Etnologiska möjligheter

Abstract

During the past decade, Ethnology, like many other disciplines in humanities, indulged in a somewhat anxious self-reflection. The methodological and spatial differences between subjects like Ethnology, Anthropology and History have almost disappeared and the position of Ethnology as a discipline at the intersection of cultural history and analyses of contemporary society is no longer unique. This essay explores the ethnological possibilities and the potential for doing research that includes analyses of both the past and the contemporary. By searching for a deeper knowledge of a phenomenon in both the contemporary and the past, an understanding of the specific conditions surrounding the phenomenon becomes possible. Furthermore, through the study of how and why it became what it is, the contingency of history becomes apparent. With a focus on both the present and the past, it also becomes easier to discern what historical processes are important for us today. Ethnology has much to gain if we, based on the insights of the new cultural history and the linguistic turn, resume the combination of contemporary analysis and historical reconstruction which has characterized the discipline at times. In this way Ethnology also offers something original in relation to what the disciplines of history, contemporary historians and anthropologists do regarding knowledge production.