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The aims of this article are to incorporate a historical perspective in a pragmatic description of a violent situation, through a case study of a murder in New Caledonia, and to examine the internal social and political dynamics in a situation where violence takes place. In order to understand the complexity of a singular case, I show that the interactionist study of a situation of violence is improved by a description of segmentary and antagonistic social relations, and their historicity. This research is based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, and a historical approach in political anthropology. The empirical case of a homicide is drawn from research interviews, and the analysis demonstrates the relevance of an ethnographic description of the social and historical context in order to reconstruct the complexity of the situation, beyond a strictly interactionist approach. In this case, the ambiguity on the macro-structural level of segmentary kinship created occasions for conflict, and the ambiguity of the conversational interaction on the micro-situational level multiplied the probability for violence to take place.

This paper originates from experiences of low participation in science teaching in primary school during ethnographic fieldwork. Focusing on these observations and inspired by other studies conceptualising non-participation, this paper examines how non-participation is shaped and produced in primary school science. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with students in year six (12 years old), three forms of non-participation are analysed as well as the various forms and shapes they take, namely non-participation: 1. through exposure; 2. through being overlooked; and 3. through being disciplined. Using the theoretical concepts of performativity and positionality, the paper analyses how the production of non-participation emerges as rigid positions, hard to negotiate and thus quite stable over time, as well as interfering with intersections of gender, race/ethnicity and social background. At the end of the paper, we discuss how the positions' displays of stability serve as barriers to students’ ability to form identities as science learners in different contexts and over time, and we argue that teachers play an important role in disrupting these positions. Moreover, we point towards future research to continue the work on conceptualising non-participation, and we suggest that there is potential in combining research on emotions and affect with understanding how non-participation is formed and shaped not only inside the classroom but also in other science settings outside school.

PurposeThis study develops a more inclusive and reflective approach to ethnographic analysis, challenging conventional practices that often disregard “failed” experiments and partial insights. By doing so, it aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of ethnographic methodology beyond traditional linear analytic stories.Design/methodology/approachWe focus on fieldwork conducted in Katavi, Tanzania. By deliberately embracing uncertainties and partial failures encountered during this research trip, the study adopts a reflective methodology that values inconclusive data. This involves analysing the aesthetic expressions of Sukuma herders through what could be considered “wrong” or “failed” ethnography. This perspective values “failed” ethnography and incomplete insights as meaningful contributions to understanding reality.FindingsBy recognising incomplete and contradictory findings as valuable, we advocate for an inclusive approach that embraces partial truths and multiple realities, challenging the tendency to reduce the complexity of ethnography into singular narratives. Drawing inspiration from Sukuma healing logic, where something can be both true and false, we propose inclusive disjunctivity as a framework for rethinking the boundaries of ethnographic validity.Originality/valueThe originality of this study lies in its critique of conventional practices that often blackbox scientific processes into singular, linear narratives. By embracing incomplete, contradictory and multi-layered findings, we expand the boundaries of what constitutes valid ethnographic data. This shift in perspective enriches the field of ethnography, encouraging scholars to move beyond the simplification of reality inherent in traditional scientific analysis.

Sexual(ized) harassment during ethnographic fieldwork is often described by female researchers as a ‘rather common’ experience, yet it continues to be marginalized in methodological discussions and anthropological training. Rather than silencing accounts of these experiences, it is necessary to include them in the analysis of acquired data and to reflect on them in ethnographic writing. This article raises awareness and stimulates discussion about this neglected aspect of social research. It considers ethnography as a gendered practice in which gender norms, the (a)sexuality of the fieldworker, and power relations directly influence research and the researcher’s safety. It discusses the consequences of sexual(ized) harassment for the ethnographer, makes suggestions regarding how to deal with it in situ, and highlights the complex relationship between personal safety and researchers’ ethical obligations towards their informants.

During ethnographic fieldwork, anthropologists of religion grapple with various dilemmas regarding their participation in the rituals they study. How do they make real-time decisions between full participation and observational distance? Do they manage to participate harmoniously in religious activities even during moments of doubt or questioning of their own faith? Based on my three-year fieldwork in Israeli Reform Jewish congregations, which included observations and in-depth interviews, I demonstrate how my reflexive experience which exposes my internal Jewish dialogue, shaped my patterns of participation and motivation in engaging with various rituals. This autoethnographic description illustrates that my deliberate abstention or avoidance from participation, stemming from differences in religious habitus and my anthropological research approach, enabled congregants to engage in communal activities and thereby contributed to broadening my understanding of different communal scenarios. I discovered, thus, that the vector that determines the nature of participation is a product of the researched practice – in this case, religious performances/practices. Therefore, I suggest that this methodological decision develops ethnographic honesty and loyalty on both sides, the ethnographer’s as well as the informants’.

