Front and Back Covers, Volume 41, Number 2. April 2025

Abstract

Front and back cover caption, volume 41 issue 2

THE BEARD AS IDENTITY

For Danish Sufis of the Naqshbandi Mujaddidi Saifi order, growing a beard is not just a personal choice – it is a spiritual necessity. The beard in this image represents the multiple meanings these beards carry in contemporary Denmark.

Inside their community, the beard connects Sufi men directly to Prophet Muhammad, whose example they strive to follow in every aspect of life. It marks spiritual progress and devotion. As one Saifi explained, ‘In the grave, at least I have one sunnah, and the Prophet will see me and know what kind of person I am’.

Outside their community, the same beard subjects them to suspicion and discrimination. Some lose job opportunities. Others face hostile questions from strangers who associate Muslim beards with extremism. Family members worry about their prospects in Danish society.

Yet these men transform daily challenges into spiritual opportunities. As one Saifi explains, the difficulties they face become meaningful as part of their spiritual journey.

In this issue, anthropologist Mikkel Rytter examines this tension between what he calls ‘mundane otherness’ – being visibly different in secular Danish society – and ‘transcendent Otherness’ – the spiritual goal of emulating the Prophet. By growing beards despite the consequences, these Danish Muslims turn visible markers of difference into pathways of devotion.

Like the multicoloured strands in this image, the Saifi beard weaves together religious tradition, personal identity and daily life in a society where being visibly Muslim remains challenging.

Back cover caption, volume 41 issue 2

CRYPTO BLIND SPOT

This illustration depicts the anthropological researcher at the threshold of cryptocurrency communities – represented by blockchain patterns, network nodes and the Bitcoin symbol. It visually captures the central argument of Annaliese Milano Merfield's guest editorial in this issue: anthropology has largely avoided meaningful engagement with crypto communities, instead reducing them to stereotypes such as ‘libertarians’, ‘bros’ or ‘speculators’.

Merfield challenges the discipline's tendency to apply journalistic-style ethics when studying groups anthropologists may find politically or ideologically unpalatable. She argues that dismissing crypto as mere scams or gambling overlooks its complexity as a social phenomenon with genuine attempts to reimagine economic systems.

Anthropology has a dilemma: how to approach communities that do not neatly fit into traditional analytical categories of marginality or power. Merfield suggests that, much like blockchain's open, decentralized nature, anthropology should strive to be genuinely inclusive – even of communities researchers may personally dislike.

This calls for renewed ethnographic commitment: to abandon preconceptions, embrace long-term fieldwork and allow ourselves to be surprised by our interlocutors. Only by addressing this disciplinary blind spot can anthropology remain true to its cosmopolitan ideals and avoid becoming what it sometimes accuses others of being – disconnected and reactionary.