Anthropological Work Research Articles

SAM: A Language for Education

In this article I present a sociological language—social activity method (SAM)—and illustrate how it’s development and deployment has educational potential. I draw on my experience with postgraduate students and also engage with extant work in anthropology, sociology, and social semiotics, though the principal concerns of the essay are conceptual. I present three ‘relational spaces’, of which two are seeing their first published outing in this paper1.

Ebola lessons: Did prior epidemic experience protect against the spread of COVID-19 in Sierra Leone?

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a re-examination of public health preparedness with an emphasis on lessons learned following the West African Ebola epidemic. However, much of this work focuses on technological solutions rather than social learning. Drawing upon anthropological work, this paper examines how Sierra Leoneans prepared for COVID-19 through a lens of "embodied epidemic memory." Findings reveal that while people felt more empowered to respond to COVID-19 due to their past experiences, traumatic memories from the Ebola outbreak also sparked logics of fear and avoidance, driven by mistrust toward the state and its healthcare system. As a result, people avoided healthcare facilities, and rumors concerning government corruption threatened mitigation efforts. While local populations should be better leveraged for their existing epidemic expertise, greater attention is needed to the "higher hanging fruit" of preparedness: restoring trust in the government's ability to respond to epidemics.

Extra/ordinary medicine: Toward an anthropology of primary care

Primary care is at the forefront of healthcare delivery. It is the site of disease prevention and health management and serves as the bridge between communities and the health care system As ethnographers of primary care, in this article we discuss what is gained by situating anthropological inquiry within primary care. We articulate how anthropologists can contribute to a better understanding of the issues that emerge in primary care. We provide a review of anthropological work in primary care and offer empirical data from two ethnographic case studies based in the United States, one focused on social risk screening in primary care and the other examining the diagnosis and care of people with dementia in primary care. Through these cases, we demonstrate how research of and within primary care can open important avenues for the study of the multidimensionality of primary care. This multidimensionality is apparent in the ways the medical field addresses the social and structural experiences of patients, scope of practice and disciplinary boundaries, and the intersection of ordinary and extraordinary medicine that emerge in the care of patients in primary care.

РОЛЬ ГЕОРГИЯ ФРАНЦЕВИЧА ДЕБЕЦА В ФОРМИРОВАНИИ ТОМСКОЙ АНТРОПОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ ШКОЛЫ

The article publishes five letters (for 1943–1949) from G.F. Debets to N.S. Rozov, the only anthropologist at that time in Tomsk state university. These let-ters contain important recommendations for organizing field anthropological work and collecting comparative data in neighboring Tomsk regions. Regions, methodological advice on the unification and processing of somatological mate-rials during survey of indigenous and mestizo groups of Western and Southern Siberia. Total in the TSU CA collections there are 11 letters and 1 postcard from Georgy Frantsevich, which date from 1940–1960. During this most difficult peri-od of development anthropological direction at Tomsk University actual director, curator of scientific research in anthropology Georgy Frantsevich Debets became the head of the Siberian region.

‘Real National Work’: The Politics of Nazi Race Science in Upper Silesia, 1934–1942

Abstract This article analyses the political and scientific controversy surrounding a race science project undertaken by the anthropologist Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt under National Socialism. Beginning in 1934, Eickstedt and his team of assistants conducted a series of racial studies on the population of Upper Silesia, a contested borderland in East Prussia. Motivated by a nationalist desire to counter the work of Polish anthropologists in the region, Eickstedt argued that the population of Upper Silesia belonged predominantly to the so-called ‘Nordic race’ and that the territory was thus fundamentally German. Nazi officials, however, viewed the Silesian studies with alarm, since the results also appeared to show that people in the area were a racial mixture and that the ‘Nordic race’ made up less than 40 per cent of the population in some locales. They worried that Eickstedt’s studies could undermine Germany’s territorial claims in the region and threaten national unity. The ensuing controversy presents a case in which the anthropological concept of ‘race’, rather than serving its usual role in Nazi thinking as the biological underpinning of the Volk (or people), threatened to undermine its coherence. The reaction to Eickstedt’s Silesian studies demonstrates a lack of consensus on race within the Nazi system, suggesting that understandings of race in Nazi Germany were neither as coherent nor as uniform as the paradigm of the ‘racial state’ has assumed.

