ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

A Canadian anthropological approach to the study of empire and the human condition

What Ahmadinejad Did Not Say at the UN, that Some People Instead Chose to Hear

First, let’s start with what should be the starting point, not someone’s preferred interpretation, not a gloss, not a twist, nor an inventive rewording or taking of words out of context–but the actual spoken statement of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the 65th session of the UN General Assembly on 23 September 2010, with particular attention to […]

Cross-Cultural Understanding for Peace: So why does HTS go to Afghanistan?

“We can’t have effective strategy without cultural knowledge. If you look at the problems we’ve had — in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Somalia — they’ve been based on flawed assumptions about who those people are.” — Montgomery McFate, senior social scientist, Human Terrain System, quoted in Wired. “In the current climate, there is broad agreement […]