1st Edition

The Anthropology of Donald Trump Culture and the Exceptional Moment

Edited By Jack David Eller Copyright 2022
254 Pages 44 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

254 Pages 44 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

254 Pages 44 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

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... Read more

Introduction; Jack David Eller

Part One: Ethnographies of Trump Country

Chapter 1 Stigmatized Identity Motivating Right-Wing Populism: How the Tea Party Learned to Love Donald Trump; William Westermeyer

Chapter 2 The Reddest of States: Fieldnotes from Trumplandia; Michael Harkin

Chapter 3 Making the Cuban American Dream Great Again: Race and Immigrant Citizenship in Miami; Ariana Hernandez-Reguant

Chapter 4 We’re on the Same Team, Right?: Political Polarization and Social Connections in "Trump Country"; Claudine Pied

Part Two: Performing and Representing Donald Trump

Chapter 5 Indexing Ambivalence: Laterality and Negation in Donald Trump’s Co-Speech Gestures; Daniel Lefkowitz

Chapter 6 Trump the Caudillo: Tapping into Already-Existing Populist Unrest; Micah J. Fleck

Chapter 7 Lying as a Cultural System; Jack David Eller

Chapter 8 Orange Candles and Shriveled Cheetos: Symbolic Representations of Trump in the Anti-Trump Witchcraft Movement; Julia C. Fine

Part Three: Donald Trump versus Social Institutions

Chapter 9 "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; Benjamin Schaefer

Chapter 10 Trumping the Past, Trumping the Future: How Political Messianism and Conspiracy Theory Cultism Come Front and Center in American Politics; Bruce Knauft

Chapter 11 Hindutva and Donald Trump: An Unholy Relation; Raj Singh

Chapter 12 The Events at the Capitol and the Trump Mediation: America’s Uncivil War and New Authoritarian Totalitarian Possibilities; Bruce Kapferer and Roland Kapferer

Afterword; Jeff Maskovsky

Biography

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.