Everyday I take my canine familiars on walks throughout my neighborhood and local parks. At some point I decided to begin picking up trash along the way, certain that others would also prefer a landscape of plants rather than plastic. These small plastic liquor bottles? I collect dozens of these diminutive, infernal, single-use, single-dose bottles. As more and more states ban plastic bags — some good news in an otherwise bleak news era — why are these allowed? Go Green, Plastic is Obscene!

Posted by:
kimberlytheidon
Kimberly Theidon is a medical anthropologist focusing on Latin America. Her research interests include critical theory applied to medicine, psychology and anthropology, domestic, structural and political violence, transitional justice, reconciliation, and the politics of post-war reparations. She is the author of Entre Prójimos: El conflicto armado interno y la política de la reconciliación en el Perú (Instituto de Estudios Peruanos. first edition 2004) and Intimate Enemies: Violence and Reconciliation in Peru (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). She is currently involved in two research projects. She is completing research on “Pasts Imperfect: Working with Former Combatants in Colombia,” in which she works with former combatants from the paramilitaries, the FARC and the ELN. In Peru, she is conducting “Speaking of Silences: Sexual Violence and Redress in Peru,” an ethnographically grounded study of reparations, gender and justice. Dr. Theidon is an associate professor of anthropology at Harvard University, and the director of Praxis Institute for Social Justice.