To practice anthropology is to accept an implicit temporal double bind: We think we write ethnography, but frequently our expositions…
On the recent past, fraught present, and tenuous future of Turkish Muslim civil society
A salutary tremor
What logics, strategies, and effects characterize the category of religion as an instrument for governing social life? What possibilities and…
Values and violence: Thoughts on Charlie Hebdo
The week after the massacre, Charlie Hebdo’s “All is forgiven" issue featured a cover depicting the prophet Muhammad in tears, holding a…
An excursion through the partitions of Taksim Square
Taksim Meydanı. Partition Square. Although it has taken on potent new resonances in recent days, the name of Istanbul’s throbbing central…
Egyptian elections
The protests in the Middle East and North Africa, and the ensuing political changes, were intended to transcend the old…
Moments from the lives of great religious books
“The Lives of Great Religious Books,” a promising new series from Princeton University Press, debuted this month with three titles—Martin…