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In Vietnam, a country where religious expression is widespread, many gods and goddesses are commonly worshipped. Among those, Bà Tổ Cô (Family Goddess) is widely worshipped in the North of Vietnam due to her exceptional background as unmarried, young, and having spiritual roots, unlike other national and heroic figures. This article examines the sanctity of the Family Goddess by decoding the terms, worshippers, beliefs and practices, sacred encounters and supports. The research is a final result of decade-long field trips, archival study, and in-depth interviews with various stakeholders. The research findings show that the veneration of the Family Goddess in Northern Vietnam is a continuity of a long-standing tradition of worshipping female deities in Asia and thus emphasising the need to maintain this unique intangible heritage as a crucial part of Vietnamese cultural diversity.

This article examines interspecies cooperation in camel herding in Somaliland. It presents the case of a particular joint activity in this task-scape: moving a camel herd, by leading and driving it, from the night-camp to the daytime grazing area and back. The analytical aim is to clarify the role that skills and nonhuman agency play in the constitution of cooperative human-camel relationships. On the basis of empirical data, collected in a multispecies ethnographic project by following and observing one herd and herder closely, this article demonstrates how nonhuman agency, as an individual capacity to engage in an activity and an epistemological potential, manifests in this human-camel cooperative task. Cooperation is made possible through human-camel sociality and intersubjectivity, through the ability to interpret and respond to each other, and it depends on the empathetic acknowledgement of the enabling or disabling powers of each counterpart, her or his agency. Leading and driving camels is a skilled practice requiring the responding and enabling capacities of the cooperation partner. Hence, it is a case of distributed skills – distributed in the sense that skills of humans and nonhumans are intertwined in this practice, that they complement each other.

In der medialen Öffentlichkeit besitzt das Thema Demenz hohe Präsenz. Menschen mit Demenz selbst kommen dabei aber kaum zu Wort. Diese vernachlässigten Stimmen bieten die Basis von Valerie Kellers kulturwissenschaftlicher Studie zur Selbstsorge bei Demenz. Anhand von Gesprächen mit Betroffenen zeigt sie auf, wie Menschen mit Demenz auf sich und andere einwirken, um mit zentralen Herausforderungen ihrer Situation umzugehen. Ohne Ängste, Zerrüttungen und Nöte zu verschweigen, legt sie dar, wie erfüllt ein Leben mit Demenz sein kann. Der Schlüssel dazu liegt nicht zuletzt in den sozialen Umfeldern, die die Selbstsorgebestrebungen von Menschen mit Demenz erkennen und unterstützen.

