HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
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Human rights for nonhumans?
No full textThe legal grounds for the self-determination processes of two different indigenous peoples in Peruvian Amazonia reveal how the social relationships they establish with nonhumans enable them to exercise their current rights as “indigenous peoples” in international law. After examining the scope of the recent 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples both in this regard and from a historical perspective, I analyze in particular the notion of “spirituality” used in international law to qualify the relationship between humans and nonhumans among indigenous peoples. Finally, I argue that this recent change in the rights of indigenous peoples, considered as human rights, is the sign of a more widespread change in the nature of a subject of law
Analysis of the dreams of a Guayaki Indian woman
No full textThe following is a translation of Lucien Sebag’s “Analyse des rêves d’une Indienne Guayaki,” originally printed in Les Temps modernes, CCXVII, June 1964
The canon and the mushroom: Lenin, sacredness, and the Soviet collapse
No full textThis essay focuses on a paradoxical transformation that happened within Soviet ideological discourse at the very end of perestroika, around 1990–91. The Party’s attempts to revitalize Soviet ideology by returning to the original word of Lenin unexpectedly produced the opposite result. The unquestionable external Truth from which Soviet ideological discourse drew its legitimacy—and that had always been identical with Lenin’s word—suddenly could no longer be known. This shift launched a rapid unraveling of the Soviet communist project. At the center of this unexpected transformation was the search for the true Lenin—a kind of Lenin that Soviet party theorists, bureaucrats, historians, and scientists hoped was still hidden in the midst of his unpublished texts and unknown facts of his biology, life, and death
Gun owners, ethics, and the problem of evil: A response to the Las Vegas shooting
No full textThis article examines the ways in which American gun owners deploy a particular ethical system in their responses to instances of mass gun violence. I argue that anthropology is uniquely situated to provide a better understanding of how this ethical system is produced, thereby allowing us to move beyond the falsely dichotomous terms of the gun control debate. Recently returned from a period of fieldwork with a gun rights activist community in San Diego, California, I use ethnographic data to show that owning a firearm brings with it an ethical system that makes the prospect of giving up guns in the aftermath of a mass shooting even less attractive to my informants. Furthermore, this article focuses on what has been called “the problem of evil” by demonstrating how my informants order the world into “good guys” and “bad guys.” This opposition becomes personified into a more general notion of good versus evil, thereby placing particular people in the category of the human and others in the category of the inhuman, or monstrous
Connections and disconnections
No full textComment on de la Cadena, Marisol. 2015. Earth beings: Ecologies of practice across Andean worlds. Durham, NC: Duke University Press
Toward an anthropology of intersubjectivity
No full textComment on Duranti, Alessandro. 2015. The anthropology of intentions: Language in a world of others. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Form and meaning of magical acts: A point of view
No full textThis article is a reprint of an essay originally published as “Form and meaning of magical acts: A point of view,” in Horton, Robin and Ruth Finnegan, eds. (1973) Modes of thought: Essays on thinking in Western and non-Western societies. London: Faber & Faber
Afterword: Configuring interiors
No full textAn afterword to the HAU (Volume 7.1) special section on "Unbundling sincerity," edited by Niloofar Haeri.
How to build a book: Notes from an editorial bricoleuse
No full textThis piece offers an editor’s reflections on the ethos and craft of writing. General suggestions, words of encouragement, and detailed tips emerge through a discussion of unexpected affinities between writing and building. An annotated list of further readings accompanies the text