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The Anthropology of Donald Trump is an edited volume of original anthropological essays, composed by some of the leading fgures in the discipline. It applies their concepts, perspectives, and methods to a sustained and diverse understanding of Trump's supporters, policies, and performance in office.The volume includes ethnographic case studies of "Trump country," examines Trump's actions in office, and moves beyond Trump as an individual political fgure to consider larger structural and institutional issues.
Providing a unique and valuable perspective on the Trump phenomenon, it will be of interest to anthropologists and other social scientists concerned with contemporary American society and politics as well as suitable reading for courses on political anthropology and US culture.
List of contents
1. Introduction: On anthropology of the Contemporary Generally and of Trump Specifically
2. Stigmatized Identity Motivating Right-Wing Populism: How the Tea Party Learned to Love Donald Trump
3. The Reddest of States: Fieldnotes from Trumplandia
4. Making the Cuban American Dream Great Again: Race and Immigrant Citizenship in Miami
5. "We’re on the Same Team, Right?": Political Polarization and Social Connections in "Trump Country"
6. Indexing Ambivalence: Laterality and Negation in Donald Trump’s Co-Speech Gestures
7. Trump the Caudillo: Tapping into Already-Existing Populist Unrest
8. Lying as a Cultural System
9. Orange Candles and Shriveled Cheetos: Symbolic Representations of Trump in the Anti-Trump Witchcraft Movement
10. "I Don’t Think the Science Knows, Actually": The Biocultural Impacts of Trump’s Anti-Science and Misinformation Rhetoric, the Mishandling of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and Institutionalized Racism
11. Trumping the Past, Trumping the Future: How Political Messianism and Conspiracy Theory Cultism Come Front and Center in American Politics
12. Hindutva and Donald Trump: An Unholy Relation
13. The Events at the Capitol and the Trump Mediation: America’s Uncivil War and New Authoritarian Totalitarian Possibilities
Afterword: Authroritarianism After Trump
About the author
Jack David Eller is Head of Global Anthropology of Religion at the Global Center for Religious Research. His research interests include anthropology of religion, psychological anthropology, violence and culture, and Australian Aboriginal cultures. His most recent book is Trump and Political Theology: Unmaking Truth and Democracy.
Summary
The Anthropology of Donald Trump
is an edited volume of original anthropological essays, composed by some of the leading figures in the discipline. It applies their concepts, perspectives, and methods to a sustained and diverse understanding of Trump’s supporters, policies, and performance in office.The volume includes ethnographic case studies of "Trump country," examines Trump’s actions in office, and moves beyond Trump as an individual political fgure to consider larger structural and institutional issues.
Providing a unique and valuable perspective on the Trump phenomenon, it will be of interest to anthropologists and other social scientists concerned with contemporary American society and politics as well as suitable reading for courses on political anthropology and US culture.
