This research area studies and practices multiple forms of art and artistic expressions in its widest sense.
Research areas
‘Economy’, or even more controversially ‘the economy’ does not exist for anthropologists in and of itself. The existence of a separate economic institution, independent of politics, kinship, religion and so on, is a modern phenomenon, and even in complex state societies, its application is limited.
Anthropologists at SAI study environments and environmental problems caused by processes that include colonization, imperialism, industrialization, extraction and species transfers.
Anthropologists at SAI are interested in health from diverse angles, ranging from nutrition and health-maintaining practices, through infectious diseases and chronic ailments, environmental injustice and healthcare inequalities, to trauma and mental health.
We study how peoples, mountains, fields, forests, different species, deserts, seas and rivers become securitized and selective in determining who is allowed to get in and who is pushed out.
Political anthropology is broadly concerned with the study of politics and the political.
What is the place of religion in ethics and politics? What role does ritual play in complex social situations? What phenomena are defined as religious and to what political, religious, or social effects? These are among the questions anthropologists at SAI research in different contexts globally.
What is the meaning of the word we? This may be the most complex and enduring question asked in social theory, and SAI has a long tradition of exploring its many facets.