Ep #75 The Anthropologists Perspective on Nomadland & Commodified Mothers: This Month of TFS

The Familiar Strange

This month familiar stranger Tim kicks us off by pondering the ethnographic and anthropological nature of the award winning film Nomadland directed by Chloé Zhao. The strangers discuss the almost anthropological origins of the film and other similar works that deal with the precariat or nomads the movie is based around. The strangers then dive into the origins of Mother’s Day and the subsequent commodification of the day itself. They discuss some of the positives and contrast it with a similar “Mother’s day” celebrated on the 27th of May in Bolivia. Just a note on sound quality: We are still conducting our panels over Zoom so the internet and audio quality might not be as clear in some places. The podcast editing team is working on a solution! Head to our website for a full list of links and citations! This anthropology podcast is supported by the Australian Anthropological Society, the ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific and College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, and is produced in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association. Music by Pete Dabro: dabro1.bandcamp.com Shownotes by Matthew Phung Podcast edited by Timothy Johnson and Matthew Phung