Anthropology Research Articles

Lord Jim: Between Shame and Guilt

Trying to classify the cultural patterns of behaviour, modern anthropology offers the distinction between “shame cultures” (which rely on external sanctions for good behaviour) and “guilt cultures” (which internalize the conviction of sin). Correspondingly, shame and guilt create specific ethos and therefore could be treated as factors indicating cultural meaning and function of the notion of honour in different cultural contexts. The article is an attempt to analyse the role of guilt and shame phenomena in the creation of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim.

Complexity in the perspective of the ontological turn in modern anthropology

The article examines the forms of representation of the idea of the diversity of being that have developed outside Western European philosophy and science. The paper presents an analysis of the proposed F. Descola, E. Cohn and E. V. de Castro reconstructions of “Indian” ontologies, which are positioned as an alternative to the West «metaphysics». The models constructed within the framework of anthropological reconstructions are based on a number of ontological assumptions (multi-naturalism, reinspectivism, multimodality), which are considered as forms of representation of diversity. The author examines the boundaries of the decentered ontology of diversity, the peculiarities of the relationship between objective and subjective complexity in the mythology of Indian collectives. In the context of the described theoretical models, complexity is considered as a relational, transversal category relevant for describing the processuality of existence, the diversity of human experience, the relationship between man, society and culture. The article also presents a comparative analysis of the ideas of diversity that have developed in “Indian” metaphysics and in the directions of modern philosophy (“new ontologies”) and science (synergetics).

Empathy and Self-Empathy in the Anthropological Dimension of Modernity

Purpose. In the article, the author questions rethinking the phenomena of empathy and self-empathy as modes of self-understanding of humanity and the inner intention to self-exploration of human spirituality. Theoretical basis. The research is based on the phenomenological dimension of modern anthropology and axiology. Originality. The change of the traditional intersubjective approach in the understanding of empathy to an introsubjective one and the affirmation of self-empathy as one of the defining existences in human beings, which is adjusted by the altruism-egoism value scale and forms the skills of unconditional empathic action towards the Other as a mode of self-exploration in the spiritual essence of a person are argued. Conclusions. The commonplace in a wide palette of research views on empathy is the construct for the Self – Other disposition and the intersubjective approach emphasizing the object of empathy. Transformation of the intention vector of empathic consciousness from the object to the subject of empathic action opens up deep possibilities of spiritual improvement as a way of self-awareness in the human essence. The transformation of the intention vector of empathic consciousness from intersubjective (I in the Other) to introsubjective (I through the Other) has the potential for spiritual development according to the altruism-egoism value scale. Empathy as an introsubjective position of self-exploration is inseparably connected with self-empathy, which in the mutual integration of its three main components – benevolence towards oneself, reflexivity towards one’s own experience and a tendency to understand one’s fate as common to all mankind – forms an important regulator of self-understanding of a person’s spiritual potential and the possibility of the practical extrapolation for these skills to an empathic way of communication at all levels of anthropo-being. Anthropological accentuation on the inner essence and meanings of human existence is carried out through intuition and self-altruism as the fading of pragmatic interest in the socially conditioned Self (Ego) and immersion in the essential Self – the bearer of the universal spiritual in a person. Self-empathy is considered in the context of the ideas of Stoicism as a deep self-immersion in the human essence and sensitivity to immediate emotional internal states, as a construct of emotional intelligence and a way of realizing individual uniqueness in the context of the metamodern concept of atopy. Self-empathy is defined as one of the key existences in human beings, which forms the skill of altruistic (unconditional) implementation of empathy.

