Suchergebnisse

Between 1973 and 1990, Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile implemented the systematic practice of forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in order to eradicate the imagined "communist cancer" (Wyndham and Read 2010: 31). A total of 3,227 deaths have been tallied; 1,465 of these were cases of detenidos-desaparecidos, or enforced disappearances (Garrido and Intriago 2012: 34). Scholars suggest that Chile's transition to democracy will remain incomplete without first locating and identifying the desaparecidos (Aguilar 2002). Through methods of comparing postmortem skeletal analysis with antemortem data, forensic anthropologists carry out the important work that makes identifications possible. This thesis evaluates the development of the field of forensic anthropology in Chile, taking into consideration certain peculiarities in such development that led to errors in identifying the dead. An analysis of these errors, the circumstances that led to them, and the resulting response in their aftermath, provides an important lesson for the improvement of the field as it moves forward and is applied in other global contexts. I take an anthropological approach to this case, and rely on comparison with the U.S. and several other international cases. As the field of forensic anthropology matures, ethnographic studies of scientists and their practices have begun to emerge. Additionally, there has been an increased reflexivity on the part of the forensic scientists themselves. Following these trends, I rely on personal interviews and reflections of key forensic practitioners in Chile. This thesis aims to join the ongoing discussion, and to raise awareness of the important role forensic anthropology plays in uncovering the truth, providing evidence of political crimes, revising historical memory and, most importantly, returning loved ones to their families in the hopes of giving them solace from their suffering.

In Uncertainty and Possibility: New Approaches to Future Making in Design Anthropology authors Akama, Pink and Sumartojo provide a fascinating account of the theory and practice of uncertainty, which they investigate via a series of innovative and interdisciplinary Design+Ethnography+Futures workshops. Intentionally skewing the standard workshop format by setting ambiguous tasks, selecting unusual locations and steering away from academic conventions, the researchers disrupt the participants' personal and professional boundaries and explore their reaction to uncertainty. The creative methodologies deployed by the researchers, their exploratory approach and the novel ways they pursue knowledge production and applied research are particularly stimulating, paving the way for meaningful 'real-world' anthropological research interventions in social and political contexts.

In Poland, anthropology has never been taught as a mandatory or optional course outside university education. Some attempts to introduce anthropology at a level of secondary school were made at the beginning of the 1990s by the late Krzysztof J. Brozi, university professor of philosophy and cultural anthropology. In his arguments in favor of anthropology Brozi insisted on the general humanistic value of anthropology as a discipline studying cultural diversity, and its popularity in the West, particularly in the United States. He trusted that in the period of enthusiasm for sweeping revolutionary changes in all domains of social life this move would bring expected results, however it was an illusory hope. As far as we know, these attempts did not reach beyond discussions in small academic circles and did not reach the governmental level essential for anthropology to be introduced in the country. Furthermore, most policy makers and representatives of educational institutions in the central administration, independently of their political orientation, probably saw philosophy as the humanistic subject that should be taught in secondary schools rather than anthropology. Instead, it is religion and not anthropology that is offered as an elective subject in schools (Buchowski, Chlewińska 2011).

Student creative assignment collection is inspired by the idea that music can be assigned broader symbolic roles in society and culture, roles in which music itself is taken to symbolize values, beliefs and even passions of the most general nature. Students enrolled in the course Anthropology of Music came from a variety of disciplines and created their unique interpretation of Jazz that reflects their personal understanding of jazz music as a symbol of human modern thought, metaphor for democracy and freedom of expression. ; https://source.sheridancollege.ca/swfhass_antrop_catalog/1000/thumbnail.jpg

In 2003, anthropologist and theorist Talal Asad published Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. This influential work presents a genealogy of "the secular," the dialectic nature of that genealogy vis a vis that of the set of knowledges, sensibilities, policies, and affects that constitute the modern, and a response to the eminent philosopher, Charles Taylor's "Modes of Secularism" (1998). Asad focuses the project by asking, "What is the connection between the secular as an epistemic category and secularism as a political doctrine? Can they be objects of anthropological inquiry? What might an Anthropology of secularism look like?"This thesis attempts, in a preliminary fashion, to address the questions put forth by Asad within the context of the social, political, and religious landscape of contemporary Japan. Having noted a reductive tendency among certain scholars of Japanese religion and culture to apprehend the secular through simple negation of the religious, my purpose is to begin to problematize the construction of "secular" as a valid and encompassing category through a detailed investigation of the conditions and consequences that pertain to secularism as a political doctrine in contemporary Japan. This thesis will show that Japan's project of secularization is mediated by a complicated politics of memory relating to categories of conflict and national identity. Through a close historiographic analysis of primary and secondary source material related to court cases, legislation, and the political and social issues surrounding Yasukuni Shrine, I propose to articulate "the secular" as a dimension of modernity that acts not in opposition to, but in dialogue with, "the religious." Put simply, the project seeks to develop a framework of central concepts and conditions from which Asad's exploration of the potential for an "Anthropology of secularism" might be extended to Japan.

