Ethnographic Literature Research Articles

The Magellan Fallacy: Globalization and the Emergence of Asian and African Literature in Spanish

The Magellan Fallacy: Globalization and the Emergence of Asian and African Literature in Spanish

«Sangres» para propiciar la vida: metáforas y creencias sobre la concepción «humana» en el altiplano andino

This article reflects on the participation of telluric entities in regulating and propitiating fertility in general and «human» fertility in particular in the Andes region. The first part of this study deals with the participation of telluric forces in the breeding of livestock and the propitiation of plant life, as well as resources in general. In view of the visibility of these propitiatory rites, the genesis of new individuals is couched in a language in which references to «blood» and excessive heat abound. This study of the notions relating to conception and human fertility in the Andes involves the systematization of references found in ethnographic literature, and presentation of my own research in rural areas of southern Potosi (Bolivia). I then go on to consider the bodily rhetoric of life-promoting pregnant bodies and their specificities with a view to probing more deeply into the concept of fertility of the people of the Andean plateau.

“Birth is a miracle only to God”: reconfiguring kinship through reproductive suffering in the South Sudanese diaspora

Like many former refugee communities, South Sudanese in the United States are deeply invested in community fertility and the reproduction of the diaspora and the nation. For Dinka South Sudanese, ideas about fertility are typically intertwined with desire for the continuity of the patriline. In the diaspora, however, the affective and jural dimensions of parent–child kinship are being reconfigured in response to a range of factors. In this article, I examine reproductive suffering, defined as trauma suffered by women who experience reproductive complications in service to both the patriline and the nation, as one overlooked but important element that contributes to new kinship formations. Drawing on historical ethnographic literature from South Sudan and fieldwork with South Sudanese mothers and fathers in Massachusetts, I describe an emergent transformation of patrilineality in the diaspora community. I examine two cases of reproductive suffering – one of repeated foetal loss, the other maternal morbidity – that illuminate some of the key outcomes of this transformation, including a growing focus on maternal love, an increase in matrilateral kin claims and the increased relevance of a Christian God in mother–child relationships.

Playing With Knives: The Socialization of Self‐Initiated Learners

Since Margaret Mead's field studies in the South Pacific a century ago, there has been the tacit understanding that as culture varies, so too must the socialization of children to become competent culture users and bearers. More recently, the work of anthropologists has been mined to find broader patterns that may be common to childhood across a range of societies. One improbable commonality has been the tolerance, even encouragement, of toddler behavior that is patently risky, such as playing with or attempting to use a sharp-edged tool. This laissez faire approach to socialization follows from a reliance on children as "self-initiated learners." In this article, the ethnographic literature that shows why children are encouraged to learn without prompting or guidance and how that happens is reviewed.

"Lives in the balance": The politics of integration in the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

A decade ago, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) was established to combat the growing fragmentation of global health action into uncoordinated, issue-specific efforts. Inspired by dominant global public-private partnerships for health, the PMNCH brought together previously competing advocacy coalitions for safe motherhood and child survival and attracted support from major donors, foundations and professional bodies. Today, its founders highlight its achievements in generating priority for ‘MNCH’, encouraging integrated health systems thinking and demonstrating the value of collaboration in global health endeavours. Against this dominant discourse on the success of the PMNCH, this article shows that rhetoric in support of partnership and integration often masks continued structural drivers and political dynamics that bias the global health field towards vertical goals. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article examines the Safe Motherhood Initiative’s evolution into the PMNCH as a response to the competitive forces shaping the current global health field. Despite many successes, the PMNCH has struggled to resolve historically entrenched programmatic and ideological divisions between the maternal and child health advocacy coalitions. For the Safe Motherhood Initiative, the cost of operating within an extremely competitive policy arena has involved a partial renouncement of ambitions to broader social transformations in favour of narrower, but feasible and ‘sellable’ interventions. A widespread perception that maternal health remains subordinated to child health even within the Partnership has elicited self-protective responses from the safe motherhood contingent. Ironically, however, such responses may accentuate the kind of fragmentation to global health governance, financing and policy solutions that the Partnership was intended to challenge. The article contributes to the emerging critical ethnographic literature on global health initiatives by highlighting how integration may only be possible with a more radical conceptualization of global health governance.

