What makes an offer impossible to refuse? Combining original ethnography with compelling storytelling, this book traces the social life of extortion across Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Italy, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. The research is grounded in collaborative and comparative ethnography conducted by a team of ...

A teleoperated robot roaming in the streets of Mumbai enables anyone to put oneself in the place of the Hindu god Ganesha and have a conversation. Initially conceived as an anthropological experiment, the machine was launched in 2014 and became a collective, political and metaphysical experience. Can a machine make a good divine interface? Likewise, what might be the virtues of hacking a god to ...

Peut-on prêter sa voix, en changer, la perdre ? Que font les timbres, débits, souffles et dynamiques de la voix sur nos identités et nos interactions ? Dans ce numéro, anthropologues, linguistes, poètes, artistes et spécialistes du son y explorent les usages rituels, artistiques et quotidiens de la vocalité. Comment les voix incarnent, trompent, convoquent les esprits, rejouent le passé, ...