What Can Anthropology Say about Populism?

Abstract

In a recent article in Anthropology News, Víctor Giménez Aliaga suggests that the contemporary wave of populism calls for closer anthropological analysis of the term and its usages. While it is less interesting to me to partake in the eternal strive to define “what populism means,” I concur with Giménez Aliaga with the need for anthropology to asses “practices—that is, the ways and purposes with which the term is used in the political arena. In response to Gimenéz Aliaga’s call, I will try to sketch out some of the insights an anthropological perspective could provide around current political transformations.