A common response to the current global ecological crisis is the conservation of areas still somewhat spared from anthropogenic damage, in spite of an abundant literature evidencing the social and ecological shortcomings of top-down approaches to nature conservation. As part of the Kailash Sacred Landscape Initiative, the Limi Valley of north-western Nepal is currently under consideration for the establishment of one such area. This paper warns about an understanding of conservation as a segregation of humans and nature, which is at odds with local perceptions of landscape as relational. Through the perspective of pastoral practices in the Limi Valley, I show how the Limey – the people of this Valley – conceive of humans as enmeshed within a network of interacting beings under the guiding principles of ecological ethics of care. This conception is framed by religion (a syncretic mixture of Mahayana Buddhism, Bön religion and Animism), as well as by skills of ecological and spiritual embeddedness which are central to pastoral practice. I also warn against the fallacy of considering locals’ relationship to the environment, informed by Buddhism, as intrinsically more prone to eco-friendly practices. I show how this relationship is dynamic and evolving, and influenced by the economic and political context of the last thirty years. This has led to the progressive obsolescence of pastoralism as the main means of livelihood, with consequences for the local inhabitants’ relationship to landscape and to other-than-human species. Une réponse courante à la crise écologique mondiale actuelle est la protection de zones encore quelque peu épargnées par les dommages anthropogéniques, et ce même si une abondante littérature met en évidence les lacunes sociales et écologiques des tentatives d'imposition de zones protégées. Dans le cadre de la Kailash Sacred Landscape Initiative, la création d’une telle zone est actuellement envisagée dans la vallée de Limi, dans le nord-ouest du Népal. Cet article met en garde contre une conception de la préservation de la nature qui consiste en une ségrégation entre les humains et la nature, en contradiction avec les perceptions locales du paysage comme relationnelles. À travers la perspective des pratiques pastorales dans la vallée de Limi, je montre comment les Limey - les habitants de cette vallée - conçoivent les humains comme faisant partie d'un réseau d'êtres en interaction selon les principes directeurs d’une éthique écologique du soin. Cette conception est encadrée par la religion (un mélange syncrétique de bouddhisme Mahayana, de religion Bön et d'animisme), ainsi que par des compétences d'intégration écologique et spirituelle au cœur de la pratique pastorale. Je mets également en garde contre l'erreur consistant à considérer que la relation des locaux à l'environnement, informée par le bouddhisme, est intrinsèquement plus encline aux pratiques écologiques. Je montre comment cette relation est dynamique et évolutive, et influencée par le contexte économique et politique des trente dernières années. Elle a conduit à l'obsolescence progressive du pastoralisme comme principal moyen de subsistance, avec des conséquences sur la relation des habitants locaux au paysage et aux espèces non-humaines.

French colonial doctors writing about nineteenth century Algeria portrayed coffee as a hygienic drink, which protected and stimulated French soldiers and settlers in the hostile climate. Doctors therefore advocated the distribution of coffee to soldiers because it was seen as advantageous to France’s colonisation of the region. By contrast, when Algerian Muslims drank coffee, they were described in the same source material as lethargic and overly sociable. The history of coffee in colonial Algeria should be seen as a case study of a shared consumption between colonisers and colonised, yet one with vastly different outcomes.

This article considers the way the outbreak of coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown have egregiously impeded the intimate life practices of Kotis, people who possess a distinct gender-variant identity in India The Kotis, who subsist mostly on begging or sex work through cross-dressing, counter the hegemonic heteronormative 'bodyscape' that fetishizes bodily diff erences and reinforces normative intimate practices Using narratives and documentary evidence on their lives, this article elaborates how Koti livelihoods and the intimate practices circumambient of such livelihoods are withering away because of the pandemic Tragically today, they are branded as 'corona transmitters', and their intimate practices are stigmatised as 'infectious' A restraint on their physical movement and gathering in public spaces due to the pandemic has ramifi cations not only for their livelihood, but also for their intimate practices and identity assertions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Anthropology in Action is the property of Berghahn Books and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )

For years, the Cambodian state has signed away indigenous peoples’ land to large-scale plantations. At the same time, the state has set up an intricate titling process that would allow indigenous peoples to officially register their land and protect it against dispossession. The Bunong ethnic minority from Bu Sra in Northeast Cambodia started to engage in such a land titling process around ten years ago. When they tried to register as an ‘indigenous community’ with the Ministry of Interior, it became apparent that defining the boundaries of a community is a highly political matter. Bunong villagers, non-profit organization staff and state bureaucrats all engaged in politics of ‘community’ and space-making in this ongoing struggle over territory. Arguing that the process of recognition of community and territory is strongly contested and involves contrasting ontologies of community, place and belonging, I focus on the incommensurability between Bunong notions of legitimate claimants/claims and actual titled communities and territories that legalization produced. I give ethnographic evidence of generational power dynamics, NGO involvement and fraught mapping processes by drawing on concepts of hegemony, consent and refusal. Problematizing the making of indigenous communities for the sake of titling, I discuss the practical and theoretical implications of this process of recognition.

