Money, Love, and Fragile Reciprocity in Contemporary Havana, Cuba

Among low-income Havana residents, men frequently give money and other forms of material support to women in whom they have a romantic interest. For women, men's material contributions are expressions of responsibility and care. While men share this view to a degree, they sometimes have more ambiguous emotions regarding such practices. These tensions in different views of gendered reciprocity are influenced by large-scale changes that have taken place in Cuban society since the 1990s. Although, traditionally, state socialism has embraced ideas of gender egalitarianism and women's independent income, the post-Soviet period has seen the emergence of new inequalities, dependencies, and marginalizations that threaten earlier, socialist understandings of intimacy. The importance that women currently place on material wealth in terms of their views of a desirable partner highlights the gendered consequences of Cuba's contemporary economic transformations and their complex interplay with individuals' aspirations for love.Peer reviewe

What Is Analysis? Between Theory, Ethnography, and Method

Recent years in anthropology have seen a noticeable trend, moving from debates about theory to a concern with method. So while some generations ago we would tend to identify ourselves as anthropologists with reference to particular theoretical paradigms-for example, Marxism, (post-)structuralism, cognitivism, cultural materialism, interpretivism-these days our tendency is to align ourselves, often eclectically, with proposals conceived as methodological: entanglements, assemblages, ontologies, technologies of description, epistemic partnerships, problematizations, collaborative anthropology, the art of noticing, and so onPeer Reviewe

Nation, region and context: studies in peace and war in honour of Professor T.B. Millar

This volume of essays is focused round the subjects on which the late Tom Millar, the founder of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, promoted Australian research. The first half of the book focuses on immediate Australian and regional issues. Desmond Ball has written an authoritative account of Australia's strategy for security engagement in Asia, Paul Dibb on the evolution and future of Australian defence policy, Coral Bell on the Australian involvement in strategic enquiry since 1945, Michael Leifer on the extension of ASEAN's model of regional security, J.L. Richardson on real dangers in the Asia-Pacific region, and Alan Burnett on the Anzac connection. The second half of the book deals with the international and intellectual context within which Australia must live, and governments must act. Robert O'Neill contributes a masterly essay on a world without superpowers, Carsten Holbraad on peace and war in conservative internationalist thought, John Weltman on American internationalist traditions, John Groom on the evolution of the British Commonwealth, and Phillip Greville on the treatment of prisoners of war. The essays are thus a valuable up-to-date guide to current strategic preoccupations in Australia, as well as to the way policy has been influenced and formulated in the past

Hazy worlds: Atmospheric ontologies in Denmark

This article explores the use of light in Denmark as part of shaping atmospheres. It discusses how the words informants use to express a particular atmosphere may have multiple connotations and in essence be defined more by their vagueness than by their clarity. The article argues that, rather than focusing on clear ontological statements, taking informants' lack of clarity at face value offers new ways for the ethnographer to gain insights into material aspects of social life through the concept of atmospheres. Atmospheres denote a sensuous ‘something’ that takes place in-between things and people. They may be ontologically difficult to grasp or to contain, yet they play an important role in ordering spaces and social life. With a focus on the ‘ecstasy’ of things – in this case a light source – as a sensuous encounter of presence, the article argues that both the contemporary focus on the ontology of things within anthropology as well as a post-ANT perspective on performativity, though analytically useful, overlook methodologically how the vagueness of atmospheres foregrounds the contemporaneity and entanglement of matters, minds and cultural preferences of sensing places