Anthropology Research Articles

An Anthropologist at the Hong Kong Protests

An Anthropologist at the Hong Kong Protests

Coloniality and perspectivism in psychology: from damnation to ecosophical care relations

Inspired by Amerindian peoples’ philosophy, this article aims to problematise the modern philosophical anthropology that underlies psychology as a social practice, and to use the Amerindian perspectivist philosophy proposed by Viveiros de Castro as a critique of Western values. Thus, we approach some of coloniality’s epistemological implications in the institution of subject-object and nature-culture separations that grounds psychology. On the one hand, there is a totalising unification, which operates alongside a transcendental subject that subjugates its object. Beginning from nature’s homogeneity, the differentiation and hierarchy of each being depends on its representations or its soul, expressed as a people’s culture or as an individual psychology. This spiritual-representational aspect is the very foundation of the colonialism and racism of damnation, and their purpose in perpetuating the miserable ways of life of those considered to be scum. On the other hand, in Amerindian cosmogony, humanity is a pronominal mode, a non-exclusive perspectivist position of mankind, built in each context of relations. It is based on this idea that we posit other bases and a new agenda for psychology as a social practice which can enable us to broaden our ways of living towards ecosophical care, as a way of resistance to coloniality.

The anthropologist amidst and beyond: notes on temporalities of COVID-19.

The anthropologist amidst and beyond: notes on temporalities of COVID-19.

The anthropology of hot takes

The anthropology of hot takes

Corona conspiracies: a call for urgent anthropological attention.

Corona conspiracies: a call for urgent anthropological attention.

Prolegomena to a Semiotics of Experience. Memory, contexts and dialectic of sense

En la presente investigacion nos proponemos esbozar algunos de los temas que estimamos fundamentales en un programa para la constitucion de una Semiotica de la Experiencia. Para ello discutimos algunas propuestas de la Filosofia y la Antropologia y algunos conceptos cardinales de la Semiotica, con miras a darles una vision mas amplia, de modo que la experiencia, entendida como objeto fundamental de la investigacion semiotica, se articule a una teoria de los contextos, sin los cuales las semiosis textuales no existen o, simplemente, se ven limitadas y reducidas en su riqueza significativa.

Dieta e condições de vida em Saquarema-RJ

Nos últimos anos, o setor de Antropologia Biológica do Museu Nacional/UFRJ realizou a retomada dos estudos de dieta de sambaquis da região de Saquarema, RJ, dentro da perspectiva bioarqueológica. O objetivo dessas pesquisas é o de compreender tais aspectos da vida dessas populações com o uso das metodologias e protocolos empregados atualmente. Os resultados encontrados trouxeram informações relevantes para esse debate. Porém, com a perda das coleções osteológicas de Saquarema devido ao incêndio do Museu Nacional, algumas análises planejadas foram impossibilitadas. Mesmo com tamanha perda, os dados sugeridos apontam caminhos futuros de investigação, uma vez que os sítios de Saquarema ainda possuem histórias, e os esforços para que elas sejam contadas permanecerão.

The prehistoric burial of the Hoteaux (Rossillon, Ain): new anthropological and chronological data and discussion of the archaeological context (abridged version)

Resume. Decouvert en 1894, « l’Homme des Hoteaux » est l’une des rares sepultures du Paleolithique superieur connues depuis la fin du xixe siecle. Des sa decouverte, elle suscita debats et polemiques entre chercheurs et ne cessa d’agiter le spectre des ambiguites quant a son exhumation et son attribution a l’« âge du Renne ». Tombe dans l’oubli et victime d’une histoire mouvementee, le crâne et la mandibule ayant disparu lors d’une exposition, ce document fait l’objet d’un reexamen de l’etat de conservation du squelette, de l’âge au deces et du type de sepulture ainsi que d’une reevaluation de l’attribution chronoculturelle a travers l’analyse des composantes archeologiques entourant le squelette, et d’une datation 14Cen SMA obtenue recemment sur un fragment de cote humaine. Cette datation (12410 ± 50 BP/OxA-31474) exclut l’association classiquement admise du defunt avec un bâton perce en bois de renne date en 2000 (12830 ± 75 BP/LYON-1132). Elle interroge de ce fait une stricte attribution au Magdalenien superieur d’autant plus que la revision chronologique et typo-technologique de l’industrie lithique et osseuse souleve l’hypothese d’une appartenance a l’Azilien ancien.