En este artículo se realiza una reflexión sobre el proceso de conformación del ámbito de los estudios sociales sobre el patrimonio cultural en Brasil, tomando como eje principal el papel ocupado por la antropología, y los antropólogos en particular, en dicho contexto. Por una parte, se describe el desarrollo de las discusiones académicas de este medio a través del análisis de los principales trabajos que lo han modelado y de los entornos sociales y políticos en que emergen. Por la otra, se analiza el papel que han jugado los antropólogos en la apertura de la discusión y de las formas de gestión del patrimonio, históricamente dominado por la arquitectura. Por último, y a lo largo del texto, se plantea una discusión sobre el papel y las encrucijadas que enfrenta la antropología, y sus practicantes, en los nuevos procesos ligados a la adopción del denominado patrimonio cultural inmaterial. ; This paper presents a reflection about the consolidation of social studies of the cultural heritage field in Brazil, taking as the main axis of analysis the role of anthropology, and its practitioners in this field. Firstly, we offer a description of the principal academic debates by means of the review of the core texts that delineate it, and their political and social contexts of emergence. Secondly, we examine the place of anthropologists in the openness of heritage conceptualization and its ways of management, historically dominated by architects. Throughout the text we propose a discussion about the new place for anthropology, and its practitioners, in the context of the new process related with the adoption of Intangible Heritage policies.

This paper presents a reflection about the consolidation of social studies of the cultural heritage field in Brazil, taking as the main axis of analysis the role of anthropology, and its practitioners in this field. Firstly, we offer a description of the principal academic debates by means of the review of the core texts that delineate it, and their political and social contexts of emergence. Secondly, we examine the place of anthropologists in the openness of heritage conceptualization and its ways of management, historically dominated by architects. Throughout the text we propose a discussion about the new place for anthropology, and its practitioners, in the context of the new process related with the adoption of Intangible Heritage policies. ; En este artículo se realiza una reflexión sobre el proceso de conformación del ámbito de los estudios sociales sobre el patrimonio cultural en Brasil, tomando como eje principal el papel ocupado por la antropología, y los antropólogos en particular, en dicho contexto. Por una parte, se describe el desarrollo de las discusiones académicas de este medio a través del análisis de los principales trabajos que lo han modelado y de los entornos sociales y políticos en que emergen. Por la otra, se analiza el papel que han jugado los antropólogos en la apertura de la discusión y de las formas de gestión del patrimonio, históricamente dominado por la arquitectura. Por último, y a lo largo del texto, se plantea una discusión sobre el papel y las encrucijadas que enfrenta la antropología, y sus practicantes, en los nuevos procesos ligados a la adopción del denominado patrimonio cultural inmaterial.

In this project report for the Global Studies Initiative at Parkland College, the instructor of Anthropology 103: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology reflects on how global issues focusing on the European Union, Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia were integrated into to the course curriculum, how they were received by students and the likelihood of continued inclusion.

El artículo retoma, a través del concepto de microbiopolítica esbozado por Heather Paxson, una línea de recepción biopolítica dentro del marco disciplinario de la antropología cultural y la etnología europea, para indagar qué prácticas y políticas se fundamentan en la intervención médica regulada en el seno de la relación de interacción entre hombres y microbios. La idea de microbiopolítica se funda tanto en diagnósticos científico-naturales como etnográficos que ponen el foco en la contribución de micoorganismos a procesos de enfermedad y salud, evolución, cuerpos y prácticas del cuerpo. Basándose en el supuesto de que virus y hombres se encuentran en estrechas relaciones recíprocas unos con otros, se toma el ejemplo del virus influenza1 para discutir de qué manera toman parte los virus en la configuración de los cuerpos humanos así como en la producción de conocimiento científico. En la comparación entre microbiopolítica y biopolítica se muestra que ambas perspectivas se basan en la premisa de que los procesos del cuerpo y de la vida se convierten en objeto de órdenes de poder y de conocimiento y de que, por eso, hay intervenciones políticas posibles que ofrecen un punto de partida. Sin embargo, ambas perspectivas se diferencian en qué procesos de la vida son considerados relevantes, en qué relaciones pueden ser problematizados y qué potenciales les son atribuidos. Para una microbiopolítica de las enfermedades infecciosas lo que ocupa el primer plano no es tanto el potencial patógeno de microorganismo, sino más bien el biosocial. ; ABSTRACT The article takes up, through the concept of microbiopolitics outlined by Heather Paxson, a line of biopolitics reception within the framework of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology, to investigate what policies and practices are based on medical regulated intervention in relationship within the interactions between men and microbes. The idea of microbiopolitcs is based on both natural-sciences diagnostics and ethnographic studies, putting the focus on the contribution of microorganism on disease processes and health, development, bodies and body practices. Based on the assumption that viruses and men are in close mutual relationships with one another, we take the example of the influenza virus, in order to discuss how viruses take part in the configuration of human bodies, as well as the production of scientific knowledge. In the comparison between microbiopolitics and biopolitics is shown that both perspectives are based on the premise that the body processes and life becomes the subject of orders of Power and Knowledge, and because of that, they are political interventions, which provide a starting point. However, they differ both perspectives in which processes of life are considered relevant, in which relationships they can be problematized and which potentials can be attributed to them. For a microbiopolitics of infectious disease which takes the spotlight is not much potential pathogenic microorganism, but the biosocial.