Spread of Ideas: The Legacy of Diffusionism School

This comprehensive analysis explores the concept and development of diffusionism throughout the history of anthropology. Diffusionism, a theory that emerged in the early 20th century, posits that cultural elements are assimilated and disseminated throughout multiple nations, leading to transformative shifts in society. The German and British diffusionist schools were the primary institutions that concentrated on the transmission of cultural characteristics across temporal and spatial dimensions. The notion of "culture circles," first proposed by German diffusionism, led by figures like Wilhelm Schmidt and Robert Fritz Craebner, posited that the cultural traits of ancient civilizations spread to the surrounding regions. British diffusionism, spearheaded by Grafton Elliot Smith and V. J. Perry, emphasized Egypt as the birthplace of civilization and attributed cultural advancements to Egyptian origins. Franz Boas, the founder of the US diffusionist school, advocated for a historical-cultural perspective that opposed the idea of linear progress. Boas emphasized the importance of culture as a unified entity shaped by particular historical circumstances and dismissed notions of cultural advancement. Notable American diffusionists include J. Robert Lowie, Edward Sapir, Clark Wissler, and Alfred Louis Kroeber. Kroeber's examination of women's fashion trends and cultural zeniths demonstrates the multifaceted nature of diffusionist analysis. Lowie's study focused on challenging linear evolution ideas and emphasizing the crucial significance of spatial dispersion in understanding cultural events. Wissler concentrated on the biological components of disperse on, whereas Sapir examined how individual personalities shape cultural patterns. While diffusionism is not as common in modern anthropology, it is important for comprehending the intricacies of cultural transmission and societal progress. Diffusionism provides valuable insights into the dynamics of human culture and civilization by examining historical processes, geographic distribution, and cultural interaction.

Research on Political Ethical Alienation in the Space of the Other Starting from Adolf Eichmann

Modern anthropology and spatial politics advocate understanding and studying the other, reflecting on oneself through the other. Great eras demand both theoretical and practical innovation, and political ethics should never be metaphysical in the ivory tower. This article takes the relevant events of Adolf Eichmann, a high-ranking Nazi official during World War II, who indiscriminately massacred numerous Jews, as an example. It reflects and analyzes the breakdown of value rationality and the disregard and trampling of moral ethics under fascist authoritarianism during World War II. Combining relevant behavioral experiments, the study explores the causes of alienation from the perspectives of alienated subjects, motives, and opportunities. This leads to a discussion of solutions to ethical alienation in the process of social development, proposing ideas for overcoming potential political ethical dislocation through emphasis on quality education, balancing social systems and ethical morals, and calling for collective reflection and nurturing a sense of responsibility for others. Maintaining a clear self-awareness under the control of desires in the high-tech era is conducive to avoiding the quagmire of alienation and provides warnings and development ideas for the long-term development of our countrys politics.

Awareness of forensic anthropology in Switzerland: a survey among forensic practitioners, police, and prosecutors.

Forensic anthropology (FA) as a specialized discipline has been practised in multi-lingual Switzerland for over a decade. A variety of expertise regarding osteological assessments as well as facial image comparison (FIC) is provided by different centres. Nevertheless, information is lacking about the awareness of FA and its benefits for forensic investigations among forensic stakeholders. Therefore, a survey was sent to Swiss anthropologists (AN) and related professions (police officers, prosecutors, and forensic pathologists) to assess three main aspects: (1) the experience of working (biological/forensic) anthropologists within FA; (2) how FA is perceived by other professions within the legal system; and (3) identifygaps (if any) in understanding of FA with the aim to suggest avenues for improvement if necessary. The results show that awareness of FA varies by occupation and cantonal regions. In areas where close collaborations betweenforensic anthropologists (FAs) and other stakeholders have been formally established, be it with focus on osteological analyses or FIC, the awareness of FA competencies was superior to areas where this was not the case. An overwhelming majority of forensic actors expressed interest in continuing education related to the role of FA. These findings indicate that facilitation of communication and collaboration leads to improvement in the awareness of the competencies of FAs and their contribution to forensic investigations.

CONTEXT ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF OBJECTIVITY, ACCURACY AND “OTHER” IN ETNOGRAPHIC CONTEXT

The doctrine of Johannes Fabian and Rigoberta Mençu, which is discussed and discussed in our study, includes a lot of variability in context. If these doctrines and the conceptual terminology, they contain are mentioned; the analysis of Menchú’s work has seems a bit more complex and ambiguous. These ambiguities lie in different aspects of the work: Here, there is a more complex knower-known relationship than the binary opposition between the subject which produces knowledge about the other and the passive object which expects the knowledge to be produced about itself. In relation to this, to employ a genre different from the dominant genres within humanities, particularly in anthropology, and its reliability are questionable according to the current science paradigms. Moreover, the emerging of such contradictory views about the production, reproduction, representation, and reception of Menchú's work -the attempt of producing and representing a different knowledge for and about her own community- brings about questioning of possibility of producing an absolute knowledge/abstract truth about the other communities independent from social, political and economic context. This again draws our attention to the power-knowledge relation, the partiality of knowledge and situated knowledge. Thus, establishing a relation with the other needs to study epistemology of contemporary ethnography willing to produce better understanding, and requires investigating this epistemology embedded within/along broader social relations that locate researcher and researched in different places. This attempt entails to deal with the positivist scientifism inherited by ethnography from modern anthropology that is to say with the dominant assumptions of western modernity project. In our study, these concepts were questioned, interpreted, and discussed.

