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Evidence from developed countries shows debt and bankruptcy to be correlated with medical expenditures. In Mexico, the formal financial sector does not lend for health needs. So, the solution is often found by borrowing from relatives, friends, and moneylenders, or pawning belongings after using savings, if any. Despite the recent and growing literature on income and health, and health financing, we have not come across a single study analyzing pawning and health. Our study fills this gap using a sample of 400 government owned pawnshop users from Puebla, Mexico. The findings from the study revealed that health expenditures are a significant reason for pawning and having medical insurance does not reduce the probability to pawn. Also, catastrophic health expenditures are correlated with a higher probability of not redeeming the pledge. We found that most pawnshop users have low income and losing a pledge is positively correlated with low or middle income and the number of people in the household.

This paper delineates the proprietary contest developed around a highly valued prestige item: a silver roofed tankard owned by a Romanian, Gabor Roma man.

The author applies “methodological fetishism” (Appadurai, 1986, p. 5), the perspective of things-in-motion, as well as the biographic method to interpret data collected during 31.5 months of multi-sited anthropological fieldwork carried out in the Transylvanian Gabor and Cărhar Roma groups.

As the tankard in question crossed the borders of three Transylvanian Roma groups, and thus went through the processes of de- and re-contextualization three times, it is characterized by a transethnic/transcultural biography. This paper pays special attention to the agency associated with the tankard (the social and economic practices, processes and emotions it caused or influenced), the transformations concerning its symbolic properties, and its movement between various social contexts and value regimes. Furthermore, it examines how the analysis of these issues contributes to a deeper understanding of prestige relations and consumption, morality and business ethics, and measures of success in two Transylvanian Roma groups.

This paper reveals how subjects create, manipulate, and represent their identities, and social and economic differences through the construction of commodity biographies and ownership histories interpreted as symbolic pantheons. By combining the terms of Marcus (1995) and Fowles (2006), it argues that analyses based on multi-sited fieldwork focusing on commodities crossing cultural or social boundaries, and their transnational/transcultural biographies, should be defined as multi-sited commodity ethnographies.

This 26th volume of REA focuses on the economics of health and wellness, and in doing so attempts to bring together two fields of research – economic anthropology and public health – that tend not to merge as often as they should. The volume includes 10 chapters that explore the general theme of the economics of health and wellness in an anthropological fashion and in a variety of settings and ways. All of them passed a selection process that included double-blind peer-review, and have been revised to various degrees based partly on the suggestions of the referees. On this note, I would like to extend my gratitude to the various scholars who took time out of their very busy schedules to review manuscripts for this volume. The chapters here all benefited greatly from their anonymous comments and recommendations.

The literature on cohabitation intimates a clear line between marriage and cohabitation where the latter lacks a formal or legal backing. This understanding overlooks contextual issues which complicate definitions of cohabitation. With evidence from historical and contemporary literature on cohabitation among the Asante of Ghana, this chapter argues that traditional social practices coupled with the plurality of legal frameworks governing marriage in Ghana, leads to subjective constructions and interpretations of cohabiting unions. Consequently, there are situations where one form of partnership would qualify as marriage, whilst the same would be considered a cohabiting union in other circumstances. Again, the sense in which cohabitation functions as a prelude, an alternative or equivalent to marriage among the Asante differs significantly from what pertains in other societies. The chapter, therefore, calls into question the oversimplified meanings of cohabitation often based on the assumption of a dualistic relationship between marriage and cohabitation. The chapter concludes that the definition of cohabitation among the Asante and some sections of the Ghanaian public is fluid and not as clearly defined as it is in other parts of the world, especially the Global North. Given this reality, rather than generalized interpretations of cohabitation, researchers need to consider the contextual differences and understandings of cohabitation in their studies.

The phenomenon of “women in combat” is not such a novel one; it however has shattered the dominant perception of women as peaceful and nonviolent people. Indeed, it resulted in critical questions being raised as to why women are involved in patterns of extreme violent behavior, such as suicide bombers. In the wake of insurgent activities by an Islamist group in Nigeria (Boko Haram (BH)) in recent times, the feminization of terror that has come to characterise the activities of this group has generated much concern. Although there may not be easy answers as to why women are involved in terrorism in Nigeria, the threat that such a scenario poses to security is real, deserving a credible and scientific explanation. To investigate this phenomenon, data was gathered by the survey method, which conforms more to a qualitative research design. The data sources were determined through purposeful sampling technique and instruments such as interviews, focused group discussions (FGDs), and non-participant personal observation. Applying the feminist theory of international relations (IR) as the tool for analysis, the author seeks to unravel the hidden propositions about gender. Among the findings was evidence that the shift by BH to include women in its operations was in response to increased pressure on its male operatives. Since deception is key to the tactics employed by BH, the eradication of terror in Nigeria could be brought about by the identification and prevention of possible deceptive moves by the insurgents.

