Introduction: well-being’s re-proportioning of social thought

In describing the Nuer of the southern Sudan, Evans-Pritchard describes Nuer happiness as ‘that in which a family possesses several lactating cows, for then the children are well-nourished and there is a surplus that can be devoted to cheese-making and to assisting kinsmen and entertaining guests.’ (Evans-Pritchard 1940: 21) This is in line with the Nuer’s larger interest in cattle. Men are addressed by names that describe the colour and shape of their favourite oxen; women and children often take their names 1 from the cows they milk. Cattle names also figure profusely in songs and poems; and it is cattle, too, that are used to prescribe marriage payments, and to define kinship rights and obligations. Moreover, men establish contact with the spirits of their ancestors through cattle. Kinship and genealogy are thus expressed through the movement, transference and circulation of cattle.Peer reviewe

‘Madrid ‘en construcción’: polis y apocalipsis en una sociedad hipotecaria’

Este artículo versa sobre los modos en que un grupo de jóvenes profesionales residentes en Madrid se representan el funcionamiento de la economía política y la convivencia democrática a través de la imaginación de la ciudad (polis) como escenario inmobiliario e hipotecario. Tal escenario define y da forma a la ciudad como proceso político ‘en construcción’, que se auto-genera precisamente por no estar todavía terminado, por habitar una suerte de límite o apocalipsis democrático. Qué significa habitar este espacio apocalíptico, y qué rasgos le atribuyen mis informadores, es lo que el artículo intenta explicar.Peer reviewe