Rhetoric and Disposition, Temperament and Place: Polykleitan Rules

Abstract: This paper explores the relationships between style and complexion, temperament and disposition, climate and place in seventeenth-century thought. Facility and variation in style not only depend on reason, judgement, and responsiveness, but on the material substrata of the imagination and memory, in turn conditioned by air and temperament, climate and the uneven geographical distribution of environmental and internal, vital heat. This ensemble ofconcernes spurred wide-ranging enquiry in early modern anthropology, ethnography, and rhetoric, which I examine her in order to substantiate the mathematician and rhetorician Bernard Lamy's 1675 claim that "Every Clymat hath its style."

Criticism of the guidelines of cartesian philosophy by Ch. Pierce

The article intends to show the significance of Ch. Peirce’s ideas for the development of contemporary philosophy, to find out the main directions of his criticism of the principles of Cartesian and more broadly modern philosophy (where it comes from Descartes) and to consider the positive program of his philosophy, which he offers as an alternative to Modern philosophy. Peirce starts from a pragmatic and semiotic approach to human nature, consciousness and cognition. Thanks to this approach, he managed to undermine the key ideas of the modern understanding of cognition, human, language, namely: individualism, linguistic atomism, dogmatism, dualism, representationism, nominalism, foundationalism, etc. And, instead, to propose a new theory of knowledge, a new ontology and anthropology. Peirce asserts the indirectness of human cognition by signs (linguistic, cultural, sensory), the impossibility of introspection and intuition, advocates holism, fallibilism, pragmatism, realism, synechism, inferentialism and offers a new understanding of the personality — all this makes him a relevant and contemporary thinker. Peirce’s ideas offer a fresh perspective on modern scientific practice. Peirce’s rethinking of the foundations of knowledge puts him alongside many thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries. The development of his ideas can be seen in modern anthropology, epistemology, research on artificial intelligence, semiotics, etc. The article is divided into four subsections, which are devoted to the main directions of Peirce’s criticism of Descartes’ philosophy: in the first — against Descartes’ skeptical methodology, Peirce puts the concept of fallibilism and the principle of belief, in the second — Peirce denies the possibility of intuition and proves the indirectness of our cognition by signs, in the third — it is about the advantages of the semiotic and communicative approach over individualism and linguistic atomism, in the fourth — Descartes’ nominalism and dualism, Peirce contrasts the realist approach and his theory of synechism, as well as semiotic anthropology.

:Experimental: American Literature and the Aesthetics of Knowledge

:<i>Experimental: American Literature and the Aesthetics of Knowledge</i>

Maroon justice in Suriname: pasts and presents worth fighting for

ABSTRACT Maroon societies are seriously understudied in the restorative justice (RJ) field, which is odd considering their age-old struggle against retributive justice systems. Precisely because the rise of Maroons can be understood as an attempt to ‘reappropriate conflict’ and bring back legal protection to formerly enslaved African-Americans who had been subjected to the crudest of laws under colonial regimes, we should not forget that history when considering how RJ can contribute to or replace criminal justice systems in the 21st century. In Suriname, a renewed interest in the Maroons has recently boosted the RJ movement. Against the background of a discussion between maximalists and abolitionists, we reactivate the ‘transferability debate’ by asking if and how maroon justice in the country’s interior can be brought to the city and help its criminal justice system to develop RJ. Our answer combines 20th century anthropologists’ work on maroon justice in Suriname with the first steps that we have taken in our own ethnography with ex-detained Maroon and Creole youth in Paramaribo and their receptiveness to hypothetical RJ measures.

