and trauma after war in Uganda.

After years of armed conflict in northern Uganda, many local people have turned to Evangelical churches for help with healing and recovery. We observe that the healing practices in these churches encourage particular notions of what the mind is, how the mind works and whether it is bounded or porous to the outside world. In the traditional cultural setting in which these people grew to adulthood, many accept that vengeance can attack supernaturally from without. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the region between 2015 and 2025, this article argues that these new ideas about mind (broadly conceived) may help some community members recover (to some extent) from traumatic experiences arising from the armed conflict by modeling trauma as not supernatural, and modeling the mind as protected by God from attack. Learning a new way of understanding the mind and its boundaries with the outside world-e.g., as more closed and bounded-and learning to practice a certain amount of control over this boundary, may have a significant effect on the experiences of mental distress This argument contributes to debates on anthropology of mind, and on the way local theories of mind may shape mental experience.

A Participação de Ativistas e Povos Indígenas na Governança Climática no Chile

Abstract There is a growing consensus about the relevance of the participation of non-state actors in climate governance. However, multiple barriers at the national and global levels still hinder the effectiveness of this engagement. Based on ethnographic research, this article analyses how non-state actors from two organisations −Ecos and the Chilean Indigenous Collective on Climate Change− perceive their participation in national climate governance. We conducted thirty-six semi-structured interviews with participants of two groups committed to climate action, one led by civil society organisations and the other convened by the state and composed of Indigenous Peoples leaders, and also engaged in participant observation. Although their motivations are diverse, all share the common goal of addressing socio-ecological inequalities through responses that emerge from their territories. However, these groups show that both national climate change policy and the international climate governance scenario continue to consider the participation of non-state actors as marginal, symbolic, and instrumental.

In Search of Better Options: An Ethnographic Inquiry of Migrants from Bharse, Gulmi, Nepal

This is an extended abstract of my doctoral research, which explored the experiences of migrants seeking better opportunities both within their community of origin and beyond. It examined how migrants sought better opportunities in their community of origin and established their social positionality in new cultural contexts while navigating opportunities, challenges, and future aspirations that have received little academic attention. The purpose was to uncover how migrants faced challenges and developed strategies for the future as they pursued better prospects across multiple locations. To understand this phenomenon, four research questions: a) how do migrants experience detachment while maintaining social networks with their community of origin? b) how do they establish their positionality in new communities? c) how do they perceive both opportunities and constraints? and d) how do they develop strategies for the future? were formulated. Drawing on relevant literature, I used structuration and social capital theories to interpret the stories of migrants from Bharse who have settled in Butwal, Kathmandu, Hong Kong, and London. I employed an ethnographic approach within the interpretative paradigm. The findings indicated that, whether in their community of origin or destination, migrants consistently seek better options for an improved life. My research results will be useful to researchers, policymakers, think tanks, students, and academics who are focused on migration issues.

Cooperation of Volodymyr Yastrebov with Foreign Periodicals

The published work is based on the results of an investigation connected with the study of the scientific heritage of the famous historian, ethnographer, archaeologist, local historian of the mid to late 19th century Volodymyr Mykolaiovych Yastrebov. His life and scientific heritage are still poorly known. In our view, this is caused with the absence of a personal archive of the scholar and the scattered nature of information about his life and activities. Therefore, a phased, detailed consideration of each specific area of V. Yastrebov’s research is crucial for conducting a comprehensive study of his life and scientific heritage. The scientist’s communication with foreign colleagues and the publication of his research materials among foreign scientists and in international periodicals are important components of V. Yastrebov’s scientific heritage and a significant stage in the scientist’s own academic path. The issue of Volodymyr Yastrebov’s collaboration with foreign academic colleagues, international publishing houses, and foreign scientific societies is considered in the article for the first time. The search for and analysis of V. Yastrebov’s published works in foreign editions have become the main focus of the submitted study. Additionally, an important task we have set for ourselves is to identify the reasons motivating the researcher to expand his scientific communication. An opportunity to publish the results of his ethnographic research despite fear of censorship and bans is one of the main reasons. Foreign publishing houses cooperating with the researcher are also identified in the article. The main problems Volodymyr Mykolaiovych has encountered in the process of such work are named, the chronological period during which the historian has scientific contacts abroad are determined, the number and content of the articles published in foreign journals are considered.

