Department Of Social Anthropology Research Articles

COVID‐19 and the Marshallese

<scp>COVID</scp>‐19 and the Marshallese

Maputo: Ethnography of a Divided City

Rapid urbanisation is one of the most dramatic developments on the African continent, often yielding contrasting and shocking images of affluent businesses and residential districts alongside sprawling shantytowns or slums. Urban areas account for an increasing part of the continent’s positive macro-economic development and represent opportunities for employment, education, health, leisure and well-being. However, urban growth is also manifested in emerging conditions of inequality and poverty, rising environmental problems, situations of political instability and riots, as well as persistent high levels of urban crime and violence. &#x0D; This film project seeks to visualise Maputo: one of Africa’s divided cities. It is part of the research project “The Ethnography of a Divided City. Socio-Politics, Poverty and Gender in Maputo, Mozambique” headed by the Chr. Michelsen Institute and funded by the Norwegian Research Council. While the film relates actively to the research project, it approaches the project’s themes from new and original angles and ANIMA has had full artistic freedom in its filmic approach. A focus on the people inhabiting the city’s so-called bairros (districts/areas) provides a privileged view of the way in which symbolic and material boundaries of various urban spaces are contested, negotiated and, ultimately, inscribed onto mental maps of the city.&#x0D; Contributors:&#x0D; Inge Tvedten, Chr. Michelsen Institute, Head of project &#x0D; Fábio Ribeiro, ANIMA - Estúdio Criativo, Production and photo&#x0D; João Graça, ANIMA - Estúdio Criativo, Production and photo&#x0D; Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, Research advisor&#x0D;

John Pickstone: a personal tribute.

I met John in 1995. I had enrolled for the University of Manchester’s unique M.A. in History and Social Anthropology of Science, Technology and Medicine, which was jointly run by the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine and the Department of Social Anthropology. This degree was one of many interdisciplinary activities that John had initiated. Soon after my arrival, during one of several drink receptions that form an integral part of induction weeks at British universities, John treated me like an old friend. He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say and offered me a funded Ph.D. project: he had been approached by an organisation of Swiss orthopaedic surgeons who wanted their history written, the AO (Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Osteosynthesefragen). It was necessary to read German to do this. I decided that I was not ready to work on the history of the AO. The project went to the University of Freiburg, where Thomas Schlich turned it into into a fine book, published in the book series that John edited 1. The project John had in mind for me was a typical example of how his work on local Manchester issues extended outwards and eventually went global. He had developed an interest in orthopaedic surgery when researching his book on Medicine and industrial society while based at the institution down the road, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology

Diagrams

Previous articleNext article FreeDiagramsMAURO WILLIAM BARBOSA DE ALMEIDAMAURO WILLIAM BARBOSA DE ALMEIDAState University of Campinas Search for more articles by this author State University of CampinasPDFPDF PLUSFull TextEPUBMOBI Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreI am inspired by Marshall’s reading of Philippe Descola’s quadripartite ontological taxonomy. Actual ontologies are much more complex, as he points out. I wonder if diagrams could make this more explicit, and I attach a few suggestions.Diagram 1 is just Sahlins’ original diagram. Diagram 2 is a transformation of Sahlins’ original diagram (Diagram 1) suggested by Lévi-Strauss’ “totemic operator” (thanks to Kelly for the reminder).Diagram 3 introduces multiple combinations, many of them suggested by Sahlins himself. It suggests two possible readings of Sahlins’ point: one more concerned with “superstructures,” and the other more along the lines of an “order of orders” which connects “superstructures” and “infrastructures”.In Diagram 4 all hell breaks loose. No complete taxonomy of categories is possible.These diagrams have an interesting history which links two seemingly disparate sources: first, Lévi-Strauss’ totemic operator in La pensée sauvage (1962) and in his diagrams in Histoire de lynx (1991; transformed by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro); second, “Galois lattices” invented by Barbut and Monjardet (1970) and put to use more recently by Parrochia and Neuville (2013).Diagram 1: Sahlins’ Lattices.View Large ImageDownload PowerPointDiagram 2: Totemic Operator Format.View Large ImageDownload PowerPointDiagram 3: Sahlins´ lattice in Galois–Lévi-Strauss format.View Large ImageDownload PowerPointDiagram 4: An order-of-orders version. In the line “open to multiple connections,” there could be as many lines as desired.View Large ImageDownload PowerPointReferencesMarc Barbut, Bernard Monjardet 1970. Ordre et classification. Paris: Hachette.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarClaude Lévi-Strauss 1962. La pensée sauvage. Paris: Plon.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarClaude Lévi-Strauss 1991. Histoire de lynx. Paris: Plon.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarDaniel Parrochia, Pierre Neuville 2013. Towards a general theory of classifications. Basel: Springer.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarMauro William Barbosa DE ALMEIDA is Professor of Social Anthropology at the State University of Campinas in São Paulo, Brazil. His areas of research include Amazonia, extractive reserves, social diversity, and anthropological theory. He participated in the planning of Forest University (Universidade Federal do Acre—Forest Campus).MAURO WILLIAM BARBOSA DE ALMEIDA Professor, Department of Social Anthropology, State University of CampinasSão Paulo, Brazil[email protected]com.br Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory Volume 4, Number 1Summer 2014 Published on behalf of the Society for Ethnographic Theory Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.1.014 Views: 1187 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons | © Mauro William Barbosa de Almeida. 2014.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