Антропология современности: путь от конфликта к сотрудничеству

Антропология современности: путь от конфликта к сотрудничеству

Towards Franz Boas’s linguistic views

Franz Boas (1858–1942) is recognized as the founding father not only in modern anthropology (cultural, biological), but also in anthropological linguistics. Starting with geographical and physical studies at several German universities, he later got insterested in the culture and languages of the indigenous peoples of North America. Boas was particularly interested in the role of apperception in language acquisition. Eventually, he transferred the results of his observations on language perception to the wide field of culture, developing the notion of acculturation analogical to apperception. Already the early Boas’s publications contain the origins of the idea of linguistic relativity, which later will be formulated in the shape of the so-called “Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis”. Extremely interesting and original was Boas’s attitude to the concept of phoneme, which was formed precisely during the years of creative activity and the most striking achievements of Boas’s school. Finally, the peculiarities of the fieldwork style of this American scholar, as well as his “analytism” in work on the grammars of Native American languages, certainly influenced the development of descriptive linguistics in general.

Language, Culture and Worldviews by Twentieth-Century Anthropologists

Twentieth century anthropologists, starting from the 40s-50s were more focused on language and culture. At the turn of the century, Humboldt hypothesized the unique design of each language, which encodes a distinctly distinct view of the world. This idea was further propagated by Edward Sapir, who argued that “the worlds in which different societies live are different worlds, distinct above the world.” Given Humboldt's hypothesis and Edwart Sapir's idea of language and culture, we will try to answer questions such as: Does the language of a people shape the way things are thought and perceived? Is the view of a people coded in its own language and structured by its own grammar unique? The way language is used to communicate in social situations is increasingly becoming the focus of theoretical interest. Thus the theory of transformational linguistics presupposes that the main function of language is that of reference, that is, to make statements about the world. The world is built and operates on cultural diversity and its being. Received: 5 October 2022 / Accepted: 10 November 2022 / Published: 18 November 2022

Native American Dis/possessions: Postcolonial Trauma in Hitchcock’s Vertigo

The Ohlone, the original settlers of the San Francisco region, were violently dispossessed by successive colonial regimes, first Spanish, then US American. The colonial trauma was written out of history, and by the 20th century anthropologists pronounced the Ohlone to be ‘extinct’. In this article, I explore how the dispossession of the Ohlone haunt one of the greatest movies of all time: Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958). Although Vertigo is one of the most-analysed films ever, no one has noticed that Carlotta Valdes – the dispossessed woman who comes back from the dead to take possession of the living – would have been Native American. A hauntological reading reveals Vertigo as an unwitting witness of colonial dispossession.

Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis by Sarah C. Humphreys

Reviewed by: Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis by Sarah C. Humphreys John Ma Sarah C. Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2 Vols.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xxi, 1457. $365.00. ISBN 9780199788256; 9780198788263. Some time in the 350s bce, after the death of Kallias, son of Hipponikos, his long-lost son reappeared in Athens to claim his share of the inheritance. This was a scion of scandalous birth and dubious legitimacy, and the family claimed that the returnee was not "Kallias' bastard" but an imposter, a groom who had stolen his master's identity after the latter died in war. This fourth-century Martin Guerre is one of many delights in S. C. Humphreys' latest work, the fruit of thirty-five years' research (1; the nothos is discussed on p. 215). In addition to an anthropology of kinship (vol. 1), it offers an original history of state emergence in Archaic Athens, a discourse on historical method, and (in vol. 2) an overview of corporate groups in Attica (phratries, genê) and official territorial and demographic structures (tribes, trittyes, demes). Kinship has long been a center of Humphreys' interest, reflecting engagement with the concerns of British social anthropology; comparison with the theoretical underpinnings and findings of recent French and Anglo-American work [End Page 108] on Athenian social history might prove interesting (Humphreys herself provides some comment to that effect). Her gambit is that classical learning (prosopography, legal history, epigraphy), taking the place of fieldwork in modern anthropology, can reveal the workings of Athenian kinship, a particularly well documented version of the common Greek patrilinear nuclear family. Humphreys' strategy is to look at areas of stress. The tensions surrounding adoption, guardianship, marriage with kin, and intra-family disputes offer a hair-raising casebook of family law which Humphreys tackles with gusto. What emerges is the intricate entanglement of the household as defined in family law (established in Solon's time and itself a compromise between aristocratic and folk-peasant practices), civic institutions (centered around the importance of citizen status), property, individual greed, or emotional attachments. Bargains and compromises, often struck to solve conflict, generated trouble down the line, mobilizing kinfolk in networks of support when matters went to protracted litigation. Because citizen status depended on recognition by wider groups, the shape of households was, in practice, open to renegotiation. No wonder that family conflicts were a prime subject for Attic drama, richly exploited by Humphreys alongside forensic rhetoric. The same fluidity characterized official performances of kinship. Rites de passage, funerary and dedicatory practices, festivals, politics, and warfare—these all provided the means for the community to shape the practices of kinship. For instance, public funerals for the war dead influenced private funeral commemoration. Conversely, they were themselves shaped by kinship relations. The last phenomenon is complex: the "long adolescence" (between the ages of 18 and 30) is a result of family practice (paternal power over property, late male marriage), but also a reaction against the power (and simply the tedium) of familial bonds. Why dine with your uncles when you might consort with coevals (and parasites like Sokrates)? The most official contexts for the performance of kinship were the various interlocking groups which constituted the Athenian state. After a history of the obscure pre-Kleisthenic tribes, trittyes, and other institutions (naukrariai, the "Twelve Towns" of Attica), Humphreys examines (often speculatively) the genê and the phratries, an essential but obscure part of the Kleisthenic system in deciding on status. The Kleisthenic tribes, trittyes and demes receive extensive treatment, before a four-hundred-page gazetteer-cum-prosopography for every known deme, organized by tribe. This section teems with helpful and original insights. I would single out the following: the observation that Athenian tribal-based mobilization was ill-suited to the real wars Athens waged with ad hoc contingents; the possibility that bouleutic quotas were fluid and negotiated at the local level; the prevalence of patronage and cronyism at phratry and deme level; the utopian nature of many deme decrees. Some receive extensive and illuminating treatment, such as Sphettos (near Koropi, in rich Mesogeia land and the origin of several politicians), Halai Aixonides (the site of a prolonged...

Moral Sanctions: Two Traditions of Understanding

The paper is aimed at providing general outlines of the more than two-century history of the theory of moral sanctions. It rests on a thesis about unity of all disciplines studying morality. The aim of the paper has been achieved trough an analysis of how some basic concepts were borrowed and basic ideas were transformed. The first tradition links moral sanctions with public condemnation. Some of its adherents simply identified public condemnation with moral sanction. This opinion prevailed until the middle of the XXth century. Later it was suggested that a sanction becomes genuinely moral only when a transgressor herself is sensitive to condemnation because she recognizes that she deserves it and feels shame, guilt or remorse. It means that an external side of the sanction has to be complemented by an internal one. The first tradition presupposes a deep and thorough analysis of an external side of the moral sanction, i.e. various forms of sanctioning behavior (avoidance, censure, denunciation, reproach, scolding etc.) The second tradition was initiated by J.S. Mill and H. Sidgwick, it includes among moral sanctions the very negative emotions of self-appraisal. For adherents of this tradition, model and most important moral sanctions are internal: guilt and remorse. Characteristics of internal (autonomous) and external (heteronomous) sanctions were established in the XXth century anthropology. Later this distinction became current in the contemporary ethics.