Using data from a feminist discourse analysis of comments on Facebook news articles, this research outlines backlash and regulatory practices directed towards youth activists Greta Thunberg, X González and Malala Yousafzai. A conceptual framework of semiotic violence highlights how these comments function to silence, delegitimise, vilify and punish sociopolitically active girls who challenge the status quo. The first mode of semiotic violence works to symbolically annihilate girl activists by silencing or rendering their political contributions invisible. The most obvious manifestation of this is instructing girls to shut up and go away. Additionally, their activism is ignored by refusals to acknowledge it as appropriate through suggestions they focus on gender-normative activities, such as domestic chores, playing with dolls and finding boyfriends. Undermining girls’ agency by describing them as puppets, mouthpieces, script readers, pawns and tools is also common. Here, girls’ contributions are rendered invisible through implications that they are being brainwashed and manipulated. The second mode of semiotic violence reinforces ideologies that girls are not politically competent and punishes them for being outspoken. This includes explicitly discrediting girls’ knowledge and abilities. Regulating their emotionality is also prevalent. This is consistent with Liberal political theory which justified women’s exclusion from public life by associating men with reason and women with emotion. Finally, insults degrade them for transgressing into a space demarcated as an adult and masculine realm. The semiotic violence directed towards these ‘girl power’ figures highlights that many people do not believe girls have the right to assert their sociopolitical opinion.

The present work consists of an inquiry into the range, contours, and contingencies of political and social activism among men of the “clases de color” in Western Cuba during the second U.S. occupation. As members of a highly mobilized population that had received its political education through a tradition of armed struggle, black and mulatto men participated in various forms of social, political and military protest in Pinar del Rio from 1906–1909, including race-based political organization and interracial protest movements. During this period, mainstream Cuban political parties and North American military administrators monitored the actions of the region's black population with acute interest, as they sought to contain, circumvent, and ultimately to repress black popular protest.

In the late 1960s, as Peter readily admits (Hall, 1972, p. 70), he accidentally discovered Murray Edelman’s (1964) The Symbolic Uses of Politics. He immediately pilfered Edelman’s ideas and ran with them. That was only the beginning of his larcenous career. Over the years, Erving Goffman, Anslem Strauss, and David Maines, to name but a few, fell victim to his scholarly pillage. Yet, no one seemed to mind. Perhaps it was because Peter never tried to pawn the plunder as his own. Maybe it was because he didn’t hoard the spoils but publicly plied them. Most likely, it was because of what he did with the booty.

Hisbah is one of the distinguished institutions that had emerged since the early days of the Islamic empire. Based on its cardinal duty to enjoin good and prohibit evil, over time, its functions gradually expanded, and its responsibilities increasingly grew. In light of the contemporary trend in establishing institutional framework for consumer protection, entrusting an agency with multifarious tasks may not be the best and effective way in handling consumer protection issues. Thus, this chapter attempts to explore the new paradigm of hisbah as a consumer protection institution in Malaysia with a special reference to the Islamic consumer credit industry. While utilising the doctrinal legal research methodology, relevant sources of law have been examined and analysed. This research finds that the classical hisbah institution provides a good reference point in establishing regulatory agency and dispute management body. Nevertheless, some modifications are required to remain relevant especially in terms of specialisation of role and function. Likewise, it is viewed that adjustment of the hisbah institution is also necessary regarding the characteristic of the muhtasib (ombudsman).

The prospect of public sociology is beginning to be widely discussed and debated. Critics put forth several reasons for skepticism, one of which is that the program of public sociology, under the leadership of Michael Burawoy, will infect sociology with a Marxist drift. This paper examines whether this drift in fact comports with Marx's ideas on the relationship between scientific knowledge, the role of intellectuals in the class struggle, and the type of political action he advocated. It finds that critics are fundamentally mistaken about the extent to which Marx's ideas are expressed in public sociology's program.