Journal of Ethnographic Theory

The Board of Directors of the Society for Ethnographic Theory is calling for applications or nominations to join the editorial collective of HAU Books. With five interrelated book series, HAU Books is committed to publishing distinguished texts in classics and advanced anthropological theory. Most titles are released digitally as Open Access and as paperback editions, printed and distributed by the University of Chicago Press.

We mourn the death of Jane Guyer in Davis, California on the 17th of January, at the age of 80. Endlessly inventive and singularly esteemed, Jane Guyer reshaped the landscape of economic anthropology over several decades with her unexpected combinations of economic theory and in situ social research. She could make subfields and the bridges between disciplines flourish with a single lecture or case study, exemplified by her major work Marginal Gains (2004) delivered as Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures.

Launching her ideas into multiple intellectual spaces from her initial fieldwork in the rural areas around Yaoundé and Ibadan, and later from Nigeria as whole during periods of structural adjustment and military rule, Guyer’s findings were magically precise and offered insights into practically every detectable element in economic thinking and acting elsewhere. The “Guyer view” fostered an open and relatable grasp of the imperial and postcolonial economy, capturing the precision, chaos and poignancy of many eras, and the paradox that despite learning and cognitive yearning, new economic horizons could barely be grasped.

Her careful and affirmative writings on the history and epistemology of anthropology are revered amongst those who hope and try to know ethnographically as well. HAU celebrated her intellect and tried to share it by publishing her Munro Lecture (“The Quickening of the Unknown,” 2013) and Frazer Lecture (“Aftermaths and Recuperations in Anthropology,” 2017). Her first edited collection on money, Money Matters (1994), catalyzed a highly productive field of study, and we wish her co-edited collections published in HAU, including “A Joyful History of Anthropology” (2016) and “The Real Economy” (2017) the same fate. Also her translations of Marcel Mauss, especially “Joking Relations,” and her authoritative expanded edition of The Gift (HAU Books, 2016), are treasured contributions. Colleagues and friends worldwide will fondly remember Jane Guyer for her deep commitment to deciphering human economic behavior, and her keen nurturing of a next generation of scholars. She was a tireless networker among younger anthropologists from the Global South, especially those from African and Latin American regions. Her legacy will be real and undoubtedly continue to shape and inspire many fields of study for generations to come.

We mourn the death of Bruno Latour in Paris on the 9th of October. A prolific, unclassifiable and ceaselessly inventive author, Bruno Latour produced work that sits at the crossroads of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and art – and is always grounded in detailed empirical descriptions of the ways in which humans interact with each other, with ideas, with institutions, and with surrounding non-human entities in given contexts. Though he is best known for his groundbreaking essay We Have Never Been Modern (1993) – probably the most implicitly quoted book in all contemporary social science – and for his revolutionary studies of science and technology (Laboratory Life, with S. Woolgar, 1979; Aramis ou l’amour des techniques, 1992; The pasteurization of France, 2001), Latour also wrote about sociology and what it should be (La sociologie en action, 1989; Reassembling the Social, 2005), the production of law (La fabrique du droit, 2002), faith and religious discourse (Jubiler, 2002), the work of the public in democracy (Le public fantôme, 2008), and a neglected philosophical magnum opus An Inquiry into Modes of Existence (2012). Driven by his deep concern over the current climate crisis, Latour spent the last decade inventing new ways of getting people to engage in the front of political ecology, from theatrical performances, via exhibitions and experimental workshops in rural communities, to his final books (Face à Gaïa, 2015; Où atterrir? 2017; Où suis-je? 2021). His work has been widely translated, and most of his books have been published in English by Harvard University Press. Bruno Latour’s many friends across the world will remember above all his boundless generosity of spirit, his love of scientific practice, and his enthusiastic embrace of all forms of creativity.

We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Sally Falk Moore on May 2, 2021. An intellectually generous scholar of Africa, her theoretical contributions grew out of her fieldwork among the Chagga in Tanzania. In what was a first, she investigated the interactions between indigenous, colonial, and post-colonial social and legal systems in the context of the new socialism after independence. What, she asked specifically, did state attempts to decolonize mean for kinship, landholding, and law? Through her research, she shifted the study of law from its textual products and debates among legal scholars to its execution and effects in lived time, and demonstrated how “customary law” is not prior to state law but a modern product of this encounter with the state. HAU is honored to have published her final book, Comparing Impossibilities (2016), which includes essays published throughout her long career. We will miss Sally, above the scholarship she inspired and the many students whose lives she touched.