Introduction: Between the Field and the Gallery: Exploring Anthropological Knowledge in South Asia

This special section brings together the work of historians, anthropologists and museologists, exploring how anthropological and sociological knowledge has been produced, consumed and reproduced in India. In particular, the special section is interested in analysing how these academic disciplines consolidated themselves as sciences informing the way a newly independent nation-state was to define its future, present and past in social and cultural terms. Anthropology and sociology were seen as tools to understand the diverse ethnic, religious and cultural background of India. Scholars used these disciplines to define what aspects of society were foreign or indigenous; what cultures, religions and languages were to be preserved; and what aspects of society were to be eliminated or integrated in order to achieve ‘progress’. Thus, anthropology and sociology shaped and continued to shape how we see India as a country and society. To understand how this process took place, the articles forming this special section are organised under three main categories: genealogies, methods and museums. The section on genealogies explores the way the first generation of Indian anthropologists and sociologists simultaneously challenge racial hierarchies coming from Europe while accepting caste and racial differences in India. The ‘methods’ sections looks at the trend of action anthropology in this case through social science approaches to ‘marginal’ citizens, whose cultures were explored as part of a larger citizenship complex stressing modernity, assimilation and secularism. The museum section contextualises a wide variety of national, state and house museums within the post-independence tribal integration policies and explores indigenous critiques that decolonise essentialising narratives of the state and nation.

Integrating anthropology and social work education to address contemporary social issues

Integrating anthropology and social work education to address contemporary social issues

Louis-Joseph Janvier & “Os detratores da raça negra”: Crítica antropológica

Abstract Ideas of hierarchy, inferiority and racial inequality predominated in the work of certain European intellectuals of the 18th and 19th centuries on the idea of ‘races’. The Société d’Ethnologie de Paris (SEP) and the Société d’Anthropologie de Paris (SAP) are two French institutions that had intellectuals who participated in the consolidation of these conceptions. Since the 18th century there have been criticism by black intellectuals; however, with the emergence of the First Black Republic of the modern era in Haiti, these criticisms gained new contours. Many Haitian intellectuals in the first and second half of the 19th century dedicated themselves to combating hierarchical ways of thinking, demonstrating their inconsistencies. In this article, based on bibliographical research, we consider the anthropological work of the Haitian Louis-Joseph Janvier (1855-1911), highlighting his contribution to struggles toward deconstructing the imaginary of racial inferiority attributed to black people and used to legitimize their domination and exploitation. Discussing the racial issue in Janvier’s thinking is relevant as it continues to be a dilemma and a challenge in the contemporary world.

The deterioration of anthropological work in Mexico during the 21st century

This article analyzes how the working conditions for Mexican anthropologists have deteriorated throughout the last few decades. Until half a century ago, only a few dozen professional anthropologists practiced in Mexico, and most of them had access to stable, well-paid jobs in academia or government agencies. Today there are over 7000 of them working in a wide range of fields, mostly in temporary jobs with low salaries. Drawing from the data gathered in the Historical Catalogue of Theses on Social Anthropology in Mexico (RedMIFA 2018) and the Survey on Professional Practice and Working Conditions of Anthropologists in Mexico (CIEPA-CEAS 2016), this paper begins by outlining the decline of working conditions for Mexican anthropologists, focusing primarily on the younger generations. An analysis follows of the main factors that have contributed to the current situation, and the article closes with a brief commentary on the effects of precarious working conditions for the production of anthropological knowledge. The implications here are paradoxical: on the one hand, most professionals currently work in fields other than academia, thereby diversifying anthropological practice, and on the other there is a marked tendency towards the academization of professional anthropological education.

Being a Naturalist Guide in Bardiya, Nepal: Evolution and Retrospective Analysis

This article, dealing with the profession of guiding in Bardiya National Park, is based on a previous paper (Vouiller, 2022) recently published in Studies in Nepali History and Society (SINHAS, Kathmandu), highlighting data gathered in 2019 with that of 2021-2022. While I presented the guide profession as being a clever adaptation to modernity, as an ‘in-between’, I would like here to accentuate the role of social networks, the process of ‘’heroisation’’ that takes place, but also the importance of the senses and the reading of signs in the practice of the profession. Bardiya National Park, established between 1988 and 1989, hosts very little anthropological work, it is more the object of research from developmental or natural sciences. The PhD I am currently pursuing in social and political sciences in Belgium (ULiège) and France (EHESS), is based on more than one year of fieldwork in Bardiya. It aims to understand how humans adapt psycho-corporeally and socially to the proximity of the Park’s animals. I am working with participant observation, semi-directive interviews with the professions most in contact with the animals of the Park, direct and indirect observations of encounters and finally linguistic analysis of the terms used in the discourses and on social media.
 The guiding subject in Bardiya is complex and representative of very topical internal and political tensions. Based on part of my doctoral work, I hope to show some of the factors that I believe will determine the future of tourism and human-animal cohabitation in Bardiya.