An Interview with Marilyn Strathern: Kinship and Career

The interview was conducted in September 1996 in Cambridge. Marilyn Strathern (MS) and Janet Carsten (JC) had been colleagues at the University of Manchester’s Department of Social Anthropology until September 1993, when Marilyn Strathern left to take up the William Wyse Professorship at the University of Cambridge, where she remained until retirement in 2008. Janet Carsten joined Edinburgh in October of the same year, where she is presently Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology. (Supplementary questions, reflecting back on the earlier interview, were put to Marilyn Strathern by the editors of the special issue in 2013.)

The relative native

The relative native

Introduction: "Objectification, Measurement and Standardization"

The articles in this issue of Culture Unbound were presented at a multidisciplinary conference entitled “Objectification, Measurement and Standardization” held at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway, in January, 2012. It was organized by the Department of Social Anthropology, NTNU Social Research and the university’s Globalization Program.

Pela liberdade intelectual: uma homenagem a Gilberto Velho (1945-2012)

This is a tribute to anthropologist Gilberto Velho, born in 1945 in Rio de Janeiro, and who passed away suddenly from a heart attack in his home on April 14, 2012, at the age of 66. During his brilliant 40-year career, Gilberto Velho published dozens of articles, supervised more than 100 theses, won various awards, and occupied outstanding positions in Brazil's most important social sciences institutions. He was Full Professor and Head of the Department of Social Anthropology at the National Museum (UFRJ) and member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. In this article, I pay tribute to his love for intellectual freedom, a value which illuminates the interfaces between his life and work.

UMA ANTROPOLOGIA DAS COISAS: ETNOGRAFIA E MÉTODO

O presente ensaio bibliográfico tem como base o livro que resultou de uma série de discussões promovidas por um grupo de estudantes de doutorado do Departamento de Antropologia Social da Universidade de Cambridge, no final da década de 1990. Não obstante a diversidade dos contextos etnográficos, todos os autores partilham o desafio de reformular a relação entre o método etnográfico e a teoria antropológica no que concerne ao estudo daquilo que se convencionou chamar de cultura material. Donde o título Pensando Mediante as Coisas, além de denotar uma questão antropológica a respeito do que os informantes fazem e de como os autores poderiam desenvolver versões sobre os modos a partir dos quais os mesmos apreendem e concebem as coisas, também compreenda o caráter principal dos encontros que motivaram a redação deste livro.

‘Diverse Epistemologies’, Truth and Archaeology: In Defence of Realism

In a recent journal article, as well as in a recent book chapter, in which she critiques my position on 'indigenous knowledge', Lesley Green of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town argues that 'diverse epistemologies ought to be evaluated not on their capacity to express a strict realism but on their ability to advance understanding'. In order to examine the implications of Green's arguments, and of Nelson Goodman and Catherine Elgin's work in this regard, I apply them to a well-known controversy between Native American (or First Nations) creationism and archaeology. I argue that issues in social justice should be distinguished from issues in epistemology. Moreover, in tightening in this paper the link between knowledge and truth, I attempt to defend science as a 'privileged way of seeing the world'. The analysis of truth, and of related concepts like reality and 'the way the world is', will assume a central role here. I contend that, ultimately, the only coherent and consistent position is a realist view of the pertinent issues and ideas.

