L L Gezon
Biographic Data
| ID | 5914 |
|---|---|
| NAME | L L Gezon |
| GIVEN NAMES | L L |
| FAMILY NAME | Gezon |
| SIGNATURE | GEZON L L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of West Georgia |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5833-3121 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 57 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Why Anthropology Matters in the Age of AI
It began as a simple experiment. One afternoon in Zürich, Tina Reuter opened ChatGPT and typed a familiar greeting in her own dialect of Swiss German: Hoi zäme, wie gaht’s? The system replied polit
Standing in the Gap
Psychedelic research has opened unexpected avenues for advocacy. This paper explores the intersection of advocacy and an ethnographic study on psychedelic integration in the Southeast United States. Mental health professionals aim to make information about the safe use of psychedelics more accessible, even in a legal climate where these substances are illegal and enforcement has historically targeted people of color. This case study examines the …
Psychedelics, Harm Reduction, and Life's Big Questions
The interplay between psychedelic use, mental health, and spiritual, religious, or 'mystical' experiences continues to be investigated through clinical research. While many studies focus on general mechanisms underlying these compounds, analysis of real-life accounts from individuals is underrepresented. To fill that gap, this ethnographic study explores the question of how members of a psychedelic integration group in the Southeastern U.S. perce…
Community-based psychedelic integration and social efficacy
Background and aimsThis qualitative ethnographic study of a psychedelic integration group in the Southeastern United States contributes to an understanding of the role of supportive communities in processing psychedelic experiences. This article proposes the concept of 'social efficacy' to capture the importance of social relationships to the efficacy of psychedelics. Social efficacy refers to a source of efficacy that includes not just the immed…
Place, Power, Difference
Finding the Global in the Local
Politics, Ecologies, Genealogies
Global scouts
This analysis of young adult backpacker experiences around Lake Atitlán, Guatemala examines the potential of travel for individual and social transformation. Although engaged in a highly patterned style of travel, backpackers’ exploration permits a discursive and experiential process of agentive self-definition that not only reproduces, but may also challenge dominant paradigms of spirituality and complementary and alternative medicine. Travel ex…
Beyond (anti)utilitarianism
Madagascar has one of the lowest GDPs in the world. Colonization brought the country into the global economy, but left it at its margins—vulnerable to the hardships of structural adjustment and limitations of state infrastructure. This analysis reveals economic decision-making that defies the utilitarian logic of homo economicus and inspires creative thinking about alternatives to growth as a dominant paradigm. In northern Madagascar, the economy…
"The Loud Silence of "Green Gold
Drug Crops and Food Security
Khat is a bushy plant whose leaves are chewed for their stimulant effect. Although khat has been a boon to the local economy, a suspected disadvantage is that there has been a decrease of land dedicated to rice and vegetable crops. Concerns about khat stem from genuine issues of food security but also from a moral panic targeted at this recreational drug crop. The major finding is that a decrease in vegetable production has not been primarily cau…
Khat commodity chains in Madagascar
Introduction This chapter addresses theoretical and methodological concerns of multi-sited research with reference to a study of khat in Madagascar. The bushy khat plant, whose leaves are chewed fresh for a mild amphetamine effect, grows well in the cool temperatures of the Mt. d’Ambre region in northern Madagascar. Khat first arrived in Madagascar with Yemeni dock workers, hired under a French colonial regime, in the early to mid twentieth centu…
Environmental Social Sciences
The relationship between human communities and the environment is extremely complex. In order to resolve the issues involved with this relationship, interdisciplinary research combining natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities is necessary. In this 2010 book, specialists summarise methods and research strategies for various aspects of social research devoted to environmental issues. Each chapter is illustrated with ethnographic and envir…
Khat in the Western Indian Ocean
Cet article présente le qât (khat), phénomène de la culture de l’océan Indien qu’on doit comprendre dans une perspective historique, et en même temps lié à l’actualité. L’histoire du qât soulève en effet des questions d’importance contemporaine : sa popularité croissante, les ressources économiques qu’il procure aux agriculteurs et aux commerçants, une signification culturelle qui en fait un marqueur d’identité, et enfin le mépris, la suspicion e…
Encountering the Unexpected
As we learn and teach in introductory courses, one of the key assets of the anthropological perspective is the ability to remain flexible in order to accommodate the unknown, especially in fieldwork. Although Lisa Gezon had planned on conducting straight academic research in northern Madagascar this past summer (2007), this research unexpectedly allowed her also to embrace the roles of professor and advocate. Although Alex Totomarovario had plann…