Karin Slaughter’s Crime Novel "Blindsighted" as a Southern Forensic Thriller

The forensic thriller has emerged as a significant subgenre of crime fiction that depicts the work of medical examiners, coroners, forensic pathologists, and anthropologists who analyze scientific evidence. Forensic investigators do not engage directly in pursuing the criminal; instead, they interpret the physical evidence collected from the victim's body and the crime scene. The popularity of forensic fiction, film, and TV series has created the general assumption that criminalistics has become a routine police procedure. This article presents Karin Slaughter's novel Blindsighted as an example of the Southern forensic thriller. The American writer Karin Slaughter is the author of crime stories and thrillers set in the American South. Her Grant County series consists of six crime novels, beginning with Blindsighted and followed by Kisscut, A Faint Cold Fear, Indelible, Faithless, and Beyond Reach. The essay introduces the main qualities of a forensic thriller and highlights the novel's generic characteristics. Then, Blindsighted is analyzed within the paradigm of Southern regional literature, with its distinctive qualities and religious imagery.

Beyond Urban Civilization

The genre of travel notes or a traveler's diary is definitely of interest to a wide audience and to field researchers due to the close interweaving of the cognitive and emotional levels of perception of the events observed by the author. The classic works of cultural anthropology are precisely the field notes from which future generations learn. The book under review Appropriation of Space from the series Letters of a Russian Traveler does not pretend to be scientific, but this is its advantage. The author, prose-writer Ilya Kochergin, based the text on his autobiographical experience of travelling in Siberia in the 1990s. He plunges into his memories to bring to life visions of the past. The first part of the book, Sensitivity to Geography, tells the story of his return to Altai, where he once was a forester in the Barguzinsky Nature Reserve. Despite all the measures taken, human intervention is visible in the Reserve. The author questions the very possibility for a city-dweller to experience virgin nature. In the second part, My House, the author takes the reader from the mystical space of the Altai mountains to the construction of a house in a village in the Ryazan region. The collective image here is associated with the interpretation of historical heritage. While the first chapter runs about man and nature, the second is devoted to the city versus the countryside. The third part brings the readers to the natural landscape of the middle zone, to fields, swamps, rivers, and forests. We cannot get back to nature, the cultivated lands are void of life, people, animals… The author observes the world shrink over the past decades: Russian cultural code rife with concepts of grandeur and vastness of the environment has been passed down from generation to generation, yet now it might not be adequate. In modern Russian society, the urban population predominates; in large agglomerations it is difficult to feel the true space and breadth. In the fourth part, Walks in the Water Meadows, I. Kochergin shares a tourist’s view of outdoor recreation on the left bank of the Oka river between Old Ryazan and Kasimov. The image of almost untouched nature relatively close to Moscow causes him boredom, anxiety or even fear. In the wild, different species of animals coexist in the same territory; it belongs to them, and humans are strangers here. In the final part, Inheritance, the author sets off with his teenage son along the route to the Barguzinsky Nature Reserve. A lot has changed in 30 years: transport accessibility, everyday life, and perhaps people. This part poses the key question of the book: “How can you inherit a space that doesn’t seem to belong to you? At times it is completely yours, appropriated and mastered, and at times it is completely alien.” Thus, balancing between involvement and alienation, Ilya Kochergin shares his field experience, shedding light on what is outside the urban civilization.

How Sweet the Ground: The Metaphysical Vision of Michael Marker

Through this essay, Rocha seeks to describe and honour Michael Marker’s signature notion of the “metaphysical demand” within his more well-known historical and anthropological work on the agentic notion of place. The essay begins by noting the difficulty of this essay due to the “unwritability” of Marker, in allusion to Mellvile’s character, Bartleby, and Garcia Marquez’ssense of Latin America’s solitude. Then, after hermeneutic clarifications that resist reading this essay as a eulogy, the essay proceeds biographically reaching the intimate friendship between Rocha and Marker. These biographical confessions lead to Marker’s ideas, rooted in (and progressing from) Vine Deloria Jr’s critical understanding of the Indigenous philosophy of space, which proceed into a record of correspondence where Marker shares his idea of the metaphysical demand. The essay closes in a series of impressionistic anecdotes that contain key elements in Marker’s approach to his life and thought. A key element is Marker’s practice as a folk musician and his collaborative work with the author in the improvised composition of a track on claw-hammer and bluegrass banjo. From these memorial movements, Marker’s notion of the metaphysical demand of place, a voice that speaks through a calcified andlayered modern reality, is left unfinished, as he left it, to be heard and continued in work to follow.