<i>Body Parts: A Theological Anthropology</i>, by Michelle Voss Roberts. Fortress Press, 2017

Body Parts: A Theological Anthropology, by Michelle Voss Roberts. Fortress Press, 2017. 228 pp. Pb., $29 USD. 978-1-5064-1856-8

Bryant and Knight, The Anthropology of the Future

Bryant and Knight, The Anthropology of the Future

Cazadores y pastores: agentes, mercados y derechos de propiedad en la ganadería colonial rioplatense

Este trabajo discute, con base en resultados de investigación y en un esquema analítico desarrollado por el antropólogo Tim Ingold, el punto de vista que ordena la historia de la tecnología ganadera rioplatense en una secuencia lineal de etapas evolutivas. Analiza los sistemas ganaderos del Litoral rioplatense en el período colonial tardío y concluye que la tecnología ganadera del Río de la Plata desde sus etapas tempranas hasta comenzar el siglo XIX respondió al desarrollo y comportamiento de los mercados, de los diversos agentes y de los regímenes de propiedad vigentes en las diversas comunidades del territorio.

Pasquale Penta (1859-1904), un antropologo criminale non soltanto lombrosiano

In the updating of medical historiography the debate of positive or negative expressions about the criminal anthropology asproposed by Lombroso never seems to have ceased. Some critical remarks already began within the same boundaries of theschool that recognized him as a teacher. In retracing the incessant discussion, our attention focused on the almost forgottenfigure of Pasquale Penta, a psychiatrist and criminal anthropologist of the late nineteenth century who had a good reputationamong his contemporaries, presenting himself in the Italian scientific world as one of the most valid exponents of the studiesof sector. He soon knew the works of Cesare Lombroso and accepted his dictation, but with a personal position. It stood alongsidethose who felt they had to counteract a criminal determinism based on individual anthropometry and in particular on themetric observation of the skull. Our analysis also focuses on the text of his lectures dictated in the school year 1899-1900 inthe University of Naples collected in a lithographed volume, a really useful tool to learn the history of teaching psychiatry andcriminal anthropology in a fundamental period of the doctrinal development of these two disciplines.

Two or Three Things that I Know About Anthropological Subjectivity

Two or Three Things that I Know About Anthropological Subjectivity

Fiction’s Anthropologist

Fiction’s Anthropologist

AN EXPRESSION OF COLOR PSYCHOLOGY AND HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS: DECONSTRUCTING THE BINARISM OF WHITE COLOR IN HAN KANG’S THE WHITE BOOK

From time immemorial, human beings have tried to uncover the meaning of their existence. Philosophers and scientists alike have tried to answer the puzzling questions on human consciousness. Consciousness can be considered as the most familiar yet the most mysterious aspect of human lives. Human consciousness is often the outcome of what we see and what we perceive. The colors that we see around us can have a great impact on our moods and feelings. Color Psychology studies how hues determine human behavior, moods and feelings. In literary texts, especially in the autobiographical ones, authors have tried to express their self, identity, consciousness and their mental and physical beings through symbols and binarisms. The dichotomies in the society in which one lives affect the existence of the individual. Binary opposites are considered as ‘western construct’. French anthropologist Levi Strauss, who is considered as the father of modern anthropology, proposed the theory of binary opposites and spoke about how books and media use binary opposites to strengthen their plot, develop narratives and bring about contrasts. Han Kang in her semi-autobiographical novel, The White Book, has extensively used the color ‘white’ to express her moods, feelings, memories and thoughts. White is a color that comprises of all the other colors in the color spectrum. The white color is usually associated with peace, purity and hope. On the contrary, it also symbolizes death, detachment, disinterest and dryness. This dichotomy is used very beautifully throughout the novel. The current paper thus tries to deconstruct the binarisms of the color white as used in the novel, The White Book. The paper also tries to examine how color psychology affects human behavior and consciousness.

Anthropologist or primatologist ?

En m’appuyant sur deux projets de recherches que j’ai menés sur les relations hommes-orang-outans, je propose de réfléchir à des méthodes autres que l’ethnographie d’un seul site, qui pourraient faciliter l’étude des relations entre les humains et les autres primates (alloprimates). Le premier projet examine les relations entre les gardiens et les orangs-outans d’un zoo. En combinant une méthode ethnographique et une méthode éthologique, il a permis de mettre en lumière le fait que la manière dont les humains interprètent et décrivent les comportements des animaux dépend de leur positionnement et de ce qui les préoccupe, tel que leur rôle de soigneur. Un suivi des activités quotidiennes des deux espèces peut également rendre l’objet de l’étude symboliquement plus équitable – même si d’un point de vue méthodologique, l’équité demeure difficile. Le second projet s’est appuyé sur une méthode ethnographique multisituée afin d’étudier les débats concernant la réhabilitation et la réintroduction des orangs-outans. Cette approche multisituée donne un aperçu qui n’aurait pu être possible avec une méthode ethnographique se focalisant sur un seul site, tels que des différences fondamentales au niveau méthodologique et éthique entre les différents sites d’étude. De plus, en agissant comme une « quasiprimatologue » – à travers un usage de l’éthologie, ou en prenant au sérieux les défenseurs des alloprimates – peut changer dans un sens positif la manière dont les anthropologues sont perçus par les participants, facilitant de la sorte l’accès au terrain.

