‘A Russian, an Italian, could not justify beating his wife to death by referring to the customs of dear old Moscow or Calabria’… Read the rest

Terrorists, freedom fighters, fundamentalists, postcolonialism, the Enlightenment – all contested, as usual. … Read the rest

When students are consumers, they want what they pay for.… Read the rest

‘There is nothing sacrosanct about any culture or religion’s rituals. Cultures are neither monolithic, unchanging, nor without internal critique and resistance…’… Read the rest

Scientists are humorless nerds, and crop circles and crystals are more fun.… Read the rest

If Lentricchia and Said have joined, the revenge of the emeriti may not be so regressive after all.… Read the rest

A scandal in anthropology is complicated by politics, emotion, prestige – the usual sort of thing.… Read the rest

‘We are in danger of losing our grip on the concepts of truth, evidence, objectivity, disinterested inquiry.’… Read the rest

It’s important to distinguish between necessary, useful technicality, and jargon or pseudo-mathematics substituting for genuine rigor.… Read the rest

What if you want to talk about an authentic self instead of an ‘authentic self’?… Read the rest

The new chauvinism receives official sanction from government and academic institutions.… Read the rest

The world is a jungle, barely one child in a hundred escapes being murdered! Or so you would think.… Read the rest

‘Death and marriage may have fed and fuelled her writing, but – posthumously at least – they cramp her style.’… Read the rest

‘Among his many weapons are a forensic curiosity, a vast learning, a savage wit, a commanding intellect, an international perspective and a moral authority that is built on something sturdier than cheap moralising.’… Read the rest

Slaughter of innocents, human sacrifice, eternal torture – it’s all there.… Read the rest

The way to ‘reject the insipid relativism of the tabula rasa without denying or ignoring the freedom and variability of individual human beings and their cultures.’… Read the rest

Sally Satel looks at the way we construct narratives about our symptoms.… Read the rest

Book reviews in glossy magazines, worshipful interviewers on public radio and tv, ‘annoying’ as the ultimate condemnation…… Read the rest

What life was really like in Saddam’s Iraq and what it’s like now.… Read the rest

‘The anti-intellectuals are finally on the side of power at its most unforgiving and voracious.’… Read the rest