The global pandemic is generating a great deal of thinking among scholars broadly interested in the social and cultural implications of Covid-19. In order to provide a forum for early observations and reflections on the pandemic as it unfolds, the editors of Cultural Anthropology—Christopher Nelson, Heather Paxson, and Brad Weiss—are editing an open-ended collection on the global pandemic.
The Danger of a Single Threat
In a well-known public talk, the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie details the danger of letting a single story define a world. Collective experience d... More
Buying Bread in Santiago, Chile: Engaging with Documents in Times of Pandemic
“My application got accepted, I can go to the bakery!” announced my father, excited that he’d be able to go buy bread after one week of strict confinement. He h... More
Quarantine Urban Ecologies
As of April 2020, billions of people around the world are living under differing degrees of physical confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic, reshaping the way... More
Caring for Italy: The Solidarity of Filipino Women Workers
Eight weeks into Italy’s countrywide lockdown, Covid-19 has quickly become more than a question of health. It is a question of livelihood. On March 22, 2020, Gi... More
Digital Learning
Digital learning could imply hands-on learning, a physical engagement of bodies and fingers (digits) finding out how to do something. But mostly it implies, par... More
Missing the Revolution with Covid-19: On Hindsight and Ethnographic Expertise
Covid-19 was a revolution that I should have seen coming. In his classic Cultural Anthropology article, “Missing the Revolution,” Orin Starn (1991) argues that... More
Religion, Law, and Bolsonaro’s Decree on Essential Services
The corona virus pandemic has raised wide-ranging questions on the limits of religious freedoms in a global health crisis. While religious gatherings have acted... More
Covid-19, (In)visible Mothers, and the State
I called Yesenia on a Tuesday afternoon, but she didn’t answer. My number wouldn’t be familiar to her, as I wasn’t her son’s teacher, nor was I employed by the ... More
Crowd, Contagion, Corona
In early March 2020, weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic locked down much of Bangladesh, I was told a story by a friend, clearly in jest. A violent crowd had bea... More
The Irruption of Care, or Facing a Pandemic in Times of Revolution
No sintai miedo, si gracias a la Primera Línea nosotros podemos marchar. Si no fuese por ellos, no existiría la marcha.—Stefan Kramer “Don’t be afraid, it’s th... More