Ambivalence and the study of contradictions

Abstract

In response to the 2016 HAU debate “Anthropology and the study of contradictions,” I suggest that the anthropological focus on people’s (mutually opposing) dispositions opens more possibilities to capture power relations than the focus on propositions or utterances, proposed by some authors in this debate. I add to the debate an anthropological focus on the future, and I introduce the importance of ambivalence in the study of contradictions.