Locating the Political in Political Ecology
Recent debates within political ecology have motivated new field. In the introduction to this special issue, we vital challenges faced today, and present a new set of studies that respond to these concerns. We conceptualize power as a social relation built on the asymmetrical distribution of resources and risks and locate power in the interactions among, and the processes that constitute, people, places, and resources. Politics, then, are found i…
Marriage, Kin, and Compensation
While women play a central role in agriculture throughout Africa, it does not follow that all rural-dwelling women subsist primarily on agricultural activities. In the Ankarana region of northern Madagascar, for example, many rural women earn their living through a combination of agricultural day labor, petty buying and selling, and remunerated sexual and domestic relations with men. Their situation encourages an analysis of the multiple ways tha…
From Adversary to Son
Analysis of a conflict concerning herding versus agricultural land-use practices in Madagascar reveals that the dynamics of social organization and differentiation are central in negotiating rights to use and manage biophysical biophysical environment and in understanding the relationship between local and national political contexts. This analysis closely examines a transcript from a village-level trial to assess the interplay among family, vill…
Of Shrimps and Spirit Possession
I present a case of ntual innovation and spirit possession in northern Madagascar that builds on Rappaport's interests in the systemic nature of human-environmental interactions, the relationship between the various levels of political scale, and the interaction between meaning and material relations. I go beyond his formulations in questioning concepts of homeostasis and dynamic equilibrium, and instead propose to understand perturbations as inh…
Institutional Structure and the Effectiveness of Integrated Conservation and Development Projects
The success of conservation efforts does not depend just on having a good project design. The national and international resource management infrastructure plays an important role in enabling projects to meet their goals or in presenting barriers to effective implementation. A study of the institutional infrastructure for resource management in Madagascar has revealed that certain factors — with regards to communication between institutional leve…
Political Ecology and Conflict in Ankarana, Madagascar
Conflict over issues of land use in northern Madagascar reveals that political is situational and that rights to resources are ambiguous. In two cases, local farmers, regional royal indigenous leader, and international conservationists struggled to establish and maintain ability to use and manage forested land to west of Ankarana massif. Political provides a theoretical framework for exploring complex political negotiations that are an integral p…
Additional conference abstracts
Of Shrimps and Spirit Possession
I present a case of ntual innovation and spirit possession in northern Madagascar that builds on Rappaport's interests in the systemic nature of human-environmental interactions, the relationship between the various levels of political scale, and the interaction between meaning and material relations. I go beyond his formulations in questioning concepts of homeostasis and dynamic equilibrium, and instead propose to understand perturbations as inh…
Political Ecology and Conflict in Ankarana, Madagascar
Conflict over issues of land use in northern Madagascar reveals that political is situational and that rights to resources are ambiguous. In two cases, local farmers, regional royal indigenous leader, and international conservationists struggled to establish and maintain ability to use and manage forested land to west of Ankarana massif. Political provides a theoretical framework for exploring complex political negotiations that are an integral p…
Drug Crops and Food Security
Khat is a bushy plant whose leaves are chewed for their stimulant effect. Although khat has been a boon to the local economy, a suspected disadvantage is that there has been a decrease of land dedicated to rice and vegetable crops. Concerns about khat stem from genuine issues of food security but also from a moral panic targeted at this recreational drug crop. The major finding is that a decrease in vegetable production has not been primarily cau…
Global scouts
This analysis of young adult backpacker experiences around Lake Atitlán, Guatemala examines the potential of travel for individual and social transformation. Although engaged in a highly patterned style of travel, backpackers’ exploration permits a discursive and experiential process of agentive self-definition that not only reproduces, but may also challenge dominant paradigms of spirituality and complementary and alternative medicine. Travel ex…
Marriage, Kin, and Compensation
While women play a central role in agriculture throughout Africa, it does not follow that all rural-dwelling women subsist primarily on agricultural activities. In the Ankarana region of northern Madagascar, for example, many rural women earn their living through a combination of agricultural day labor, petty buying and selling, and remunerated sexual and domestic relations with men. Their situation encourages an analysis of the multiple ways tha…