‘Miraa is cool’: the cultural importance of miraa (khat) for Tigania and Igembe youth in Kenya*

Miraa (as khat is most commonly known in Kenya) is grown intensively in the Nyambene Hills district of Kenya by the Tigania and Igembe (sub-groups of the Meru). It is of prime economic importance for the region, and Nyambene-grown miraa feeds a growing international, as well as national, market. While it is a controversial substance – condemned as a ‘drug’ by many – Tigania and Igembe have much pride in the substance, emphasising not just its economic role but also its place in Nyambene traditions. It is linked strongly to Tigania and Igembe ancestors, and its consumption is said to have been once restricted to the elders alone. However, miraa is now also incorporated into a ‘youth ethos’ where it is validated as poa (‘cool’) alongside many elements imported from abroad. Rather than leading to a rejection of its traditional resonance, this paper argues that for many Tigania and Igembe youth miraa's validation as poa in a wider youth ethos reinforces the respect they have for this traditional, localised significance. For them, that miraa is a successful commodity, is linked to their heritage, and is regarded as poa by many of their peers in Kenya, helps forge an identity as young, modern and Meru. * My spells conducting fieldwork in Kenya were funded with the help of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, the department of Social Anthropology at the University of St. Andrews, and by an Economic and Social Research Council studentship. I have conducted further research on miraa as a research assistant at St Antony's College, Oxford, working on the ‘Khat Nexus’ project within the ‘Cultures of Consumption Programme’ of the Arts and Humanities Research Board and the Economic and Social Research Council. Special thanks to Nicholas M'Mucheke and all my Kenyan friends, Pauline Whitehead, Douglas Webster, Paul Baxter, Paul Tablino, Kathryn Cesarz, Elaine Baldwin, Mario Aguilar, Susan Beckerleg, David Anderson and Roy Dilley and Michael Carrier. The paper benefited greatly from an airing at a seminar in Durham convened by Justin Willis.

The Meaning of Place in a World of Movement: Lessons from Long-term Field Research in Southern Ethiopia

My first academic post was in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester, a department founded by Max Gluckman in 1949 in what was sometimes referred to as a kind of colonizing movement from Oxford. Gluckman attracted a small group of colleagues with whom he had worked at the Rhodes Livingstone Institute in Zambia (now the Institute for Social Research at the University of Zambia) and also in Oxford. One of the most influential members of the group was Elizabeth Colson. Although she was in Manchester for only three years, she played a key part in giving the Department its characteristic approach to the subject, an approach which was still much in evidence when we arrived there in 1971. Perhaps the most general feature of this approach was a concern to understand change and process, and a consequent emphasis on extended periods of observation. In Elizabeth’s case, this led to a lifetime’s commitment to long-term fieldwork amongst the Gwembe Tonga of Zambia. To use a terminology that will figure largely in what I have to say in this lecture, she played a key part in the ‘production’ of that place, an academic ‘site’ which came to be designated by a geographical label: the ‘Manchester School’ of anthropology.

You Are What You Speak, or Are You? Identity, language, sociocultural change, and the Pa'ikwené (Palikur)

Alain Passes describes the relationships between identity, language and recent sociocultural developments within the Pa'ikwené communities. He argues that ‘language loss is not identity loss’ and that identity can be manifested in many different dimensions. He uses recent observations of recent social phenomena among Pa'ikwené to support his ideas.&#x0D; Short description by Michal Gilewski&#x0D; ACKNOWLEDGEMENT&#x0D; The article is based on a paper presented at CIASE, department of social anthropology,&#x0D; Unwersity of St. Andrews, Scotland, 17 April, 2003.