Human-animal relations in El Impenetrable National Park, an area of confluence of environmental conservation, tourism and livestock

Since 2011, in the area currently known as El Impenetrable National Park (Chaco, Argentina), certain animals were “protected” and became part of the attractions offered to tourists. This article aims to describe and analyze the relationships between humans and animals in the mentioned area, where environmental conservation and tourism converge with family livestock production. It is an ethnographic research carried out between 2021 and 2023 that encourages us to think about ways to reconcile conservation with human presence in the environment. The physical space of the park underwent changes linked to the productive activities’ humans carried out there. The environmental conservation promoted seeks to eradicate the harmful hunting of "wild animals". Although such animal condition (wild) reflects separation between humans and nature, it is relative (it does not apply to all humans or to all animals) and permeable (through the physical movement of animals and humans across park borders and through the similar treatment that locals give to animals). Finally, the promotion of experiences with animals within the park prioritizes the presence of some to the detriment of others. The criteria of animal differentiation reveal a territorial and animal strategy aimed at transforming sources of income generation.

Racket sociality: investigating intimidation in North India

This article is an ethnographic investigation into acts of intimidation and threats. Theoretically, it dialogues with ‘racket’ – a key analytical term in the sociology of domination, state‐making, and mafias. The anthropology of power, violence, and crime has paid scant attention to the morphology of threats and the ways interpersonal intimidation intertwines with economic and political forms of coercion. Drawing on ethnographic insights from North India, the article examines the way (criminal) intimidation is normalized, consented to, and socially embedded in everyday life. It shows how racketeering is routinized beyond clandestine organized crime. Ultimately, ‘racket sociality’ is proposed as a new method of ethnographic inquiry into theorizing authority and legitimacy in an age of populist strongmen politics and predatory forms of capitalism.

In Focus

Women music photojournalists in the 80s escaped gender discrimination in the workforce because their work took place outside the newsroom. This finding merits an in-depth examination of women's photojournalist perspective during this time. This paper provides a unique perspective by analyzing the gender perceptions of the participants' professional experiences in photojournalism. The testimonies of five self-identified women, born between 1953 and 1963, who worked as music photographers between the 1970s and 1980s form the basis of this analysis. Their experiences offer valuable insight into the gender dynamics of the time. An analysis of the sample testimonies reveals that the public spaces where male and female photographers worked (e.g., concert halls, bars) had no significant impact on gender discrimination since editors worked with an economy of means compared to the work environments where men and women are forced to interact and socialize such as newsrooms. The findings of this study shed light on the gender dynamics in the music photography industry during the 1970s-1980s. They contribute to ethnographic research of subcultures and increase public interest in gender studies, particularly about education, professional performance, and perceptions of gender roles. The study underscores the need for further research and discussion on this topic.

Afeto e cultura na construção política da Comunidade de Samba do Pagode da 27

This article aims to discuss the factors that drive and shape the political struggle of peripheral cultural collectives. To this end, it presents the results of my master’s research, completed in 2023. The ethnographic research was conducted with Pagode da 27, a samba community located in Grajaú, in the southernmost part of São Paulo. Contributing to the debate on peripheral cultural collectives and political agency in the peripheries of large Brazilian cities, the analysis reveals that the affective relationships among the members and their connection with the cultural practice of samba form the foundation of both community building and the political formation of the individuals and the collective. The research methodology involved observing the daily activities of the members and the practices related to the Pagode da 27 samba community, as well as conducting conversations, interviews, and analyzing the group’s songs.