Flexible States in History: Rethinking Secularism, Violence, and Centralized Power in Modern Egypt

AbstractIn recent decades, secularism has emerged as one of the most studied concepts in sociocultural anthropology, and Egypt a primary site of its analysis. This article considers trends in Egypt’s modern and contemporary history in order to complicate the great explanatory power some anthropological works have granted to secularism. Above all else, it interrogates the manner in which the state’s regulation of religion (which is the defining feature of Asadian conceptions of secularism) has unfolded in recent Egyptian history. First, I survey the different ways scholars have portrayed secularism in Egypt, focusing in particular on the insights and limitations of Asadian theories. A second section employs ethnographic data to uncover how ordinary Egyptians in the provincial capital of Beni Suef have experienced state power, religion, and secularism in their everyday lives. Contextualizing these ethnographic perspectives alongside several prominent instances of state violence between 2011 and 2013, I elucidate how, rather than typifying a secular state, Egyptian politics, above all else, have been driven by an opportunistic realpolitik. My final section brings historical and ethnographic perspectives into sustained conversation to argue that the state regulation anthropologists sometimes frame as secularism is better conceptualized as a form of state centralization. I conclude, in turn, that political developments in modern Egypt have most often been shaped by flexible national and imperial interests.

Why Gerontology Needs Anthropology: Toward an Applied Anthropological Gerontology.

In this essay, we argue that gerontologists should increase their engagement with anthropologists to increase transdisciplinary collaboration, fulfill the interdisciplinary promise of gerontology as a field, and to ensure the work of anthropologists is formed by, and employed in, situations where meaningful engagement with practitioners and policymakers can lead to social change. Anthropology is the study of human societies in historical, biological, and sociocultural context, comprising a holistic field of study that can contribute unique methods, approaches, and theories to the field of gerontology. Although increasing amounts of anthropological scholarship have focused on older adulthood, this critical work of anthropologists still needs to be utilized by those in positions of power to enact change. Furthermore, the work conducted by anthropologists of aging has not consistently been recognized as anthropological scholarship. Therefore, a notable gap exists between the promise of the anthropology of aging and the utilization of the field, its findings, and engagement with the broader gerontological academy. As such, the contributions of anthropology to aging scholarship and the resulting reduction in inequities in the aging experience are not always adequately recognized. By examining the history of anthropology's engagement with aging and the lifecourse, we argue for a more applied anthropological gerontology. We conclude with a call to action to ensure that anthropological gerontology is seen as a fundamental branch of scholarship, both within anthropology and gerontology, which can be used to improve the lived experiences of older adults globally.

The Diaconal Work of Sisters Kristína and Mária Royová—An Example of the Link between Christian Anthropology and Social Work

Considering the intermingling of problems in today’s multi-crisis environment, this text explores the possibilities of intertwining social work and pastoral care. In the search for effective approaches, we find dynamic patterns in the activities of the Royová (Roy) sisters. Their diaconal work is an important source for social work history illustrating how social work took the form of diaconal (charity) work with a rich pastoral reach at the time. Their activities represent a natural link between Christian anthropology and social work. This study mainly investigates the Christian (spiritual) basis of the social and charitable activities of the Royová sisters, the beginnings of the institutionalisation of social and charitable work in Slovakia and Serbia through the organisations founded by the Royová sisters, the Christian-social interpersonal contribution of the Roy sisters to the development of Slovak and European social work personified by their cooperation with several personalities of social and charitable work at the international, national, and local levels, and the contribution of the Roy sisters in the creation of women’s, volunteer, and international roots of social and charitable work in Slovakia and Europe. In their responses to the needs of their environment, we find significant stimuli for pastoral theology, which is supposed to respond to the needs of the multi-crisis environment of today.

