Because we work on a threeto six-month lead schedule, these From the Editor remarks were written in early March, just as the COVID-19 crisis was generating stay-at-home orders, but before we saw the incredible surge of COVID-related deaths in Italy, New York, and elsewhere. At that point,our universities were hastily “depopulating,”and the federal response was tepid at best. I had wanted to write something that would reflect the uncertainty,anger,and fear of that moment,and because I was having difficulty capturing those atmospherics in academic prose, I decided to write a parable. Reading it in proofs now, only one month later, after so much has changed (and so much will change again before these remarks actually appear online), it feels insensitive. What was meant to be a critique of isolationism, anti-scientism, knee-jerk nationalism, and narcissism, and a celebration of the forms of life and care that people enact even in the face of extraordinary difficulty, now falls a bit flat. We will no doubt all be changed by the COVID-19 pandemic in ways we cannot even imagine just now:we will have lost people we love,we will be more circumspect, we will be enraged by the many structural inequalities globally that the virus has drawn in stark relief.But we will also have had moments to be grateful, and I hope that you will receive this parable in the spirit of its original intention, within the context of its historical moment. If ever there were a reminder that all anthropological writing is actually also historical, this is it.

中文翻译：

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恐慌和流行病

因为我们的工作提前期为三到六个月，这些来自编辑的评论是在 3 月初写的，就像 COVID-19 危机正在产生居家订单一样，但在我们看到与 COVID-相关的令人难以置信的激增之前在意大利、纽约和其他地方死亡。那时，我们的大学正在仓促地“人口减少”，而联邦政府的反应充其量只是不温不火。我本来想写一些能反映那一刻的不确定性、愤怒和恐惧的东西，因为我很难在学术散文中捕捉到这些气氛，所以我决定写一个寓言。现在在校样中阅读它，仅仅一个月后，在发生了如此多的变化之后（并且在这些评论真正出现在网上之前还会再次发生变化），感觉麻木不仁。什么是对孤立主义、反科学主义、下意识的民族主义的批判，和自恋，以及人们即使在面对非凡的困难时也会制定的生活方式和关怀形式的庆祝，现在有点平淡了。毫无疑问，我们所有人都将被 COVID-19 大流行以我们现在无法想象的方式改变：我们将失去我们所爱的人，我们将更加谨慎，我们将被病毒在全球范围内造成的许多结构性不平等激怒但我们也会有感恩的时候，我希望你能在这个寓言的历史时刻，本着其初衷的精神接受这个寓言。如果有人提醒说所有人类学著作实际上也是历史的，就是这样。毫无疑问，我们所有人都将被 COVID-19 大流行以我们现在无法想象的方式改变：我们将失去我们所爱的人，我们将更加谨慎，我们将被病毒在全球范围内造成的许多结构性不平等激怒但我们也会有感恩的时候，我希望你能在这个寓言的历史时刻，本着其初衷的精神接受这个寓言。如果有人提醒说所有人类学著作实际上也是历史的，就是这样。毫无疑问，我们所有人都将被 COVID-19 大流行以我们现在无法想象的方式改变：我们将失去我们所爱的人，我们将更加谨慎，我们将被病毒在全球范围内造成的许多结构性不平等激怒但我们也会有感恩的时候，我希望你能在这个寓言的历史时刻，本着其初衷的精神接受这个寓言。如果有人提醒说所有人类学著作实际上也是历史的，就是这样。我希望你能在其历史时刻的背景下，本着其初衷的精神接受这个寓言。如果有人提醒说所有人类学著作实际上也是历史的，就是这样。我希望你能在其历史时刻的背景下，本着其初衷的精神接受这个寓言。如果有人提醒说所有人类学著作实际上也是历史的，就是这样。