The Year 2015 in Sociocultural Anthropology: Material Life and Emergent Cultures

Abstract

In this review essay, I explore the implications of renewed anthropological interest in materiality and the cultures that emerge from interaction among humans, nonhuman agents, and the material environment.Drawing upon sociocultural anthropology published primarily in 2015, I focus on five themes: cultures as emergent; bureaucracies in contemporary life; science, measurement, and state policy; affect and emotion in daily life; and multispecies and interspecies studies. Overall, the works I review illustrate the strength of anthropology in rendering visible the contradictions, trade-offs, and unlikely connections of lived experience in a material world. The works also show how cultures become real through people's actions and interactions with others. Nevertheless, sociocultural anthropology continues to face two enduring contradictions: first, attention to inequalities and disadvantages caused by existing structures versus an emphasis on the emergence and consequent unpredictability of social forms, and second, a view of humans as significant causal agents who can harm the natural world versus a perspective that sees humans as influenced by complex environments that include nature, nonhuman living beings, and inanimate objects.[sociocultural anthropology, materiality, emerging cultures, bureaucracies, interspecies studies, year in review] RESUMEN En este ensayo de revisión, exploro las implicaciones de un interés antropológico renovado en la materialidad y las culturas que emergen de la interacción entre humanos, agentes no humanos, y el ambiente material.Basándome en la antropología sociocultural publicada primariamente en 2015, me enfoco en cinco temas: culturas como emergentes; burocracias en la vida contemporánea; ciencia, medidas, y política del estado; afecto y emoción en la vida diaria; y estudios de multiespecies e interespecies. En general, los trabajos que reviso ilustran la solidez de la antropología en hacer visible las contradicciones, intercambios, y conexiones improbables de experiencias vividas en un mundo material. Los trabajos también muestran cómo la culturas llegan a ser reales a través de las acciones de las personas e interacciones con otros. Sin embargo, la antropología sociocultural continúa enfrentando dos contradicciones persistentes: primero, atención a las desigualdades y desventajas causadas por estructuras existentes versus unénfasis en la emergencia e impredecibilidad consecuente de formas sociales, y segundo, una perspectiva de los humanos como agentes causales significativos quienes pueden dañar el mundo natural versus un enfoque que ve a los humanos como influenciados por ambientes complejos que incluyen la naturaleza, los seres vivos no humanos, y los objetos inanimados. [antropología sociocultural, materialidad, culturas emergentes, burocracias, estudios interespecies, año en revisión]

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