Leaps in the womb of Asia: Transformative intercultural discipleship in a sacred space

The 21st century is marked by the explosive growth of Christianity in the Global South. While discipleship is identified as the key to success in the missional movement in the western church, it has been inherently embodied in the indigenous church movement in Asia in the endeavor of evangelism and mission. In addition to the traditional gospel proclamation through church planting strategies, spiritual companionship, a ministry of accompanying someone in a sacred space through deep listening and discernment, has been gradually recognized as an effective one-on-one discipleship in recent years among groups who are receptive to the untamed movement of the Spirit. Using the metaphor of a pregnant mother carrying a baby and experiencing leaps in the womb (Lk 1:41), this article traces the engagement of intercultural discipleship through listening to the sacred stories of several mission leaders in Asia. Following the transformative narratives of their divine encounters, it discerns three key movements of the Spirit, metaphorically speaking, the “leaps” in the womb: listening with trust; turning with symbols; and kicking with expectation. Drawing from the works of anthropologists, theologians, and missiologists, it interacts the contemporary Asian experience with ancient Confucian texts and the Christian Scriptures, nuancing the traditional understanding of intercultural discipleship and evangelism. It aims to show that prophetic spiritual companionship is an integral part of discipleship and evangelism, therefore indispensable to the indigenous church mission movement. It is hoped that it also provides an impetus and resources for teaching and practice of the global church in its endeavor to revitalize faith in a post-Christendom and post-secular world.

Metaphors and practices of translation in anglophone anthropology

This article argues that while translation as a metaphor was prominent in anglophone anthropology for most of the second half of the 20th century, the practices of interlingual translation that are often central to the production and circulation of disciplinary knowledge have tended to attract much less attention. The first main section begins by briefly reviewing debates about the idea that anthropology crucially involves ‘the translation of culture’ or ‘cultural translation’. This use of translation as a metaphor to characterize the discipline emerged within both UK and US anthropology in the 1950s, but subsequently became subject to sustained criticism. The focus of the article then shifts in the second and third sections to practices of translation in, respectively, anthropological fieldwork and the international circulation of anthropological texts. More specifically, it examines the difficulties associated with interlingual translation in fieldwork and ethnographic writing; the hidden or invisible ‘translation work’ undertaken in the past by the assistants and spouses of ethnographers; and the translation of anthropological work into other languages. The article concludes by calling on more anthropologists to publish detailed accounts of their own translation practices, arguing that in so doing they will be able to draw on valuable historical antecedents from within the discipline, important collections of anthropological reflections on translation that have appeared over the past 30 years, as well as on relevant work by translation studies scholars and sociologists of translation.

ФЕНОМЕНОЛОГІЯ МІСТИЦИЗМУ ГЕРДИ ВАЛЬТЕР І БОГОСЛОВСЬКА АНТРОПОЛОГІЯ ЕДИТ ШТАЙН: ІСТОРИКО-ФІЛОСОФСЬКИЙ ПІДХІД

This article examines two prominent aspects of contemporary philosophical and religious discourse: the phenomenology of mysticism in the work of Gerda Walther and theological anthropology presented in the writings of Edith Stein. Phenomenology of mysticism is one of the most interesting topics in modern philosophy and religious studies. This deep research area examines and analyzes spiritual experience and mysticism through the lens of a philosophical approach called phenomenology. Two outstanding women and friends, Gerda Walther and Edith Stein, made a significant contribution to the development of this field. Deep reflections on the nature of mysticism, faith and theological anthropology are found in their research works. Phenomenology of mysticism allows us to better understand the nature of spiritual experience and inner experiences, and also to show the phenomena of mysticism through the phenomenological method. The works of G. Walther highlight the key aspects of this approach. On the other hand, E. Stein offers theological anthropology, which examines faith and religious experience in the context of human existence and through the relationship with God. Her works provide a strong conceptual basis for understanding faith and its role in the modern world. Therefore, the article is an attempt to consider their thoughts and contribution to the development of the phenomenology of mysticism and theological anthropology and their contribution to philosophy and religious studies.

Do I Belong on TikTok? Algorithimography and Self-Making

Building on works in digital anthropology, belonging, and self-making, this article delves into physiological aspects of digital lifeworlds. Through collaborative ethnography the author worked with their sibling and the TikTok Ethnography Collective (TEC) to explore TikTok’s utility as a site of self-discovery and learning. From the processes which unfold during the collaboration, a fledgling methodology of algorithmography emerges and is developed through the article. The use of digital ethnographic methods mediated the relationship between the author and their sibling, opening an exploration into self-making practices on TikTok. Building on recent literature around TikTok and self-making, (Bimo and Bhandari 2022), and through “Tik-Talks'' with the author’s sister which centre on multiple forms of diagnoses with Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (HEDS), this article examines TikTok’s capacity and shortcomings as a place where one can learn to belong against the grain of neoliberal and capitalist cultures.