The Anthropological Act of the Year 2020 award has been granted to a person and publisher who have advanced the production of anthropological knowledge in Finnish in Finland. Warmest congratulations to Tutkijaliitto and Anna Tuomikoski for the excellent translation of anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s book Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (2015) with the Finnish title of Lopun aikojen sieni: elämää kapitalismin raunioissa.” The Finish Anthropological Association rewards the award for not only brilliantly translating the book, but also for publishing it.
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s anthropological study about the social networks of the matsutake mushroom and humans in the ruins of capitalism is work that opens various new perspectives. In the book, Tsing places the social relationships between humans and non-humans and the production of value and meaning in an altered landscape and through various supply chains in the centre of the analytical focus. The anthropological discussion is renewed by working together with natural scientists; an ethnographic study requires the art of noticing in collaboration with other scientists in different landscapes where humans, mushroom, trees and many others create meaningful entanglements.
In the Finnish translation difficult concepts have been translated brilliantly, the text flows, and it is a pleasure to read even if the topic of the book is demanding. In addition, Tutkijaliitto has courageously decided to translate an anthropological book in Finnish even if the discipline is not so known in Finland.
Warmest congratulations!
Since 2018, the Society has given Anthropological Act of the Year awards for individuals and groups on the grounds of advancing or enabling anthropological research, making anthropological research visible, participating as an anthropologist in social and political debates, contributing to the development of anthropological teaching, or other related achievements.
