What does an anthropologist do in the field?
No questionnaires, no statistical samples. So what does a researcher actually do when they “go into the field”?
General
Ramadan in the city: a rite in transition
The cannon became a phone notification, and the shared iftar became a reservation. What is left of the rite?
Memory
What is not said twice is forgotten once.
The café: a new majlis with old rules?
Part of social life has moved into cafés. Did the rules of the majlis move with it?
To a Palm in a Courtyard
They did not plant you for shade, they planted you so the ground would stay occupied.
The ardah: the body when it becomes a collective
Two rows, a drum and a poet. What happens socially when a hundred men move to a single rhythm?
What is anthropology? A first question
A short answer for anyone approaching the field for the first time: what does an anthropologist study, and how?
A Market at Dusk
The sellers fold away their voices as the mats are folded.
Clay Remembers
They say: this is an old wall. And I say: this is a breath that stopped.
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