Kriti Kapila, Anne-Christine Taylor, John Borneman, and Carlos D. Londoño Sulkin

Board of Directors, Society for Ethnographic Theory

We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Marshall Sahlins and Paul Rabinow, two of our most distinguished contemporary anthropologists. HAU has lost not only two friends but two champions of anthropological theory that grows out of ethnographic engagement—precisely the kind of scholarship HAU promotes. Most recently, Marshall Sahlins contributed to HAU books, co-authoring (with David Graeber) On Kings, a major reconsideration of the power, meaning, and role of this ubiquitous political type in premodern societies. Paul Rabinow (with Anthony Stavrianakis), contributed to a HAU Forum devoted to his work on the anthropology of the contemporary. We will miss Marshall and Paul, above all for their insights and scope and their courage to disagree and advance arguments.

Kriti Kapila, Anne-Christine Taylor, John Borneman, and Carlos D. Londoño Sulkin

Board of Directors, Society for Ethnographic Theory

The Society for Ethnographic Theory is firmly committed to the idea that access to knowledge and publishing quality must be achieved by mediating gratuity with sustainability. The journal pursues this ideal with two innovative models, where a balance between high publishing standards, knowledge sharing and sustainability is achieved without relying on unpaid labour, famished departmental research budgets and individual membership dues.

Each journal issue will be available to download for free for one month after release and be Green Open Access (in compliance of the UKRI requisites for REF submission).

Each issue will include up to 5 Gold Open Access articles, which the Society would like to dedicate to indigenous authors or scholars from the Global South.

Dear CHE Editors

We were dismayed that the Chronicle decided to publish Jesse Singal’s article on our publication HAU (How One Prominent Journal Went Very Wrong, Oct. 5, 2020) in such an inchoate state – not to mention its unfortunate timing. Given the role of CHE in upholding the importance and integrity of higher education, we would have expected to see greater insistence on situating HAU in the wider context of academic publishing. Instead, the article merely reprised the developments of a turbulent period simply in terms of a conflict between two individuals. It gives the false impression, casually smuggled in towards the end, that HAU remains substantially unchanged. Nothing could be further from the truth.

HAU came into being as a radical departure from established ways of publishing academic journals. Created by a handful of young scholars, most of them graduates and post-docs in precarious situations, it was affiliated neither with an academic institution or university nor with any professional or subject association. Its independence was its strength, enabling the journal to produce high-quality, original scholarship and very productive re-readings of older anthropological accounts. Unfortunately, that very independence also proved a temporary weakness, that sustained an informality beyond when it was healthy for the journal. This was pointed out in the report drawn up by the Executive Council headed by Carole McGranahan. When we took over as the Board of Directors in September 2018, it was clear to us that this informality had to be the first thing that had to be addressed to re-establish trust in the journal and its workings, following the media campaign launched against HAU and its founder Giovanni da Col. The world of HAU described in Singal’s piece bears absolutely no resemblance to the new organisation of the journal or the ethos of its current structure of editorial collectives.

Singal reached out in November last year to individuals working in various capacities with the journal. We read some of his earlier pieces, developed a good impression of his abilities and rigour, and became hopeful that he would produce a fair and more up-to-date account of the vicissitudes and state of HAU. We assumed that he would report on his discovery of new material about the past as well as the new developments at HAU itself. Equally, our confidence also stemmed from knowing where the piece was being published. But rather than situate the events of the past within the broader concerns of contemporary publishing and its fraught relationship with academia, the article dwelled on gossip, email exchanges, and innuendo, shallow in its ethical judgement, and betrayed its informants. Its analytical value as a sociological analysis of academic practices is underwhelming and not up to the standards of CHE.

On all counts, this was a missed opportunity.

Yours

Kriti Kapila, Anne-Christine Taylor, John Borneman, and Carlos Londono-Sulkin

Board of Directors, Society for Ethnographic Theory

We lament the death of David Graeber on September 2, 2020. An Editor of HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory but also anarchist and political activist, Graeber drew a large audience to anthropology unlike any since Margaret Mead, whose books, magazine articles, and radio addresses were read and listened to by millions of middle-class families in their living rooms. Graeber made novel use of the opportunities of new social media and the Internet for dissemination of his fecund ideas. Among these ideas his boldest and perhaps most influential has been a re-interpretation of the history of debt challenging some basic assumptions of economists, which have legitimized the great inequalities of our time. Equally, his writings on 'Bullshit jobs' have given shape and meaning to a widespread feeling of uselessness in the contemporary workfield. While these works, combined with his engagement in transnational political movements, account for his stature as a public intellectual, they should not overshadow his important contributions to the ethnography of Madagascar, the anthropology of magic, the sacred roots of kingship and the nature of prehistoric societies. The depth and breadth of his scholarship was astounding, his curiosity insatiable and his ability to surprise and engage his audience unmatched.