Common Property Resource Management, Institutional Change and Conflicts in African Floodplain Wetlands

Most contemporary discussions on African development since independence forty years ago emphasize the notion that Africa is still “mal parti”. Many show discontent for what has been achieved in this time, despite that “Africa works” as is suggested by Chabal and Daloz in their widely discussed book (1999). I will focus on the issue of sustainable development in Africa. This will be illustrated by the presentation of a common property resource management research project (on fisheries, pastures, wildlife, water for irrigation, and forests). The question of why the overuse of natural resources and conflicts over resources are occurring in modern day Africa is addressed here. This research project is called “Common Property Institutions and Power Relations: Resource Management, Change and Conflicts in African Floodplain Wetlands”. It focuses on six African floodplain wetlands in semi-arid zones (Internal Niger Delta in Mali, Hadejia-Jama'ara in Northern Nigeria, Logone Floodplain in Northern Cameroon, Pangani Floodplain in Tanzania, Okavango Delta in Botswana and Kafue Flats in Zambia (Haller 2001)). This work will be conducted by students from the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Zurich and by local students in these wetland areas, and will be under my supervision. The aim is to make a comparative analysis of these wetland areas, which should lead to a better understanding of the processes of resource use responsible for environmental problems and conflicts in these areas. The project is integrated in the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) with the title “NCCR North-South: Research Partnerships for Mitigation Syndromes of Global Change”. In this competence centre, research for mitigation of diverse problems concerning development in the Third World will be done over the next 10 years by a large group of Swiss research institutions who will conduct this research in partnership with local scientists in Third World Countries (SARPI 2000). The competence centre consists of different subprojects, one of them being the IP6 “Institutional Change and Livelihood Strategies”, in which the presented research project on African floodplain wetlands is integrated. To illustrate the aim of the project and to give some reflections on institutional change and conflicts, two cases from Northern Nigeria and Mali will be presented. These two cases show how common property resources (CPR) such as fisheries were institutionally managed in former times, and how the traditional institutions have changed over the last forty years. The aim of the wetlands project is to test the validity of the New Institutionalism theories on CPR Resource Management in a specific ecological and political setting. Firstly, the design principles by Elinor Ostrom on robust institutions for the sustainable use of CPR-resources (Ostrom 1990, Becker and Ostrom 1995) are compared with local CPR-institutions in the selected wetlands areas. Secondly, theories and approaches of the New Institutional Economics and Anthropology (North 1990, Ensminger 1992) will be tested. Finally, Jean Ensminger's explanations concerning institutional change and bargaining power are looked at in particular. (African Anthropologist: 2002 9(1): 25-35)

The Long Walk III — Pastoral Nomads and Anthropology: An Interview with Emanuel Marx

As the author and editor of ten books and over sixty papers, and the recipient of three prestigious awards (President Ben-Zvi Prize, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain, Israel Prize), Emanuel Marx needs no introduction to scholars of nomadic pastoralism or to those interested in the contemporary societies of the Arab world. Born in Munich, Germany, in 1927, he studied first at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he took his M.A., and then went on to do his Ph.D. at the University of Manchester. In terms of professional experience, Emanuel is a cosmopolitan, having lectured and researched at the universities of Manchester, Tel-Aviv, Berkeley, Brandeis, Cape Town, Oxford, Copenhagen and at the Institute for Desert Research of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and finally at the Israeli Academic Center in Cairo This interview took place at the Marx home in Ramat-Hasharon, Israel on March 14, 2000. AAR--First of all, I am very happy to do this interview with you. EM--And I am very happy that you are doing it. A--Let's first talk about the most important things. How many children do you have? M--We have three children, one daughter and two sons. Dina is the eldest. She works in a nature reserve. The eldest of her three children is now graduating from high school and is about to do her military service. She swims in competitions, and I hope she will not become a professional sportswoman. The second one is thirteen, and is determined to become a dancer. The third one is nine years old and, like every other child nowadays, he is interested in computers. Our second child, Yuval, is a psychologist who is especially concerned with mental retardation. He works in a home for retarded youths and also in the Holon schools (Holon is a city in the Tel Aviv conurbation). He has recently moved into a new apartment in Modi'in, a rapidly growing new town, and intends to set up a private practice. The third one, Alon, is a computer engineer in one of these fabulous start-up companies. He loves his job, and for all I know he is developing a videoconferencing programme. He has two daughters, a four-year-old and an eight-months-old. A--You see how time is flying, because if you had asked me I would have told you that he only married two years ago. Now we are coming to Dalia, your wife. What was the role of Dalia in your academic career and also during your Ph.D. fieldwork? M--Dalia has been a full partner in my academic career. When the anthropological upheaval in our lives began I was assistant to the Israeli Prime Minister's Advisor on Arab Affairs, and Dalia was working as a schoolteacher. When I went to Manchester to study social anthropology we both left secure and satisfying jobs. For several years we had to live on scholarships, which meant a great deal of insecurity. Nor did we have any idea what was going to happen after I completed my studies. While I did not want to go back to work for the government, it was clear that I would not get a job in an Israeli university because anthropology was quite peripheral to the sociology taught there. I had an enticing job offer in Cambridge, but Dalia was adamant that we should return to Israel. Not that she herself had a job to come back to. She simply thought that we should not cut ourselves off from our social environment. I realised then, and still believe, that she was right. A--I am sure that you appreciate that very much. M--I do. I would like to emphasise that we made this and other decisions jointly. The return to Israel worked out far better than expected. For, in 1963, two totally unanticipated events happened: first, I was invited by the newly established Faculty of Social Science at Tel Aviv University to set up an anthropology department; and second, the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester received a tempting offer to study new immigrants to Israel. …

