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Ethnos

ISSN 0014-1844

5 papers in the library · 44 citations · publishing 2011-2026

Papers

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Undoing Cambodia’s Cosmopolitical Fix: Forests, Sweatshops, and Possibilities for Uncommon Alliances

Ethnos April 17, 2026 Casper Bruun Jensen, Sarah Milne, A Blok 1 citation

The Cambodian regime depends on large-scale extraction of natural resources. However, the regime also acknowledges that Cambodian territories are potent landscapes protected by extra-human beings. Hence, it must accomplish seemingly contradictory objectives: pleasing the land-protectors while ruining the lands they protect. We characterise this effort as Cambodia’s cosmopolitical fix. To...

Ayahuasca and Arabidopsis: The Philosopher Plant and the Scientist’s Specimen

Ethnos June 1, 2020 Ruth Goldstein 6 citations

Moving among the laboratory, the Brazilian Amazon, and herbaria, this article cultivates a theoretical grafting of phytocommunicable strategies that stem from human interactions with ayahuasca and Arabidopsis, two plants that appear – at least geographically – worlds apart. Ayahuasca, a psychedelic Amazonian vine, represents the 'Philosopher Plant', guiding imbibers to greater self-knowledge...

Exorcizing the Spirit of Protestantism: Ambiguity and Spirit Possession in an Ethiopian Orthodox Ritual

Ethnos December 9, 2019 D. Malara 21 citations

ABSTRACT This article discusses the exorcism of Protestant spirits from Ethiopian Orthodox hosts in Addis Ababa. This controversial ritual is animated by injunctions to draw essential distinctions and boundaries between Protestantism and Orthodoxy, at a time of religious liberalisation. The expulsion of Protestant spirits provides an occasion to reaffirm the centrality of local Orthodoxy to...

Smoking as Communication in Rastafari: Reasonings with ‘Professional’ Smokers and ‘Plant Teachers’

Ethnos June 10, 2019 Anna Waldstein 11 citations

In Rastafari smoking herbs (cannabis) and tobacco is central to spiritual practices, including grounding (the process of initiation into Rastafari) and reasoning (ritual discussions). This paper presents ethnographic research with Rastafari smokers in England. It shows that smoking is considered a ‘professional’ activity that communicates dedication to the movement, aids in learning different...

The Bloodstain: Spirit Possession, Menstruation, and Transgression in Niger

Ethnos June 1, 2011 Adeline Masquelier 5 citations

Examining the varied reactions of people to the blood-stained wrapper of a spirit devotee during a bori possession ceremony in Niger, I explore how dirt and disgust are more complex than neat structuralist models of purity and pollution often used to explain them. Understanding menstrual blood in situational terms, and looking at the reactions as shaped more about complex dimensions of agency...