Board of Directors, Society for Ethnographic Theory

Proposals should be submitted by 30^th June 2020. 

To inquire or submit a proposal, please contact the Special Issue guest editors:

Sarah Vaughn: sev83@berkeley.edu

Danny Fischer: dtfisher@berkeley.edu

Cc to Mariane C. Ferme: mcf@berkeley.edu

The call for proposals can be found here.

Proposals should be submitted by 30^th June 2020. 

To inquire or submit a proposal, please contact the special section coordinators:

Lydia Degarrod ldegarrod@cca.edu

Mariane C. Ferme mcf@berkeley.edu

The call for proposals can be found here 

Letter from the Board of Directors of the Society of Ethnographic Theory to Valeria Siniscalchi, Sarah Green and Members of EASA’s Executive Committee, 1 November 2019

Call for editors

HAU Books Editorial Collective

Statement of Hau Board of Trustees June 29th 2018

Answer to the Māori scholars - Mahi Tahi.
An Open Letter to the HAU Journal’s Board of Trustees 

Letter from the new Board of Trustees

The deadline for Special Issue proposals has been extended to 31 May 2017. The call for proposals can be found here: 

http://www.haujournal.org/media/HAU_Call_for_Special_Issues_2018-2019.pdf

Reminder: New Deadline for Proposals for Malinowski Monographs Competition -- Proposals due April 30, 2016.

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory is now accepting applications for Associate Editors -- Applications due April 30, 2016

The deadline for our 2017 Call for Special Issue Proposals has been extended to February 28, 2016:

http://haujournal.org/HAU_CallforSpecialIssues_2017.pdf

HAU Books is also now accepting new proposals for the Malinowski Monographs Series:

http://www.haujournal.org/HAU_CallForMonographManuscriptProposals_2016_MalinowskiMonographs.pdf 

The Editors of HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory have decided to establish a Social Media Intern Program through which graduate students (with priority given to graduate students from HAU-N.E.T., Network of Ethnographic Theory partner-institutions) can be involved in the journal’s efforts to bring high-quality open-access anthropology to a wide readership.

January 15, 2014, 9:30 - 16:00

University of Helsinki, Social and Cultural Anthropology (Department of social research) in association with HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. Follow on Twitter: #anthroknots

Why you should submit a manuscript to HAU:

1. HAU pursues a strict policy of  double-bind peer-review, with three to four reviewers for each manuscript, to guarantee the highest academic quality. One of HAU’s innovative steps has been to create a large editorial board, with leading anthropologists from a pool of international universities who have committed to review at least one manuscript each year. This model—building the institutional framework for peer review as part of establishing the overall endeavor—is critical mark of HAU’s orientation for achieving high-end peer-review in open access journals.
2. HAU actively includes and recruits contributors and perspectives from non-Western Anthropologies.
3. HAU offers an unparalleled speed of publication (5-10 months between submission and publication if the article is accepted)
4. HAU is copy left. Rights of further publication are retained by the authors.
5. HAU has limited concern for maximum word-length for single manuscripts and may include Special Issues and Themed Sections in each issue along with submitted manuscripts. This is a significant strength of Hau in light of the rising popularity of Special Issues following Presses’ new selective policies towards edited collections.
6. Although HAU has been hosting some of the world’s most eminent anthropologists, we invite contributions from graduate students and junior scholars, too: they are the future, after all.
7. Whilst all journal issues and volumes will be freely available online for downloading, Hau is also negotiating printing and distributing options with several academic presses, which will allow libraries to purchase (and book stores to sell) physical copies of our book series and special issues.
8. HAU is ethnographic theory. Distinctive. Classic. Rigorous.
9. HAU is open access. Free. Fair. Globally Open.
10. Our Google analytics show that our articles are downloaded worldwide and their numbers equal some of the top-tier journals.

Sign up on www.haujournal.org and send us your best work. Visit Facebook & Twitter.

Download the Call for Papers here.  

HAU will be launching this Fall. Our fine inaugural issue includes a themed section on Archaeologies of Kin(g)ship, edited by Giovanni da Col (Cambridge) and Stephane Gros (CNRS), and contributions by Marshall Sahlins, David Graeber, Chris Gregory, Roy Wagner, Annemarie Mol, Laura Nader and others. The issue will also present an extraordinary series of inedited, newly translated and reprinted manuscripts by Edmund Leach, Marilyn Strathern, Maurice Godelier, and Julian Pitt-Rivers amongst others.