327,287 research outputs found
World. An anthropological examination (Part 1)
Get PDFAnthropologists often take recourse to the word “world” as if its meaning were selfevident,
but the word remains highly ambivalent, often extending its meaning in a
perilously polysemic fashion. So, the question of “what world are we engaging?” imposes
itself, particularly as it leads to another important question: are there “worlds”? This latter
question raises some of the fundamental perplexities that have haunted anthropological
theory throughout the past century. In this series of two articles, I propose to abandon the
established dichotomy between rather crude forms of realism and equally crude forms of
semiotic idealism. I sustain that we cannot discuss world without considering for whom,
but that this is fully compatible with single-world ontology if we take into account the role
of personhood in the human condition. This first article argues for a single-world ontology
and for the centrality of personhood. It explores the implications of a form of minimal
realism that best suits the ethnographic gesture, while the second article responds to the
question of world-forming, the matter of worldview
The materiality of indeterminacy . . . on paper, at least
No full textResponse to HAU Book Symposium on Hull, Matthew. 2012. Government of paper: The materiality of bureaucracy in urban Pakistan. Berkeley: University of California Press
Ethics and the “rough ground” of the everyday: The overlappings of life in postinvasion Iraq.
Get PDFBeyond the stories of collapse, devastation, and moral uncertainty in Iraq’s recent history there are tales of connections, relations, and the entanglements of lives which are named in forms such as friendship and family, and modes of comporting to others such as care, attention, and even love, which have yet to become part of how one thinks and writes about life after the invasion. In this article the authors draw attention to a picture of the lives of Iraqis as caught not merely in the forms and structures of tribal obligations and sectarianism, and the violence and destruction of terror, but also in the rough ground of mundane affairs and encounters. We argue that in the overlappings and relations of lives and intentionalities resides an intercorporeal ethics of the rough ground of the everyday. An ethics of the rough ground of the everyday is one understood not only in terms of the ways in which life is open to the pain, suffering, joy, and ennui of others, but in terms of how in the entanglements and relations of lives with other lives in the everyday, lines of care and concern emerge, are fostered, and also frayed
God is other(s): Anthropological pietism and the beings of metamorphosis
Get PDFRejoinder to Willerslev, Rane, and Christian Suhr. 2018. “Is there a place for faith in anthropology? Religion, reason, and the ethnographer’s divine revelation.” Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 8 (1): 65–7
Divining, testing, and the problem of accountability
No full textRejoinder to Whyte, Sue Reynolds, Michael Whyte, and David Kyanddondo. 2018. “Technologies of inquiry: HIV tests and divination.” Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 8 (1): 97–10
Reincarnation redux
No full textJarillo et al.’s attempted refutation of Malinowski’s claims as to Trobrianders’ “universally” shared belief in baloma reincarnation fails. Contrary to their claims, Malinowski’s “Baloma” article (1916) documented wide, often contradictory variation in Islanders’ opinions which his revolutionary methodology was explicitly aimed at resolving. Jarillo et al.’s multidisciplinary research has not produced an explanatory model sufficient to supersede Malinowski’s solution—the formulation of the culture as a functionally integrated totality. Methodologically, they incorporate ethnographic preconceptions arising from Euro-American assumptions about indigenous personhood, agency, exchange, hierarchy, and the afterlife which are incapable of shedding new light on beliefs and practices current in Malinowski’s time. Their claims as to Malinowski’s own Western preconceptions do not change the documented fact that reincarnation beliefs predate his arrival. Finally, Jarillo et al.’s Trobriand collaborators and survey participants have been selected through non-random procedures at variance with the standards of quantitative social science
The social skin
No full textThis is a reprint of Terence S. Turner, 1980. “The Social Skin.” In Not work alone: A cross-cultural view of activities superfluous to survival, edited by Jeremy Cherfas and Roger Lewin, 112–140. London: Temple Smith
Iconoclasms in Africa: Implications for the debate on restitution of cultural heritage
No full textThis article demonstrates that a long history of iconoclastic struggles exists in numerous countries of sub-Saharan Africa and extends into the present. Exploring a range of motives and messages, I argue that iconoclasm targets people and their emotions and not just things, as monuments, devotional objects, and works of art become substitutes for those individuals, who are identified with them as patrons, makers, or caretakers. Iconoclastic controversies constitute a site where knowledge about the nature of representation and about the relationship of the past to the present is created and challenged. Whereas ongoing discussions about restitution have tended to foreground professionals in the culture industry, iconoclastic controversies provide a valuable opportunity to listen to self-identified stakeholders who claim a voice in determining the role of images in their societies, the question that lies at the core of the restitution debate
Coastal Erosion Processes near sea dikes in Hai Hau district, Vietnam
No full textThe erosion problem in Hai Hau coastal district (Vietnam) is the subject of this thesis. The exact processes that drive this ongoing erosion however are not well defined yet, and therefore two main goals are defined. The first goal is to gain more insight into the processes that drive the ongoing erosion in Hai Hau. The second goal is to predict the future developments of the nearshore area with following consequences for the coastal defense system. The most important results are: 1. Large amounts of wave energy coming from north-eastern directions are blocked by the Ba Lat delta. The only waves reaching the northern part of the Hai Hau coast refract around the delta. These refracted waves are lower than the waves in the other parts of Hai Hau. 2. Modeling south-western currents along the Ba Lat delta showed that the flow is restored at a distance of approximately 13 km south of the southern spit of the Ba Lat delta. Due to the asymmetrical shape of the Ba Lat delta this reattachment point is expected to be located more south in reality. 3. Alongshore sediment transport modeling by waves only, resulted in southward directed transport in winter, with increasing transport capacities in southern direction. Summer transport directions are north. In the annual transport a point of diverging transport direction has been observed near Van Ly. 4. Lowering of the seabed in front of the dikes resulted in a reduction of sediment transport capacities for all locations. The transport gradients, and hence the eroded volumes, decrease as well. These results lead to the following conclusions: a) The sheltering effect of the Ba Lat delta on the sediment transport in Hai Hau is a reduction in sediment transport capacities in the northern parts during winter monsoon periods. This transport increases in southern direction. During summer monsoon periods waves are not hindered to reach the shore and transport capacities are more constant. b) conclusions regarding the annual erosion were based on the assumption that the large scale residual currents reattach in the middle of Hai Hau. Currents along the coast are expected to increase in southern direction from 0 m/s in the North to 0.2 m/s in the South. c) The present annual eroding volume is approximated at 546.000 m3/year. 4) Lowering of the seabed in front of dikes over the width of the surfzone due to ongoing erosion, reduces the width over which sediment is transported in longshore direction. This also leads to lowering of alongshore sediment transports rates and eroded volumes. An equilibrium situation is not to be expected in the near future.Civil Engineering and Geoscience
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