A More Inclusive Story
Anthropology for everyone, how not to ignore monkeypox, and more
July 7, 2022
In this week’s issue of Public Seminar, Harold Pollack shares a personal approach to grief, Ruth Behar describes a journey from scholarship to children’s books, Tatiana Zhurzhenko examines changing narratives of war in Ukraine, and more.
Accessible Anthropology
In an interview with Reeva Dani, anthropologist and author Ruth Behar discusses the productive interplay between ethnography and fiction. “Anthropologists really question themselves: ‘Why am I doing this work? Do I have the right to do this work? What am I giving back to these people? How am I exploiting these people by being here and asking them questions?’ This self-interrogation is a special quality of anthropological work, one that we don’t see enough of in fiction. Sometimes in fiction, authors hide or erase the work and interrogation that they may have done to be able to write their novels. But in ethnography, we often include that interrogation within our texts.” (June 6, 2022)
Latin American Left
“Colombia may well be at a turning point,” reports Aura Angélica Hernández Cárdenas of the country’s recent election: “On August 7, 2022, Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez, the first Black woman to serve in high office, will lead the country’s first left-wing government. Their rise to power mirrors the resurgence of various left-wing politicians in other parts of Latin America, which is undergoing a striking ideological shift.” (June 6, 2022)
Collective Responsibility
As the grim reality of continuing war sets in, Ukrainians are looking to history—and 100 years of oppression—for answers, writes Tatiana Zhurzhenko. “The statements of US president Biden, German chancellor Scholz, and other Western leaders that ‘ordinary Russians do not want the war’—and were not responsible for it—caused critical and even angry reactions in Ukraine. Ukrainian commentators stressed that it was not enough to bring Putin and his regime to justice; rather, Russian society should go through an active process of reckoning with its imperial history.” (June 6, 2022)
Enjoying our weekly issues and newsletters? Support Public Seminar’s intellectual commons and public debate by making a tax-deductible donation.
Public Health
In the latest episode of the Past Present podcast, hosts Neil J. Young, Nicole Hemmer, and Natalia Mehlman Petrzela discuss the outbreak of monkeypox in the United States and the dangers of stigmatizing a disease. (June 5, 2022)
Healing
“Frank expressions of gratitude for long-ago kindnesses catch people off-guard. People didn’t always know what to make of it. ‘Dude, are you ok?’ was one natural unspoken question.” Following the death of his father, Harold Pollack shares an approach to grief that focuses on giving thanks. (June 6, 2022)