This may well have been the fastest book project I have ever had the chance to be part of—despite actually being involved in it.
Date: May 11, 2026, 1300-1500
Venue: “Collaboration Room 4” in Building 18 on The University of Tokyo, Komaba Campus (also online)
Southern Anthropocenes @ University of Tokyo
今月、京都人類学研究会で、やや射程の大きい話をすることになりました。入試や学位論文で慌ただしい1月に、気分転換として薬の環境人類学を考えてみるという、少し骨の折れる試みだけど、石井さんとの議論と「京人研」の場を楽しみにしています。
京都人類学研究会2026年1月例会「惑星という代謝：薬の環境人類学に向けて」
関連URL：https://kyojinken202601.peatix.com/event/4780477/
日時：2026年1月23日（金）18:30-20:00
場所：京都大学総合研究2号館 4階AA447講義室
明日、久しぶりに札幌で講演する機会をいただきました。筑波大と京大と阪大の医療人類学が、不思議な形で絡み合う（関わり合う?）ことになる見込み。日本語と英語で書いた最近の論文を組み合わせてみるという、初めての試みです。終わってからはスキー場へ？
医療のグローバルとローカルを考える：医療人類学の視点から
関連URL：https://web.sapmed.ac.jp/jp/news/event/e246pi0000000t1l.html
日時：2025年12月6日（土）10:00-12:00
場所：札幌医科大学教育研究棟C203教室
コロナ禍元年より継続してきたみんぱく共同研究プロジェクトの成果として刊行された本書では、人類学者、歴史家、生態学者とともに、人間と人間以外の生き物が互いに食い合い、結びつき合う中に潜む政治性について考察しています。私が担当した第17章「地球への薬効――薬用植物から考える公共空間の生態学」では、ハノイ市内の薬草園を舞台に、医薬品に汚染された土壌の改良から始まる薬草栽培の実践を紹介し、病と健康をめぐる再生の可能性を探っています。
http://www.showado-kyoto.jp/book/b656843.html
編者：内藤直樹・森明子
2025年3月31日発売
A5判・412頁
定価：本体5,720円＋税
ISBN 9784812224168
従来の政治や経済の論理をはみ出た存在、寄食者を断罪するのではなく彼らの論理や実践に目を向け様々な価値観に開かれた理解を目指す。
I was invited to this exciting workshop at the University of Tokyo in February as a discussant. Looks like there are other fellow anthropologists out there exploring the role of chemicals in making humans healthy and/or sick. Jump in if you’re interested in the topic and happen to be in the area!
UTokyo Cultural Anthropology Seminar／COVID-19 and Humanities International Symposium
Chemical ethics is often considered a nascent area in which chemists think of ethical guidelines for conducting chemical research. However, as recent debates on the Anthropocene and metabolism have made clear, it is not only chemists who produce, consume, and emit chemicals. Also, as the various studies in chemo-ethnography have revealed, attention to the distribution and dispersal of chemical substances in the environment has become essential when thinking about the lives of humans and non-humans. Therefore, this symposium examines the everyday ethics of chemical-entangled beings based on examples from East Africa and Japan. Through this endeavor, it offers the unique opportunity to reexamine the Anthropocene from a more concrete and especially microscopic level.
Date: 4th Feb, 2024 (Sun), 2 pm to 6 pm
Venue: Collaboration Room1 4th floor on Building 18 in Komaba Campus, University of Tokyo（HYBRID Onsite＋Online）
Chair: Maki Kitagawa (University of Tokyo)
14:00 – 14:15 Introduction: Akinori Hamada (University of Tokyo)
14:15 – 15:00 Paper 1 : Wenzel Geissler / Ruth Prince (University of Oslo) “Tracing the metabolites of history: studying the toxic aftermath of the1950s Pare-Taveta malaria eradication experiment”
15:00 – 15:45 Paper 2 : Mayumi Fukunaga (University of Tokyo) “Terra-reforming for socio-ecological salvation: Ways of governing aquatic nutrients for healing a stranger sea”
15:45 – 16:15 Break
16:15 – 17:00 Paper 3 : Ruth Prince (University of Oslo) “Toxic exposures and urban living: notes from Kisumu, Kenya”
17:00 – 17:20 Comment: Gergely Mohacsi (Osaka University)
17:20 – 18:00 Discussion
18:00 – Social Gathering
いつもとはちょっと違う取り組みです。放送大学の授業のために用意した教材を対談形式で学術書に変身しました。プラネタリーヘルスと多種共生民俗誌の二つの章を担当してきました。ご関心のある方、お目を通しくださいね。
http://www.ibunsha.co.jp/books/978-4753103812/
編者：大村敬一
2023年12月25日発売
A5判 並製カバー装 464頁
定価：本体4,800円＋税
ISBN 978-4-7531-0381-2
近代化の網の目からこぼれ落ちる、過剰なる他者たちの営みから、いかに人類の想像力の可能性を見出すか──。 総勢12名の人類学者が対話・インタビュー形式で「人新世」時代を語る、最新の研究動向に迫る論集。
February seems to be the month for international workshop. This 1, of which I’m proud to be a discussant, is organized by The Anthropological Institute of Hiroshima (TAIHI) and revolves around two quite specific themes dear to my heart: #incommensurability and #embodiment. It is probably the first time for me to visit Hiroshima University not as an instructor, but a researcher—except the annual meeting of the Japanese Anthropological Association, which was held here some years ago. Feel free to join us either at the venue or online!
https://taihi.org/events/stefan-ecks/
The Anthropological Institute of Hiroshima (TAIHI) is pleased to announce a lecture by Dr. Stefan Ecks on embodied value theory, the novel anthropological theory that explains how living entities value life by way of commensuration. The lecture will take place at Hiroshima University at 4:00 p.m. JST on February 20, 2023. You are invited to take part either at the venue or online. Please kindly register your name in advance by submitting the form below.
Value theory has always been part of anthropological theory, but only implicitly. ‘Culture’ was basically defined as a pattern of values. An explicit anthropological discussion of value is fairly recent. Some believe that a general value theory can be achieved. Others think that anthropology is all about discovering cultural incommensurabilities that cannot contain a universal notion of value. The greatest conceptual challenge is if cultural values (in the plural) can be synthesized with economic and exchange-based value (in the singular). Here I argue that values and value can be brought together within an embodied value theory (EVT). At the core of this new theory of value is embodied life as the ground and goal of valuing. Life values living, and life tries to make the most of life by valuing different possibilities. I show that all valuing rests on comparisons, and that the infinite similarities between different entities can only be decided in pragmatic contexts. I propose that biocommensurations, where at least one entity in a comparison is alive, is the universal form of valuing.
Date: February 20, 2023, 4:00-6:00 p.m. JST
Venue: Hiroshima University, Higashi-Senda Innovative Research Center (2nd Floor, Room M204) and online (Zoom)
Program :
4:00-5:00 p.m. Lecture by Dr. Stefan Ecks
5:00-6:00 p.m. Comments followed by open discussion
Commentators :
Akinori Hamada (Tokyo University)
Mohacsi Gergely (Osaka University)
Moderator :
Makoto Nishi (Hiroshima University)
metabologies 