Anthropologists have documented the tendency of certain populations to conceptualize state authorities as an Other, a ‘they’, distinct from ‘us’, the struggling majority. This study examines contemporary Cuba to shed light on this phenomenon. Based on fieldwork among market traders in Havana, I analyse the inclination to characterize state power as an ominous ‘they’ as a response to a form of statecraft that presents itself as homogeneous and insurmountable yet remains unaccountable to ordinary people, within a worsening political economy. By using the third‐person plural to comment on the state system's illegitimacies and failures, Cubans performatively distance themselves from official rule. These linguistic habits underscore the importance of moving beyond the analytical approach of deconstructing binaries of ‘us’ and ‘them’, ‘state’ and ‘people’, and rather explore how citizens use them as semiotic resources to invoke and critique power.
{"title":"Othering the state: invoking power in Cuba and beyond","authors":"Ståle Wig","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70028","url":null,"abstract":"Anthropologists have documented the tendency of certain populations to conceptualize state authorities as an Other, a ‘they’, distinct from ‘us’, the struggling majority. This study examines contemporary Cuba to shed light on this phenomenon. Based on fieldwork among market traders in Havana, I analyse the inclination to characterize state power as an ominous ‘they’ as a response to a form of statecraft that presents itself as homogeneous and insurmountable yet remains unaccountable to ordinary people, within a worsening political economy. By using the third‐person plural to comment on the state system's illegitimacies and failures, Cubans performatively distance themselves from official rule. These linguistic habits underscore the importance of moving beyond the analytical approach of deconstructing binaries of ‘us’ and ‘them’, ‘state’ and ‘people’, and rather explore how citizens use them as semiotic resources to invoke and critique power.","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146014313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 1987, the academic conference ‘Origins and Dispersals of Modern Humans: Behavioural and Biological Perspectives’ was held in Cambridge, UK. Subsequently referred to as the ‘Human Revolution’ conference, this meeting brought together the most prominent academics working in the field of human origins, including archaeologists and palaeoanthropologists, as well as the geneticists who had recently published the first significant reconstruction of human evolution from mitochondrial DNA. The conference was particularly notable as the first platform to openly debate the fossil and revolutionary genetic evidence that pertained to two emerging theories of human origins, ‘Multiregionalism’ and ‘Recent African Origin’ – commonly known as ‘Out of Africa’. The importance of this conference was recognized at the time, and as such, BBC Radio 3 commissioned interviews with speakers and participants during the breaks; here we publish these interviews in full. Thirty‐eight years on and the current major theories of human origins still trace back to those discussed at the Human Revolution conference. The article provides a fascinating historical perspective on scientific thought at the time and serves as a reminder of how quickly our current knowledge can be challenged and modified with the discovery of new fossil material or the rapid development of analytical techniques.
{"title":"And then there was us","authors":"Emma E. Bird, Julia Galway‐Witham, Chris Stringer","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70025","url":null,"abstract":"In 1987, the academic conference ‘Origins and Dispersals of Modern Humans: Behavioural and Biological Perspectives’ was held in Cambridge, UK. Subsequently referred to as the ‘Human Revolution’ conference, this meeting brought together the most prominent academics working in the field of human origins, including archaeologists and palaeoanthropologists, as well as the geneticists who had recently published the first significant reconstruction of human evolution from mitochondrial DNA. The conference was particularly notable as the first platform to openly debate the fossil and revolutionary genetic evidence that pertained to two emerging theories of human origins, ‘Multiregionalism’ and ‘Recent African Origin’ – commonly known as ‘Out of Africa’. The importance of this conference was recognized at the time, and as such, BBC Radio 3 commissioned interviews with speakers and participants during the breaks; here we publish these interviews in full. Thirty‐eight years on and the current major theories of human origins still trace back to those discussed at the Human Revolution conference. The article provides a fascinating historical perspective on scientific thought at the time and serves as a reminder of how quickly our current knowledge can be challenged and modified with the discovery of new fossil material or the rapid development of analytical techniques.","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145986241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"De Onís, Catalina. Energy Islands: metaphors of power, extractivism and justice in Puerto Rico. 300 pp., bibliogr. Oakland: University of California Press, 2021. £25.00 (paper)","authors":"Sandy Smith‐Nonini","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70043","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145972151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Agbiboa, Daniel E.They eat our sweat: transport labor, corruption, and everyday survival in urban Nigeria. 280 pp., illus., bibliogr. Oxford: University Press, 2022. £97.00 (hardback)","authors":"Daniel Jordan Smith","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70036","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145955066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Shore, Cris & SusanWright. Audit culture: how indicators and rankings are reshaping the world. 256 pp., bibliogr. London: Pluto Press, 2024. £19.99 (paper)","authors":"Hala Soufan, Mohammad Al Hamoush","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70057","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145955073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bartel, Rebecca.Card‐carrying Christians: debt and the making of free market spirituality in Colombia. 312 pp., bibliogr. Oakland: University of California Press, 2021. $29.95 (paper)","authors":"Anna‐Riikka Kauppinen","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70039","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145955064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"McDonell, Emma. The Quinoa bust: the making and unmaking of an Andean miracle crop. 328 pp., bibliogr. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2025. £25.00 (paper)","authors":"Linda Seligmann","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70051","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145955069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gould, Hannah. When death falls apart: making and unmaking the necromaterial tradition of contemporary Japan. 208 pp., bibliogr. Chicago: University Press, 2023. $30.00 (paper)","authors":"Rawan Hammoud, Rayan Charara, Sami Sbeity","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70037","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"265 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145955075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stoller, Paul.Wisdom from the edge: writing ethnography in turbulent times. 204 pp., bibliogr. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2023. $21.95 (paper)","authors":"Elham Adimi Naghani","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70056","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"243 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145955068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：