Burial location and concepts of belonging are deeply interconnected. This article explores the biblical narrative of Jacob’s death and burial in the final chapters of the book of Genesis, with a focus on this relationship. The analysis engages in dialogue with Osman Balkan’s recent research on Turkish Muslims in Europe, examining factors influencing burial decisions, including the choice between repatriation to countries of origin and local burial. Key themes relevant to the biblical narrative include tensions with the host society, its authorities, and customs, the complex interplay of factors in end-of-life decisions, and the role of burial location as a means of anchoring future generations. In particular, the concept of the dead as an ‘anchor’ provides a useful framework for understanding the contrasting burial wishes of Jacob and his son Joseph. Additionally, considering Joseph as an undertaker adds nuance to his struggle to balance loyalty to local Egyptian customs with his father’s request to be buried among his ancestors in Canaan.

In this article, I engage the argument of getting around adult power in child-centered ethnographic research by presenting and discussing my experiences as a man researching with South African children in the early years of schooling. I present and discuss the different strategies I used in order to try and disassociate myself from the presumed position of adult male formal power and authority among children who were in my study. In Gender Play, Barrie Thorne coined the term “learning from the children” to describe a critical child-centered ethnographic approach which seeks to engage children as experts in their everyday social lives. However, Thorne acknowledged that when adults seek to learn from the children, the major challenge for the researcher is reducing the perceptions of adult formal power while establishing child-centered relations with the children. While Thorne discussed the issues of gender power in her relationships and interactions with boys and girls during her ethnographic research, this article considers a different perspective. It provides a male perspective on the relational issues and dynamics around adult–child power relations during child-centered ethnographic research on Gender Play in a South African primary school. The focus is on my attempts to reduce perceptions of adult male power so as to establish child-centered relations with young boys and girls in my research. I highlight the challenges encountered in my attempts to reduce these perceptions, given the children’s variegated expressions of agency that manifest by way of resistance—serving to reinforce adult–child power differentials. The article highlights how adult–child power relations operate in complex ways during fieldwork. It highlights how this complexity compelled the adult male researcher to acknowledge that power is not the sole preserve of adults. Rather, power is fluid and is constantly in flux between the adult male conducting the research and the young boys and girls who are actively participating in the research process.

A ‘Behavioural Insights’ movement has emerged within governments. This movement infuses policymaking with behavioural scientific insights into the rationally bounded nature of human behaviour, hoping to make more effective and cost-efficient policies without being too obtrusive. Alongside sustained admirations of some, others see in Behavioural Insights the threatening revival of technocracy, and more particularly a ‘psychocracy’: a mode of public decision-making that wrongfully reduces the world of policymaking to a rational-instrumental and top-down affair dictated by psychological expertise. This article argues, however, that the claims of technocracy and psychocracy are overgeneralizations, emanating from a frontstage-focused debate that ignores a vast backwater of emerging behavioural policy practices. Grounded in four case studies on behavioural policymaking in Dutch governance, it will be demonstrated that at least part of this backwater is neither so technocratic nor so psychocratic as the critics claim.

This essay presents a set of interconnected thoughts, considerations, and conceptualizations that address what it is that we are talking about when we discuss language variation and the interaction of language users in historical contexts, and how we research patterns of historical language variation and user interaction.

The article presents beliefs and rituals related to All Souls’ Day typical for folk Catholicism in Poland. It is based on the results of the ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the author in Radom and Opoczno regions (central Poland), in the years 1980-1983, 1990-1993 and 1998-2005 (a total of 414 days, 650 interviews with 998 informants), as well as on the literature concerning this and other regions of Poland. The popular remembrance of the dead and care for their graves is noticeable throughout the year. Cemeteries in Poland are often visited by people whose relatives passed over to “the other world,” who place flowers and candles on the graves, tidy them up, and pray. Commemoration of the dead takes on a special dimension such days as Christmas, Easter, All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day. Many old All Souls’ rituals disappeared already in the Middle Ages as a result of Christianization and eradication of pre-Christian beliefs. Still, until the 1970s one could observe or reconstruct (relying on the memory of informants) many pre-Christian beliefs and customs that used to be regulated by the ancient ritual calendar based on the solar cycle and the worship of ancestors. The presence of those ancient elements in folk beliefs and rituals indicates a strong faith of the people in life after death, exhibited also by the inhabitants of the area under study both in past centuries and today, although today those customs are given a Christian theological interpretation.