After more than a decade of post-socialist transition, transition theories are increasingly criticised for their inability to grasp the new post-socialist reality. However, even in the light of political, economic, social and cultural restructuring processes taking place on a global scale, the structural legacies of socialist and pre-socialist development are not erased. On the contrary, they continue to play an important role by filtering the impact of global tendencies upon post-socialist societies. With reference to a case study from the Romanian city of Timisoara I will address in the following the ambivalencies connected to the efforts of local elites in the process of implementing global-level requirements in a post-socialist environment.

This article proposes an artistic performance to reflect on the labour of fieldwork. The experimental method consists in installing myself at a café in Lisbon and Tbilisi for 35 hours beyond the reach of smartphones and laptops and then doing nothing. Across this exercise, time slows, opening a clearer window into ordinary life. The intervention raises questions about the way digital technologies transform the temporality and experience of ethnographic fieldwork. The essay sets up to make a methodological contribution to a growing literature on 'inactivity' and about experimental methods, reminding us that observation is a tiring physical experience and that slow time is correlated with anthropological quality. Doing nothing appears as a slow time being in front of others, which enables a break of consciousness, suspends politics of relevance, and leaves space for serendipity and embodied imagination. ; Peer reviewed

Spacially dispersed transnational professional communities can be perceived of as cultural formations living in a global frame of reference, transgressing existing political and cultural boundaries. In their capacity as members of local technical and knowledgebased elites, they take part in circulating and connecting cultural meanings that are both locally produced, and continuously re-working non- local flows. I argue that those elites can be described as actors at cultural interfaces, taking part in shaping and mediating social change. The aim is twofold: one, to point to mutually opposed tendencies, and ambivalences in the framework of a "culture of change", and two, to look into the question how such situations and groups can be methodologically approached.

This paper criticizes the use of the Mexico-United States border in cultural anthropology as an image for conveying theoretical abstractions. Instead, the paper outlines a focused model of political ecology on the border. It delineates territorialized state processes, deterritorialized capital processes, and sets of social relationships and cultural practices characteristic of this region.Keywords: U.S.-Mexico border; anthropological theory; postmodernism; difference; public policy; states; capitalism; bureaucracies; brokers; households; immigration.

This is a presentation made in the frame of a course on "Culture and Identity" at Stockholm University for students at the level of French III. The goal is to explore the consequences of the Dreyfus scandal (1894-1906) in France and abroad. The Dreyfus affair is not simply a historical scandal where the military staff was implicated, it is a topic for anthropological studies to understand the falsifications, the fake news and the attitudes of the different involved actors of this scandal. The rise of anti-Semitism with the increasingly important role of the press is also mentioned.

An infrastructural gap (IG) emerged after the outbreak of the crisis in 2008 and it refers to the difficulty of the state and the private sector in sustaining the level of infrastructural networks in the Western world. Yet, infrastructures comprise the realm where the state or the market materialize a great proportion of the social contract. Citizens therefore often experience IG as a challenge of the entire political paradigm. Nevertheless, as research in the country that is at the center of the current euro-crisis�Greece�records, we have novel and innovative forms of civil activity focused on the IG. Such activity, applying principles of self-organization and peer-to-peer relationships, along with practices of social solidarity and ideals of commons, attempts to address IG in innovative ways. However, such practices call for theoretical and empirical innovations as well, in order to overcome the social sciences� traditional understandings of infrastructures. This paper�based on the inaugural professorial lecture I gave in acceptance of the Chair in Social Anthropology at the Vrije University Amsterdam�seeks to initiate a framework for understanding this shift in the paradigm of infrastructures� governance and function, along with the newly emerging infrastructural turn in socio-cultural anthropology.