Khat in the Western Indian Ocean
Cet article présente le qât (khat), phénomène de la culture de l’océan Indien qu’on doit comprendre dans une perspective historique, et en même temps lié à l’actualité. L’histoire du qât soulève en effet des questions d’importance contemporaine : sa popularité croissante, les ressources économiques qu’il procure aux agriculteurs et aux commerçants, une signification culturelle qui en fait un marqueur d’identité, et enfin le mépris, la suspicion e…
From Adversary to Son
Analysis of a conflict concerning herding versus agricultural land-use practices in Madagascar reveals that the dynamics of social organization and differentiation are central in negotiating rights to use and manage biophysical biophysical environment and in understanding the relationship between local and national political contexts. This analysis closely examines a transcript from a village-level trial to assess the interplay among family, vill…
Community-based psychedelic integration and social efficacy
Background and aimsThis qualitative ethnographic study of a psychedelic integration group in the Southeastern United States contributes to an understanding of the role of supportive communities in processing psychedelic experiences. This article proposes the concept of 'social efficacy' to capture the importance of social relationships to the efficacy of psychedelics. Social efficacy refers to a source of efficacy that includes not just the immed…
Beyond (anti)utilitarianism
Madagascar has one of the lowest GDPs in the world. Colonization brought the country into the global economy, but left it at its margins—vulnerable to the hardships of structural adjustment and limitations of state infrastructure. This analysis reveals economic decision-making that defies the utilitarian logic of homo economicus and inspires creative thinking about alternatives to growth as a dominant paradigm. In northern Madagascar, the economy…
Psychedelics, Harm Reduction, and Life's Big Questions
The interplay between psychedelic use, mental health, and spiritual, religious, or 'mystical' experiences continues to be investigated through clinical research. While many studies focus on general mechanisms underlying these compounds, analysis of real-life accounts from individuals is underrepresented. To fill that gap, this ethnographic study explores the question of how members of a psychedelic integration group in the Southeastern U.S. perce…
"The Loud Silence of "Green Gold
Additional conference abstracts
Institutional Structure and the Effectiveness of Integrated Conservation and Development Projects
The success of conservation efforts does not depend just on having a good project design. The national and international resource management infrastructure plays an important role in enabling projects to meet their goals or in presenting barriers to effective implementation. A study of the institutional infrastructure for resource management in Madagascar has revealed that certain factors — with regards to communication between institutional leve…
Political Ecology and Conflict in Ankarana, Madagascar
Conflict over issues of land use in northern Madagascar reveals that political is situational and that rights to resources are ambiguous. In two cases, local farmers, regional royal indigenous leader, and international conservationists struggled to establish and maintain ability to use and manage forested land to west of Ankarana massif. Political provides a theoretical framework for exploring complex political negotiations that are an integral p…
From Adversary to Son
Analysis of a conflict concerning herding versus agricultural land-use practices in Madagascar reveals that the dynamics of social organization and differentiation are central in negotiating rights to use and manage biophysical biophysical environment and in understanding the relationship between local and national political contexts. This analysis closely examines a transcript from a village-level trial to assess the interplay among family, vill…
Of Shrimps and Spirit Possession
I present a case of ntual innovation and spirit possession in northern Madagascar that builds on Rappaport's interests in the systemic nature of human-environmental interactions, the relationship between the various levels of political scale, and the interaction between meaning and material relations. I go beyond his formulations in questioning concepts of homeostasis and dynamic equilibrium, and instead propose to understand perturbations as inh…
Marriage, Kin, and Compensation
While women play a central role in agriculture throughout Africa, it does not follow that all rural-dwelling women subsist primarily on agricultural activities. In the Ankarana region of northern Madagascar, for example, many rural women earn their living through a combination of agricultural day labor, petty buying and selling, and remunerated sexual and domestic relations with men. Their situation encourages an analysis of the multiple ways tha…
Locating the Political in Political Ecology
Recent debates within political ecology have motivated new field. In the introduction to this special issue, we vital challenges faced today, and present a new set of studies that respond to these concerns. We conceptualize power as a social relation built on the asymmetrical distribution of resources and risks and locate power in the interactions among, and the processes that constitute, people, places, and resources. Politics, then, are found i…
