Why Anthropology Needs the Global South

What would anthropology look like if the South were our North? This book turns the map upside down and calls for transforming anthropology from a singular to a plural perspective, which recognizes the Global South as a site of original theory and research rather than merely a source of information.

The book acknowledges the structure of racialized and gendered inequalities within which ethnographic research has historically been, and continues to be, conducted, and recognizes the hierarchies created in the West regarding non-Western anthropologists. The authors in this book offer fresh and accessible reflections on their anthropological journeys in the Global South, North, and the worlds in between. They share their ethnographic insights and personal stories to answer the question of why anthropology still needs the Global South.

Why Anthropology Needs the Global South is an essential read for anthropology students, professionals and teachers, as well as for anyone seeking a compass for navigating the contemporary world.

Carla Guerrón Montero is an applied cultural anthropologist working on world anthropologies, the anthropology of tourism, and the anthropology of food in the African diaspora. She is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Material Culture Studies (CMCS) at the University of Delaware. Guerrón Montero is the author of several books, including From Temporary Migrants to Permanent Attractions: Tourism, Cultural Heritage, and Afro-Antillean Identities in Panama (2020), its Spanish translation (2023), and the coauthored The Origins of Prejudice (2026). She is co-editor of the award-winning Why the World Needs Anthropologists (Routledge, 2021, 2026). Guerrón Montero is a long-standing member of the EASA Applied Anthropology Network (AAN) and currently serves as its co-convenor through 2028.

Dan Podjed is an applied anthropologist from Slovenia whose work explores isolation, crises, human–technology interaction, and sustainable ways of living. He is a senior research fellow at the Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, a professorat the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Arts, and a field expert at the Institute for Innovation and Development of the University of Ljubljana. He is the founder of the EASA AAN and the initiator of the international event Why the World Needs Anthropologists, organized annually since 2013. Podjed is the author of several books written for both academic and general audiences, a frequent public speaker, and a regular contributor to media discussions on social and technological change. The Slovenian Science Foundation named him 2024 Science Communicator of the Year for his public science outreach.