Through a case study of pastoralists in the Limi valley of north-western Nepal, this article revisits the notion of domestication with regards to Limey pastoral practice. Taken in its etymological sense, of “making part of one’s home” (domus), domestication could be seen to draw a line between the inside and the outside. Yet, in Limi, these lines are blurred and shifting in nature: those that are a part of the home are not defined ontologically but relationally. Beyond strictly human–animal relations, domestication is here extended to involve politics and moralities of human differences such as gender and age, politics of relations to spiritual entities, and politics of nature. In Limi, pastoral practice inserts humans in a constellation of relations of co-domestication governed by religious precepts and gender norms, conceived as foundational to multispecies coinhabitation. Domestication is not a solely anthropogenic process but a composition of multiple—including nonhuman—agencies. And yet, pastoralism, as it is practiced today, also contributes to creating a space of hybridity and fluidity of social and ontological boundaries—between women and men, humans and livestock, domestic and wild animals, land and spiritual entities. This article, through a case study of Limey pastoralists’ gendered relation with herds and an animated landscape, adds to the understanding of domestication as not merely the domination of the human over the non-human but as an art of multispecies coinhabitation.

In this article, we draw upon ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Mongolia and China to develop understandings of herd–herder (mal–malchin) relations further. We focus primarily on horse-herding practices and related divisions of labour, and the three concepts of herd intuition (zön), serenity (taa) and fortune (buyan, khishig, zaya), to present additional interpretations of human–animal relations in Mongolia. Through this exploration, we develop the concept of herd agency and examine how it relates to specific horse-herding knowledge and techniques, as well as the cosmological significance of human–animal relations. All three concepts reveal the importance of cosmological agents with herd–herder relations. We conclude by emphasising the changing nature and politics of human–animal relations in these regions.

Labour of Love: An Open Access Manifesto for Freedom, Integrity, and Creativity in the Humanities and Interpretive Social Sciences, is the result of an LSE Research Infrastructure and Investment–funded workshop entitled Academic Freedom, Academic Integrity and Open Access in the Social Sciences, organised by Andrea E. Pia and held at the London School of Economics on September 9, 2019., Un atto d’amore: Manifesto Open Access per la libertà, l’integrità e la creatività nelle scienze umane e nelle scienze sociali interpretative, è il risultato di un workshop finanziato da LSE Research Infrastructure and Investment Funds dal titolo Academic Freedom, Academic Integrity and Open Access in the Social Sciences, organizzato da Andrea E. Pia e tenuto presso la London School of Economics il 9 settembre 2019.

In upland northern Vietnam ethnic minority farmers are cultivating what some global retailers refer to as the ‘champagne of cinnamon’. However, a closer examination reveals that this spice is not ‘true cinnamon’ but cassia, with the exact species remaining uncertain. Drawing on commodity chain literature and debates over the creation of value and quality, the aims of this article are twofold. First, it investigates the making of ‘Vietnamese cinnamon’ as it moves from the hills of northern Vietnam to supermarket shelves in the global North, and the actors and livelihoods involved. Second, it explores how different actors define ‘Vietnamese cinnamon’ and infuse it with often‐contradictory values. Based on multi‐sited ethnographic fieldwork over a four‐year period, the study finds that the state and cooperating non‐government organizations tend to ignore ongoing taxonomic confusion while creating a geographical indicator to highlight the uniqueness of this commodity. Yet, concurrently, exporters and retailers in the global North focus on other distinctions as key marketing tools including remoteness, ethnicity, taste and health benefits. The article thus calls for an expanded analytical focus on competing value creation for agro‐food products and on the impacts for commodity producers, in this case ethnic minority farmers in the global South.

This special issue of the journal is about one of the most significant, yet largely overlooked, international rights instruments concerning indigenous peoples: the ILO Convention 169 on the rights ...

China’s borderlands have received increased investment and policy attention since Beijing formally launched the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013. This special issue, comprised of four research arti...

On 28 September 2018, an earthquake and tsunami hit West Sulawesi, destroying homes, mosques and livelihoods, displacing 80,000 people and killing at least 2000. Immediately, thousands of volunteer...