Book review: Land is coming up. The Burunge of central Tanzania and their environment, Wilhelm Ostberg. Stockholm Studies in Social Anthropology, Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, 1995. ISBN 91 7153 4040, SKr 282.00 (paperback), viii + 258 pp.

Book review: Land is coming up. The Burunge of central Tanzania and their environment, Wilhelm Ostberg. Stockholm Studies in Social Anthropology, Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, 1995. ISBN 91 7153 4040, SKr 282.00 (paperback), viii + 258 pp.

Book review: Land is coming up. The Burunge of central Tanzania and their environment, Wilhelm Ostberg. Stockholm Studies in Social Anthropology, Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, 1995. ISBN 91 7153 4040, SKr 282.00 (paperback), viii + 258 pp.

Book review: Land is coming up. The Burunge of central Tanzania and their environment, Wilhelm Ostberg. Stockholm Studies in Social Anthropology, Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, 1995. ISBN 91 7153 4040, SKr 282.00 (paperback), viii + 258 pp.

The Primacy of the Ethical: Propositions for a Militant Anthropology

The Primacy of the Ethical: Propositions for a Militant Anthropology

On the Road in Laos: An Anthropological Study of Road Construction and Rural Communities. By Ing-Britt Trankell. Uppsala: Uppsala Reports in Cultural Anthropology, No. 12. Uppsala University, 1993. viii, 99 pp. - Anthropological Reconnaissance in Central Laos: A Survey of Local Communities in a Hydropower Area. By Jan Ovesen. Uppsala: Uppsala Reports in Cultural Anthropology, No. 13. Uppsala University, 1993.

On the Road in Laos: An Anthropological Study of Road Construction and Rural Communities. By Ing-Britt Trankell. Uppsala: Uppsala Reports in Cultural Anthropology, No. 12. Uppsala University, 1993. viii, 99 pp. - Anthropological Reconnaissance in Central Laos: A Survey of Local Communities in a Hydropower Area. By Jan Ovesen. Uppsala: Uppsala Reports in Cultural Anthropology, No. 13. Uppsala University, 1993. viii, 80 pp. - Road 13: A Socio-Economic Study of Villages, Transport and Use of Road 13 S, Lao P.D.R. By Agneta Håkangård. Stockholm: Development Studies Unit Report No. 23, Department of Social Anthropology. Stockholm University, 1992. 99 pp. - Volume 53 Issue 4

P. T. W. Baxter with Richard Hogg (eds.), Property, Poverty and People: changing rights in property and problems of pastoral development. Manchester: Department of Social Anthropology and International Development Centre, University of Manchester, 1991, 288 pp., £11.00.

P. T. W. Baxter with Richard Hogg (eds.), Property, Poverty and People: changing rights in property and problems of pastoral development. Manchester: Department of Social Anthropology and International Development Centre, University of Manchester, 1991, 288 pp., £11.00.