Anthropology Today最新文献

Lobster fishers in Maine on the northeast coast of the US find themselves in an awkward form of vulnerability. While the ocean creatures that their livelihoods so heavily rely on fare reasonably well as a population, lobster fishers have come to see themselves as an endangered species. Concerned with the alleged lethal damage fishing gear does to the endangered North Atlantic right whales, environmental organizations have advocated for restrictions on the use of fishing technologies like ropes and traps in ways that could be detrimental to the state's otherwise thriving lobster fishing industry. Easily misread as a conflict between extractive capture on the one hand and multispecies care on the other, this article shows that a closer examination of the fishing practices of these communities reveals that practices of capture and practices of care intersect and overlap in often ambiguous ways.

Farming sea cucumbers for export to China is an emerging form of artisanal aquaculture on the Swahili coast in Tanzania. The government's Blue Economy development paradigm encourages this approach, promising a ‘triple win’ of increased income in fishing communities, marine conservation and economic growth. Sea cucumber farming is thus discursively framed in terms of caring for both humans and the environment. But how do such ideals of care translate into practice? What are the limitations of caring for the political ecology of the blue economy? This article investigates sea cucumber farming as a practice of care and domestication in amphibious Swahili ocean worlds. It argues that contrary to the rhetoric of the Blue Economy, farming sea cucumbers has yet to improve local livelihoods, while it risks the very lives of these ocean creatures. The article shows the importance of paying closer attention to human engagements with various ocean creatures to appreciate the economic and ecological impact of human-ocean relationships in the global context of blue capitalism.

Restoration is gaining prominence as an approach to protect and rehabilitate marine ecologies in the Global North. It represents a shift from hands-off conservation to a more hands-on intervention to bring back species and habitats that are assumed to be degraded or lost. Understanding restoration as a practice of care illuminates the politics involved in how categorizations shape decisions about which forms of nature deserve rehabilitation. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in 2022, the authors explore these politics through examining oyster restoration in southeast England and the Netherlands. They show how efforts to restore the ‘native’ European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) in the North Sea starkly contrast with the categorization of Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) as unwanted ‘aliens’. Drawing from science and technology studies, they argue that such native/alien categorizations are not merely representational but performative, actively shaping the realities they purport to describe. They trace how the native-alien distinction developed historically and became tied to oyster restoration work across Europe's North Sea. Their analysis uncovers the values buried within decisions regarding which creatures belong in marine restoration and which do not. It shows how these categories determine which relationships between humans and marine creatures get included in restoration work.

This guest editorial examines how anthropologists approach the study of cryptocurrency communities, revealing a tendency to treat ‘crypto people’ as unworthy subjects deserving only critique rather than serious ethnographic enquiry. Drawing on fieldwork experiences within crypto communities, the author challenges the discipline's selective application of ethical principles and questions why certain groups are deemed less deserving of anthropological understanding. The article argues that anthropology's political homogeneity and growing reluctance to engage with challenging subjects threatens the discipline's cosmopolitan ideals. It calls for a more inclusive approach to fieldwork and subject selection – one that welcomes dissenting voices and extends anthropological curiosity to all people, including those the discipline might find politically or ideologically unpalatable.

This article examines how for contemporary Danish Muslim men, growing a beard becomes a spiritual practice and a marker of visible difference. Drawing on Clifford Geertz's interpretive approach to symbolic meaning, the analysis explores how a beard can function simultaneously as an expression of religious devotion and a contested symbol in public spaces. Through ethnographic research with an offshoot of the global Sufi order referred to as Naqshbandi Mujaddidi Saifi tariqa, the article analyzes how Danish Muslim men navigate between what is termed ‘mundane otherness’ – the everyday experience of being visibly Muslim in a secular society – and ‘transcendent Otherness’ – the spiritual goal of emulating the Prophet Muhammad. The analysis reveals how visible markers of faith, rather than simply acting as signs of difference, can serve as active means of spiritual transformation, even as they subject practitioners to various forms of discrimination and contestation.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Las Pajas between 2013 and 2023, this article examines how Dominican bateyes – settlements within sugar plantations – have transformed colonial-era labour camps into paradoxical sanctuaries for Haitian migrants and their descendants. An analysis of sugar industry privatization and recent citizenship policies demonstrates how these spaces continue to mediate between labour exploitation and social exclusion while serving as sites of relative protection from deportation. As the 2024 Haitian crisis intensifies cross-border tensions, the case reveals how the historical legacies of colonialism intersect with contemporary legal frameworks to maintain vulnerable labour pools through bureaucratic rather than physical segregation.

Field Station Berlin – a National Security Agency/US Army listening post atop Berlin's rubble-built Teufelsberg (‘Devil's Mountain’) – shows how societies transform surveillance infrastructure into spaces of memory. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork and his experience as a former US Army intelligence operative at the site, the author reveals how visitors make sense of this Cold War ruin. Through Alison Landsberg's concept of ‘prosthetic memory’, the analysis shows how tourists piece together meaning from accumulated cultural references, while classified aspects of the station's operations remain beyond reach. As Teufelsberg has transformed from spy station to tourist site, it illustrates how cities grapple with their military past. Tourists now explore what was once Berlin's most secret spy station, while protesters turn its walls into canvases for anti-war art.

Futures-thinking methods offer transformative potential for anthropological research yet need to be more utilized in our field. Collaborative Futures Scenario Thinking (CFST) combined with the Qualitative Delphi (QD) method provides an accessible and dynamic approach to understanding how communities imagine and shape their futures. Anthropologists have long been sceptical of these methods because corporations have co-opted them. Yet their fundamental purpose fits naturally with anthropology's efforts to decolonize the field. By breaking down the barriers between researchers and participants, these approaches create opportunities for more diverse voices in knowledge creation. Through two ethnographic examples – a housing project in Indonesia and a healthcare study – this article demonstrates how these methods create spaces for marginalized voices and collective action. However, successful implementation requires careful attention to power dynamics and sustained commitment to participatory principles. This methodological innovation suggests promising pathways for anthropology's engagement with future-making practices.