Created in 2011, Hot Spots goes beyond the headlines to consider current events and pressing global issues from the perspective of anthropologists and others on the scene. Hot Spots series are reviewed by the editors of Cultural Anthropology; series editors must be current members of the SCA.

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The Pilbara Crisis: Resource Frontiers in Western Australia

The Pilbara Crisis: Resource Frontiers in Western Australia

The remote and fragile Pilbara region of Western Australia contains some of Australia’s greatest mineral wealth, as well as some of its richest, most globally s... More

Aftershocked: Reflections on the 2015 Earthquakes in Nepal

Aftershocked: Reflections on the 2015 Earthquakes in Nepal

Beginning at 11:56 a.m. local time on April 25, 2015 and continuing for over two months, a series of large earthquakes and significant aftershocks, numbering mo... More

#BlackLivesMatter: Anti-Black Racism, Police Violence, and Resistance

#BlackLivesMatter: Anti-Black Racism, Police Violence, and Resistance

Gathered under the umbrella of #BlackLivesMatter, a movement has erupted in the United States and multiple locations across the globe, including the Dominican R... More

The Colombian Peace Process: A Possibility in Spite of Itself

The Colombian Peace Process: A Possibility in Spite of Itself

With negotiations between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) in an adva... More

Protests and Polarization in Venezuela After Chávez

Protests and Polarization in Venezuela After Chávez

February 2014—less than a year after the death of President Hugo Chávez—marked the beginning of a series of protests that raised important questions about the f... More

Ukraine and Russia: The Agency of War

Ukraine and Russia: The Agency of War

The war in Russia and Ukraine is as much a war of consciousness and ideologies as it is a war of militias with guns, tanks, and Buk missile launchers. While in ... More

Ebola in Perspective

Ebola in Perspective

Since early 2014, the international coverage of Africa has been dominated by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Much of that coverage represents the region as h... More

The Wheel of Crisis in Thailand

The Wheel of Crisis in Thailand

For decades, Thailand has been entangled in a cycle of political turmoil that oscillates between elections, street protests, and coups both military and judicia... More

The Central African Republic (CAR) in a Hot Spot

The Central African Republic (CAR) in a Hot Spot

This Hot Spot is dedicated to Dennis D. Cordell, whose generosity and example nourished a number of us as we came to know CAR, and who passed away far too soon.... More

The Politics of “Postconflict”: On the Ground in South Asia

The Politics of “Postconflict”: On the Ground in South Asia

The last decade has marked the purported end of several conflicts in South Asia: the 2003 ceasefire along the Indian–Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir, the 2... More