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My 2024 in books

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  This year, I was in the process of finishing my first book ever. As a newbie to book-writing, I learned a valuable lesson – a finished manuscript is just a first step. Several additional and burdensome steps lurk on the path to the final publication. As the more seasoned among you can vividly imagine, my 2024 was full of multiple rounds of editing and proofing. I also decided to to create the index myself. As a devout book lover and inspired by the wonderful Index, A History of the , I just had to. However, I will gladly hire a professional indexer the next time. In addition to my book-writing duties, I devoted the latter half of summer to prepare two courses for my autumn teaching duties. Sadly enough, the Faculty of Arts at Charles University does not offer its first-time lecturers paid time so that they can prepare in advance. Precarity, here I come! The rumour has it that at least at certain faculties of Masaryk University in Brno, you get paid several months before your teac...
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Recenze: O Slepých skvrnách Daniela Prokopa

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Vzhledem k tomu, že mi odevzdání disertace trochu uvolnilo ruce, měl jsem možnost se vrhnout na knihy, na které v posledním roce nebyl čas. Jedna z mých voleb padla na loni vydanou knihu Slepé skvrny od českého sociologa Daniela Prokopa. Její podtitul – O chudobě, vzdělávání, populismu a dalších výzvách české společnosti – napovídá, že ambice má autor ušlechtilé a nemalé. Chce poukázat na problémy české společnosti, ukázat cesty možné nápravy a přitom oslovit širokou laickou veřejnost i politickou reprezentaci. Kniha mě zaujala natolik, že jsem se rozhodnul napsat menší recenzi.   Daniel Prokop: Slepé skvrny. O chudobě, vzdělávání, populismu a dalších výzvách české společnosti . Brno: Host, 2019 Kniha je rozdělena do sedmi tematických kapitol, které se postupně věnují následujícím tématům: chudobě, školství a vzdělávání, menšinám a radikalismu, populismu a demokracii, daňovému systému, národním stereotypům a mýtům, volbám a volebním průzkumům. Nebudu se zabývat jednotlivými ka...
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Unexpected Consolation

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It has not been long since I stumbled across Fabian's all time anthropology classic. Time and the Other . Another canonical book worthy of my attention! People talk about the book. It's commended, its author hailed. And as I hate Yetti books (in Daniel Dennett's words: "one of those books that is often cited by people who haven't read it but read about it, and think they know what is in it"), I immediatelly ordered it from my favourite trafficker in ideas. The book arrived. Pretty slim. Good. Will not take long to read. I like essay-like condensed arguments (I enjoyed Barth's Cosmologies in the Making  or Goody's The Domestication of the Savage Mind ). Not long after I had began reading it, Colin Hay's lyrics acquired a brand new meaning:  Alone between the sheets  only brings exasperation Desperation... ...produced some action and I googled the book. Ultimately, I found some consolation. So if you face ...
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For my Durham friends

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This summer I visited a small Bohemian village Malé Svatoňovice which is situated close to Czech-Polish borders. The village is a birthplace of one of the greatest writers, a seven-time Nobel Prize nominee (how unfortunate), Karel Čapek. Maybe you have heard about him. If you are interested,  there's a museum in the town dedicated to the works and lives of Karel and his older brother Josef.
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Support for CEU

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In the midst of a transcriptional mayhem (damn too many interviews), I found some time for some educational activism. I hope the CEU cause is not lost! Do you want to support it? Learn more here:  https://www.ceu.edu/category/istandwithceu .
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Let's play humiliation

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HAU FB page shared this list of 30 essential books in anthropology compiled by AllegraLab . The original post is here . So if you are up for a round of humiliation , do not hesitate to share your ignorance. Mine is marked  in bold and makes two thirds of the list. Geertz, C., 1973,  The Interpretation of Cultures . Basic Books. Lévi-Strauss, C., 1955,  Tristes tropiques . Librairie Plon. Malinowski, B., 1922,  Argonauts of the Western Pacific . E.P. Dutton. Mauss, M., 1950[1923-24],  Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l’échange dans les sociétés archaïques . Presses Universitaires de France. Appadurai, A., 1996,  Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization . University of Minnesota Press. Boas, F., 1911,  The Mind of Primitive Man . MacMillan. Tylor, E.B., 1871,  Primitive Culture . John Murray. Mead, M., 1928,  Coming of Age in Samoa . William Morrow and Co. Evans-Pritchard, E.E., 1937,  Witchcraft,...
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PowerPoint is dead? Long live the Lecture!

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Exactly after three years I teach again! Hoooray! I have a small course called Anthropology and the supernatural at the Faculty of Humanities in Prague. The course resembles my old course which I taught back in 2014 during my unsuccessful Ph.D. I reworked my lectures and here I am. My course basically serves as an introduction for complete beginners in sociocultural anthropology. Instead of focusing on basic stuff like nature-nurture controversy, relativism-universalism issues or "What is anhtropology and how do you explain it to your grandma?" I decided to focus on the inner architecture of essential arguments and theories related to anhtropological theories of witchcraft, religion, magic or ritual. Also, I try to put less stress on biographical anecdotes (Malinowski's troubles on the Trobriand Islands, Leach's lost fieldnotes or Evans-Pritchard's WWII escapades) and hackneyed descriptions of the so-called paradigms in anthropology. Contrary to my previou...
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