- I cannot say I will be nostalgic this Sunday morning, but Savage Minds and our incredible contributors never stopped writing and confronted every step with a critical eye. In order to mark the coming year, Savage Minds compiled a list of our favorite pieces written in 2016.
The ongoing “Decolonizing Anthropology” series by Carole and Uzma continues to push anthropology to confront the historical trauma of our disciplines and how we can address this in the present. Movements like #NODAPL only highlight the importance of facing our colonial past. Decolonization as Care was one of our favorites of the series.
Beyond the Decolonize series, Uzma and Carole were writing nonstop on their own pieces. Uzma’s favorites include The day after Leonard Cohen Died (as if 2016 was not hard enough) and “Situational Awareness” about the increasing militarization of daily life.
Among Rex’s favorites, his writing knows no genre with his work ranging from the timeline of anthropological theory, critiques of University of Chicago’s trigger warning letter, and a written memorial for Bernard Bate.
Earlier in the year, the resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions by the American Anthropological Association was rejected. A three-part series by Kerim illustrates why he voted for the boycott.
Part 3: It’s in the Resolution
Rex reflects on the AAA vote in What we learned from #anthroboycott in a poetic turn.
Kerim teaching at National Dong Hwa University means he also writes about updates on cultural politics of Taiwan including his talk at Taiwan’s annual anthropology conference in Seeing Culture Like a State and the relation of gender and hair in youth culture in Freddy’s Hair. (My favorite part of living in time zones 14 hours apart is my insomnia making me very responsive to direct e-mails)
Matthew, our resident museum cataloger raves over arXiv and its potential to expand collaboration between anthropologists. Matt also pulls out Max Weber again in Infrastructure as Iron Cage in order to explain the constraints of capitalism in our daily lives.
Cthulhu, graces us with their presence in 2016 by reviewing Donna Haraways’s Making Kin in the Cthulhucene.
The guest contributors this year wrote some the most provocative, brave, and thought provoking work to match the turbulence of 2016. Some standouts among Savage Minds contributors include:
- We’re in Crisis! Time to Slow Down: Discernment in a Trumpian Age by Edgar Rivera Colón
- #teachingthedisaster by Zoë Wool
- Race, Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, Trump, Prison Abolition, Welfare Reform, Pulse Orlando: #Teachingthedisaster through Crowdsourced Syllabi by Carole McGranahan
- Foundations of an Anarchist Archaeology: A Community Manifesto by The Black Trowel Collective (Decolonizing Anthropology)
- Journey between Two Languages by Asmeret Ghebreigziabiher Mehari (Decolonizing Anthropology)
- Reclaiming Detroit: Decolonizing Archaeology in the Postindustrial City by Krysta Ryzewski (Decolonizing Anthropology)
- Give and Take by Leslie J. Sabiston and Didier M. Sylvain (Decolonizing Anthropology)
- The Self at Stake: Thinking Fieldwork and Sexual Violence; Paranoid Reading, Writing, and Research: Secrecy in the Field; and Affect, Attention, and Ethnographic Research: Thoughts on Mental Health in the Field by Alix Johnson
- Hunting as an Indigenous Right on Taiwan: A Call to Action by Scott Simon
As 2017 comes around the corner and the consequences of the previous year come into fruition, be sure that Savage Minds and our contributors will be there to reflect, debate, and critique with an anthropological twist.
Have a Happy New Year everyone!