Антропология в фокусе социального времени. Часть 1. Пионеры и основатели науки

A series of articles is devoted to the analysis of the formation and transformation of anthropology as a fundamental science. The study uses a social time scale, which makes it possible to assess the reasons for the transformations, ups and downs of science in different countries, depending on social events that form the challenges of society. At present, anthropology, like no other science, has a different "content" depending on the country in which it is formed. At the same time, like all sciences, it has a common history, common tasks and methods. Whether this is a consequence of the internal contradiction of anthropology (a single science or a collection of separate human sciences), or the reason for regional characteristics is the result of the influence of the society in which it develops. It is proposed to begin the discussion of issues important for determining the status of modern anthropology by plunging into its history, to which the first part of the work is devoted. The article discusses the achievements of the initial stage of anthropology, when in Paris it became possible to found a professional Society, a journal, a School and Laboratory, as well as an Anthropological Museum. Why did it work for P. Broca in France, and did not become possible for another scientist in another country. Why did the brilliant works of K. von Baer not give rise to the formation of the Russian school of anthropology. How did it happen that A. Hrdlička and D. N. Anuchin, who received the same skills and knowledge in Paris and founded essentially the same schools of anthropology in America and Russia, did not become guarantors of the same development of anthropology in these countries. What can cross out science in a particular country, bringing a negative connotation to the term "anthropology" for many years. What could be the catalyst for the revival of interest in the natural history of man. How fundamental science acquires applied aspects and becomes “attractive” for the economy of a particular country. These and many other questions are presented in a polemical review of the many-sided anthropology.

On the problem of intersystem correlations in modern anthropology: the relationship between the somatic and hormonal indicators in Moscow youth

The work is dedicated to the study of the joint variability of somatic characteristics and level of sex hormones (estradiol and testosterone), as well as to the assessment of anthropometric indicators and steroid profile in Mos-cow students. The material of the study is represented by comprehensive anthropological survey of 152 people (18–22 year old): 122 females (average age — 19.9 years) and 30 males (average age — 20.2 years) of Moscow higher educational institutions. The analysis included data from respondents of Russian nationality permanently residing in Moscow and nearest Moscow region. The examination program included the measurement of total body sizes, the assessment of body composition, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), sexual dimorphism index (by Tanner); indicators of the relative value of body components were calculated as well. In addition, the hormonal profile of the participants was obtained (total testosterone and total estradiol levels in blood serum), on the basis of which the estradiol-testosterone ratio (E/T) was calculated. The analysis of morphophysiological characteristics of modern Moscow young people revealed the presence of reliable correlations (r = 0.2–0.3) between hormonal production and soma parameters only in girls: estradiol is negatively associated with waist circumference and posi-tively with the proportion of active cell mass (a direct relationship with it was also found in the E/T ratio). The level of testosterone secretion is positively associated with the value of the sexual dimorphism index. The results of factor analysis reveal a consistent variability in the levels of sex steroids with morphological parameters: estradiol is associated with indicators of obesity, and testosterone — with the proportion of musculoskeletal mass and the value of sexual dimorphism. The revealed features of the shared variation of morphophysiological signs are cha-racteristic for both sexes, which indicates their stability and biological regularity. Increased testosterone secretion was recorded for 15.6 % of female students. The average values of morphological indicators in this group signifi-cantly differ from individuals with normal hormone secretion towards the increasing andromorphism of the phy-sique (due to an increase in the proportion of musculoskeletal mass and the value of sexual dimorphism index). It can be assumed that these results indicate an increased stress load within the metropolitan region.

Personality psychology and anthropological discourse: In search of new approaches

Modern anthropology is a cycle of disciplines that study a person in culture and are devoted to various aspects of human existence. At the same time, in international discourse, anthropolo- gy is most often understood today as sociocultural anthropologies. However, due to historical and political reasons, neither social, nor cultural, nor psychological anthropology appeared in Russia in the 20th century as institutionalized research directions, and the study of variations in personality development in a variety of cultures took place not so much in psychology as it was scattered in the interdisciplinary space of socio-humanitarian sciences. Today, this situation has not only repeatedly reflected disadvantages, but also less obvious advantages. Spontaneous transdisciplinarity is becoming an important resource in the social sciences, in- cluding psychology. Interacting research fields produce mixed methods and methodologies; cognitive focuses are shifting from traditional subjects of study to mobile research projects; from subject-oriented to problem-oriented research. Personality psychology, sociology of changes, anthropology of our time are included in the intellectual movement, comprehending the issues of how to study a person in a transitive society; how to investigate a personality in change; how to comprehend individuality in the transformations of everyday life, identity in the transformations of the global world. At the same time, responding to current challenges by searching for new approaches and methodologies, psychology, sociology and anthropology are collectively participating in the transformation of the model of cognition. It is suggested that in the current cognitive situation, anthropological discourse can serve as a source of re- newal and critical rethinking of psychological concepts, a space of possibilities in the develop- ment of personality psychology. Materials are presented that confirms this assumption.