13: Rahil Roodsaz on the unexpected dresscode of a religious gathering
The Emic - Anthropological stories from the field
Release Date: 11/29/2024
17: Tim Ingold on seeing like a reindeer
The Emic - Anthropological stories from the field
In the autumn of 1971, when he just turned 23 years old, Tim was living in a tiny wooden cabin on the shores of lake Rautaperajärvi, in the far northeastern corner of Finnish Lapland. He was a few months into his doctoral fieldwork with the Skolt Sámi people. The Skolts had been resettled in this remote area following the loss of their homeland to the then Soviet Union in the aftermath of the Second World War. Tim’s plan had been to study the micropolitics of their situation as a minority within a minority, but he quickly discovered that for the people themselves, this took second...
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16: Gego (Muhammad Ashry Sallatu) on diving into blue water & big fears
The Emic - Anthropological stories from the field
When Gego (that's what Muhammad is called by his friends) conducted his PhD-fieldwork in Indonesia, he entered multiple new worlds: the world of anthropology, a region with nature so pristine he did not know it existed, and the world of deep water diving. Only problem: he did not know how to dive. When he entered the water, he was touched by underwater beauty, but confronted with his biggest fears. In this episode, he shares the story of how he overcame his initial panic, and how his fieldwork under water changed him forever. Gego is a lecturer at Hasanuddin University, in the...
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15: Giovanna Parmigiani on paganism, magical cards and sisterhood
The Emic - Anthropological stories from the field
In this episode, Giovanna talks about a moment in her fieldwork that she returns to often. A quiet moment shared with women that would become her sisters. A moment where something shifted for her. Giovanna Parmigiani is an anthropologist of religion and magic, a scholar of Contemporary Paganisms, the co-chair of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Unit at the American Academy of Religion, and a founding co-convenor of the Network for the Anthropology of History at the European Association of Social Anthropologists. Her work is firmly grounded in ethnographic and auto-ethnographic...
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14: Willem van Schendel on embarrassing dinners
The Emic - Anthropological stories from the field
While conducting fieldwork in Bangladesh, renowned anthropologist and historian Willem van Schendel found himself at a dinner invitation. Initially a cozy evening, time seemed to stretch on forever until the food was finally served. But little did he know, his perception of time was about to be turned upside down. Tune in to this episode of The Emic to hear Willem's remarkable, or in his words 'embarrassing' story and find out what it's really like to have a 'long' dinner in a completely different cultural context. Find Professor Willem van Schendels' publications...
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13: Rahil Roodsaz on the unexpected dresscode of a religious gathering
The Emic - Anthropological stories from the field
When Rahil was invited by her Iranian interlocutors to a religious gathering for women, she dressed to the occasion - or so she thought. But then she learned something important. A beautiful episode about high heels, gossip, and our prejudices. Rahil Roodsaz is an assistant professor at the anthropology department of the University of Amsterdam. She studies gender and sexuality, particularly focusing on feminist, queer, and decolonial viewpoints. In 2023, she was awarded an NWO-Vidi grant for the project Rhythms of Love, which aims to explore how people in midlife (age...
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12: Roanne on the Inuit parenting advice that changed everything
The Emic - Anthropological stories from the field
In this episode of The Emic, Roanne shares her experiences as a young anthropologist conducting fieldwork in Greenland, where she lived among Inuit hunters and fishers while studying the impacts of climate change. Whilst living among these families, she had the opportunity to witness parents interacting with their children. The parenting styles in the community initially led her to be critical. A wise lesson from an elder, which she didn't fully grasp at the time, emphasized that the most important task of a parent is to make their child laugh. This insight resonated later when she heard a...
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11: Klaus Hoeyer on data paradoxes
The Emic - Anthropological stories from the field
Sometimes, the places in which we live appear to be exotic, if we learn to look at them in a new way. Professor Klaus Hoeyer rediscovered his own country of residence, Denmark, after it had become world famous for its digital governance and digital healthcare. But why did everyone in the country disagree on whether digitization was a positive, or negative trend? And why were all the stories about the impact of big data so confusing? Klaus Hoeyer is professor of medical science and technology studies at the Centre for Medical STS (MeST) and the Department of Public Health,...
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10: Beatrice Bonami on Invisible Technology and Birds in the Brazilian Amazon
The Emic - Anthropological stories from the field
When the Brazilian educator and anthropologist Beatrice Bonami traveled to the Amazon to study how Indigenous and local peoples perceived the future and technology, including digitization of daily life and privacy issues, she soon realized she would have to adapt her usual working methods: how could she ever conduct research on digital privacy, in a community where people share their houses with everyone? During her workshops, people kept drawing a mystical, anthropomorphic bird - what did thát have to do with technology? She would soon find out. Beatrice Bonami is a Brazilian author,...
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9: Tina Harris on What Pilots Do When Technology Fails, and Why Cows Matter in Aviation
The Emic - Anthropological stories from the field
Anthropologist Tina Harris studies aviation - flying - in countries like Nepal, where landing strips are short and the weather can change quickly from clear skies to dangerous storms. How do pilots and aviation staff navigate safe flights? It's not through the type of high-tech you might expect, discovers Harris. Learn how cows, birds, and old-fashioned cellular phones help travelers safely reach their destination. Tina Harris is Associate Professor of Anthropology and a member of the Moving Matters research group at the University of Amsterdam. She holds a PhD from the City...
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8: Danielle Braun about the scarf as a secret handshake
The Emic - Anthropological stories from the field
Danielle went to Iran to investigate the relationship between carpetmakers and their bias but learned something completely different: how to utilize the headscarf to give secret messages to whomever she talked to. Dr. Danielle Braun is a corporate anthropologist, speaker, Director of the Academy for Organizational Culture, and author of popular books on anthropology (including Corporate Tribe, Building Tribes, Tribal Office Behavior, Patterns, and That's Crazy). She studied cultural anthropology and then spent 25 years as a corporate executive. Nowadays, Danielle still travels the world in...
info_outlineRahil Roodsaz is an assistant professor at the anthropology department of the University of Amsterdam. She studies gender and sexuality, particularly focusing on feminist, queer, and decolonial viewpoints. In 2023, she was awarded an NWO-Vidi grant for the project Rhythms of Love, which aims to explore how people in midlife (age 35-60) maintain long-term romantic relationships during life transitions. It seeks to understand the complexities of enduring love in the face of societal challenges like work stress, parenting, and societal pressures.