Encountering the Unexpected
As we learn and teach in introductory courses, one of the key assets of the anthropological perspective is the ability to remain flexible in order to accommodate the unknown, especially in fieldwork. Although Lisa Gezon had planned on conducting straight academic research in northern Madagascar this past summer (2007), this research unexpectedly allowed her also to embrace the roles of professor and advocate. Although Alex Totomarovario had plann…
Khat in the Western Indian Ocean
Cet article présente le qât (khat), phénomène de la culture de l’océan Indien qu’on doit comprendre dans une perspective historique, et en même temps lié à l’actualité. L’histoire du qât soulève en effet des questions d’importance contemporaine : sa popularité croissante, les ressources économiques qu’il procure aux agriculteurs et aux commerçants, une signification culturelle qui en fait un marqueur d’identité, et enfin le mépris, la suspicion e…
Khat commodity chains in Madagascar
Introduction This chapter addresses theoretical and methodological concerns of multi-sited research with reference to a study of khat in Madagascar. The bushy khat plant, whose leaves are chewed fresh for a mild amphetamine effect, grows well in the cool temperatures of the Mt. d’Ambre region in northern Madagascar. Khat first arrived in Madagascar with Yemeni dock workers, hired under a French colonial regime, in the early to mid twentieth centu…
Environmental Social Sciences
The relationship between human communities and the environment is extremely complex. In order to resolve the issues involved with this relationship, interdisciplinary research combining natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities is necessary. In this 2010 book, specialists summarise methods and research strategies for various aspects of social research devoted to environmental issues. Each chapter is illustrated with ethnographic and envir…
Drug Crops and Food Security
Khat is a bushy plant whose leaves are chewed for their stimulant effect. Although khat has been a boon to the local economy, a suspected disadvantage is that there has been a decrease of land dedicated to rice and vegetable crops. Concerns about khat stem from genuine issues of food security but also from a moral panic targeted at this recreational drug crop. The major finding is that a decrease in vegetable production has not been primarily cau…
"The Loud Silence of "Green Gold
Global scouts
This analysis of young adult backpacker experiences around Lake Atitlán, Guatemala examines the potential of travel for individual and social transformation. Although engaged in a highly patterned style of travel, backpackers’ exploration permits a discursive and experiential process of agentive self-definition that not only reproduces, but may also challenge dominant paradigms of spirituality and complementary and alternative medicine. Travel ex…
Beyond (anti)utilitarianism
Madagascar has one of the lowest GDPs in the world. Colonization brought the country into the global economy, but left it at its margins—vulnerable to the hardships of structural adjustment and limitations of state infrastructure. This analysis reveals economic decision-making that defies the utilitarian logic of homo economicus and inspires creative thinking about alternatives to growth as a dominant paradigm. In northern Madagascar, the economy…
Place, Power, Difference
Finding the Global in the Local
Politics, Ecologies, Genealogies
Community-based psychedelic integration and social efficacy
Background and aimsThis qualitative ethnographic study of a psychedelic integration group in the Southeastern United States contributes to an understanding of the role of supportive communities in processing psychedelic experiences. This article proposes the concept of 'social efficacy' to capture the importance of social relationships to the efficacy of psychedelics. Social efficacy refers to a source of efficacy that includes not just the immed…
Standing in the Gap
Psychedelic research has opened unexpected avenues for advocacy. This paper explores the intersection of advocacy and an ethnographic study on psychedelic integration in the Southeast United States. Mental health professionals aim to make information about the safe use of psychedelics more accessible, even in a legal climate where these substances are illegal and enforcement has historically targeted people of color. This case study examines the …
Psychedelics, Harm Reduction, and Life's Big Questions
The interplay between psychedelic use, mental health, and spiritual, religious, or 'mystical' experiences continues to be investigated through clinical research. While many studies focus on general mechanisms underlying these compounds, analysis of real-life accounts from individuals is underrepresented. To fill that gap, this ethnographic study explores the question of how members of a psychedelic integration group in the Southeastern U.S. perce…
Why Anthropology Matters in the Age of AI
It began as a simple experiment. One afternoon in Zürich, Tina Reuter opened ChatGPT and typed a familiar greeting in her own dialect of Swiss German: Hoi zäme, wie gaht’s? The system replied polit
Sociology (15 works) · Political science (14 works) · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Ecology (7 works) · Geography (7 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Ecology (5 works)