HAU, Journal of Ethnographic Theory, is an international peer-reviewed, open-access online journal which aims to situate ethnography as the prime heuristic of anthropology, and return it to the forefront of conceptual developments in the discipline.

The journal is motivated by the need to reinstate ethnographic theorization in contemporary anthropology as a potent alternative to its ‘explanation’ or ‘contextualization’ by philosophical arguments, moves which have resulted in a loss of the discipline’s distinctive theoretical nerve. By drawing out its potential to critically engage and challenge Western cosmological assumptions and conceptual determinations, HAU aims to provide an exciting new arena for evaluating ethnography as a daring enterprise for ‘worlding’ alien terms and forms of life, by exploiting their potential for rethinking humanity and alterity.

HAU will launch online in Fall 2011 with a special double issue on the Return of Ethnographic Theory, which puts forward the concept of the journal with original contributions from Jeanne Favret-Saada, David Graeber, Wang Mingming, Laura Nader, Marshall Sahlins, Gregory Schrempp, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Roy Wagner, and many others.

Alongside the online journal, Hau is coordinating two additional lines of publication:

1) An open-access monograph series, entitled Classics in Ethnographic Theory. By reprinting modern or forgotten classics in ethnographic theory, we hope to revive interest in seminal monographs and illustrate how the work of ‘ethnographic theorists’ such as Pitt-Rivers anticipated philosophical debates in Continental Philosophy (i.e. Derrida on ‘hostipitality’). Each monograph will be prefaced by a prominent contemporary anthropologist. This series will commence with a reprint of Prytz-Johansen’s superb yet virtually unknown study of Maori ontologies: The Maori and his Religion (1954), prefaced by Marshall Sahlins.

2) A Masterclass Series of important lectures and course notes. Vivieros de Castro’s unabridged Cambridge lectures on perspectivism, prefaced by Roy Wagner, will inaugurate this series.

Official Web

HAU, Journal of Ethnographic Theory, is an international peer-reviewed, open-access online journal which aims to situate ethnography as the prime heuristic of anthropology, and return it to the forefront of conceptual developments in the discipline.

The journal is motivated by the need to reinstate ethnographic theorization in contemporary anthropology as a potent alternative to its ‘explanation’ or ‘contextualization’ by philosophical arguments, moves which have resulted in a loss of the discipline’s distinctive theoretical nerve. By drawing out its potential to critically engage and challenge Western cosmological assumptions and conceptual determinations, HAU aims to provide an exciting new arena for evaluating ethnography as a daring enterprise for ‘worlding’ alien terms and forms of life, by exploiting their potential for rethinking humanity and alterity.

HAU will launch online in Fall 2011 with a special double issue on the Return of Ethnographic Theory, which puts forward the concept of the journal with original contributions from Jeanne Favret-Saada, David Graeber, Wang Mingming, Laura Nader, Marshall Sahlins, Gregory Schrempp, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Roy Wagner, and many others.

Alongside the online journal, Hau is coordinating two additional lines of publication:

1) An open-access monograph series, entitled Classics in Ethnographic Theory. By reprinting modern or forgotten classics in ethnographic theory, we hope to revive interest in seminal monographs and illustrate how the work of ‘ethnographic theorists’ such as Pitt-Rivers anticipated philosophical debates in Continental Philosophy (i.e. Derrida on ‘hostipitality’). Each monograph will be prefaced by a prominent contemporary anthropologist. This series will commence with a reprint of Prytz-Johansen’s superb yet virtually unknown study of Maori ontologies: The Maori and his Religion (1954), prefaced by Marshall Sahlins.

2) A Masterclass Series of important lectures and course notes. Vivieros de Castro’s unabridged Cambridge lectures on perspectivism, prefaced by Roy Wagner, will inaugurate this series.

Official Web