Dejad que las máquinas vengan a mí.

“Dejad que las máquinas vengan a mi” propone una reflexión ontológica sobre qué hace humano al ser humano. Busca un “Principio de Humanidad Suficiente” que se podría aplicar a las máquinas para comprobar o, mejor, definir al humano. Con un diálogo entre películas de ciencia ficción y reflexiones metafísicas, el autor teje una narración en la que pone al ser humano enfrente de la máquina, no como su creación sino ya como otro-entidad que cuestiona su estatus. El diseño y su consecuencia.

GLOBAL SETTLEMENT: THE FATE OF LOCALITY IN RELATION TO MODERN SOCIAL LIFE IN DAGESTAN

The article performs the current discussion of such categories as local and global in modern anthropology and suggests the option of using categories for the modern sociocultural reality of Dagestan society. The positions of leading researchers, deconstructing the concepts of “locality” and “community”, offering an alternative view of a traditional society rooted in a particular place, are demonstrated. Deterritorized societies in the face of significant social changes in the world (migration, including transnational and translocal, as well as the process of globalization) are becoming a new form of social interaction, where physical locality gives way to other categories linking people into relevant communities. In relation to the Dagestan realities, it is proposed to consider local deterritized societies through the prism of the conceptual metaphor “global village”. The factors contributing to the formation of such deterritorialized communities are shown. It is also shown the example of such a community - the village of Bezhta situated on the bordeland with the Republic of Georgia. A look at the complex of physical localities united by belonging to this mountain village (the village itself, resettlement villages on the plain of Dagestan, families located outside the republic in labor migration and living a translocal life, and also to a lesser extent the village of Chantliskuri in Georgia) as version of the "global village".

Problematization of Modern Philosophical Anthropology and Prospects of its Development

Introduction. The paper is devoted to the problematization, updating and analysis of the development prospects of modern philosophical anthropology. The author seeks to clearly define the concept, status and position of philosophical anthropology among philosophical disciplines, identifying problems in this area, including those associated with the concept of "death of man". Methodology and sources. The condition, the complex and ambiguous path of development of philosophical and anthropological knowledge throughout the XX century is examined in detail. For the further productive development of philosophical anthropology, the need for its critical problematization is recognized. Special attention is devoted to the relationship between the philosophical anthropology of Max Scheler and the fundamental ontology of Martin Heidegger. Results and discussion. Multiple methods of understanding philosophical anthropology and determining its semantic horizon are distinguished, which complicates the meaningful concretization of this discipline in the 20th century. The author of the paper emphasizes that philosophical anthropology, if it wants to be philosophia prima, should not abandon the ontological context, but strive to create a new, personalized oriented ontology, actualizing the person's personal understanding. For this, it is necessary to critically take into account the experience of the Orthodox understanding of personality in Byzantine patristics, Russian religious philosophy, phenomenology, the philosophy of Scheler and Heidegger, and even the works of French philosophers of the second half of the 20th century, primarily M. Foucault, who developed the chain of "death of man", but in his later works he approached a new, productive understanding of man. Conclusion. Modern philosophical anthropology should critically rethink the history of its development and open up to the urgent problems of modernity, for example, intersubjectivity, the philosophy of communication, and especially visuality, presented in the form of a productive aesthetics of the human image. The author expresses a cautious hope that philosophical anthropology can become a locomotive for the development of all modern philosophy.

Study, conservation and exhibition of human remains: the need of a bioethical perspective.

Today, the recovery, study and exposition of archaeological human remains are subjected to new discussions. Human remains preserve a clear record of past life to later generations. These remains, even if dated hundreds or thousands of years ago, maintain their human dignity and force the community to reflect on the ethical issues related to their analysis, curation and display. Such a topic stimulate a continuous dialogue between the different actors of the bioarchaeological/osteoarchaeological/anthropological (physical and forensic) field: archaeologists, anthropologists, bioethicists, museum curators and other figures in order to give voice to a broad range of approaches and identify shared paths on the management of human remains that respect human dignity and different cultural values of community. As a “culturally sensitive material”, human remains collections must be acquired and handled with respect regardless of their age and legitimacy of provenance. The opening up to disciplines quite far from the expertize of museum curators is an essential prerequisite to increase awareness towards ethical issues and to develop guidelines that take into account the dignity of the person and the cultural values of community to whom human remains belonged. Accordingly, the authors stimulate the increase of the discussion and try to identify solutions sensitive to the issue. (www.actabiomedica.it)