The cultures of Native North American language documentation and revitalization

ABSTRACTThe reviewed books comprise an emerging ethnographic literature on endangered language documentation and revitalization in Native North America. Language loss and preservation are pressing concerns for tribal communities, galvanizing activists and researchers to develop classroom curricula and literacy traditions in hopes of producing new speakers. While the reviewed books show that this goal often goes unrealized, we nevertheless read them as grounds for optimism. Even if language revitalization rarely increases the everyday use of particular lexical and grammatical codes, it may succeed in accomplishing another important goal: facilitating indigenous communities’ efforts to create for themselves more meaningful contemporary cultures.

(Un)becoming Dayak: Intermarriage and the Dynamics of Identity and Belonging in East Kalimantan

Much of the ethnographic literature on East Kalimantan has assumed relatively stable group identities. Intermarriage between different Dayak groups has been frequent, but is usually perceived as leading to swift cultural assimilation of the in-marrying party. Similarly, Dayak-Malay intermarriages have been understood in terms of socio-religious assimilation (masuk Islam). This article suggests that a number of socio-historical developments, including Christian mission work, the spread of formal education and recent advances in regional political autonomy, have resulted in high cultural adaptability among East Kalimantan's ‘Dayaks’, leading to hybrid identity formation. Simultaneously, people of mixed ancestry are confronted with ethno-nationalist revitalisation and often face a problematic lack of belonging, challenging them to become—or un-become—‘Dayak’. This article explores the marital histories and social networks of two extended families in the urban and semi-urban centres of the province. It suggests that children of mixed parentage have cultivated various modes of adaptation to the expectations of Dayak indigenism, often involving the strategic invocation of essentialised ethnic labels (suku).

Nondomination or Practices of Freedom? French Muslim Women, Foucault, and The Full Veil Ban

This article proposes a conception of freedom understood as practices. Based on Michel Foucault's work on the ethics of the self, I develop a conception of freedom that exceeds liberation and distinguishes between genuine practices of freedom and practices of the self that are unreflective responses to systems of government. I develop and illustrate this conception through an engagement with the recent French ban on full veils in public spaces and the ethnographic literature on European Muslim revival movements. I reconstruct how Muslim women relate to alternative discourses through specific practices of the self. These practices reveal that French Muslim women actively contest discourses of secularism and liberation that construct them as inherently passive and in need of tutelage. The conception I develop sheds light on some shortcomings of Philip Pettit's notion of freedom as nondomination. I argue that the proposed account is useful to, first, criticize the centrality of the opposition between arbitrary and nonarbitrary power in the definition of freedom. Second, I show that the predominant engagement with the external dimension of freedom in Pettit makes it difficult to capture the particular subjective practices that make up freedom and its development in the presence of power and/or attempts at domination.

WHICH WAY IS FRONT?: SPATIAL ORIENTATION COMPLICATIONS IN CONTEMPORARY SAMOAN VILLAGES

Author(s): Van der Ryn, Micah | Abstract: Drawing on four years of ethnographic fieldwork in Samoan villages examining Samoan village architecture and spatial uses, I illuminate the culturalization of space in Samoan villages in terms of the front–back axis, deemed a key orientation in contemporary Samoan social life. The Samoan term for space is vā, defined as the interval or “between-ness” of entities in physical, social, spiritual, ideational and temporal landscapes. I highlight how perceptions of, and actions on, the vā in Samoa are the modus operandi by which relationships, boundaries and balances in Samoa are negotiated and determined, and how the front-back axis informs binary, mutually complementary and inter-dependent sets of socio-spatial relationships in that system. Central to understanding vā and the front–back axis is its Samoan articulation at different scales—from the architecture of the individual house, to household and whole layouts. This article builds on previous theoretical and ethnographic literature about Samoan space (Shore 1983, 1996, 2014; Allen 1993; Lehman and Herdrich 2002). Informed by both Samoan linguistic and ethnographic evidence and the Whorfian theory of linguistic relativity, the article demonstrates how front–back is primary to a Samoan radial spatial schema, a view that reconfigures Bradd Shore’s positing of a separate, sometimes conflicting, Samoan “front–back binary linear” model (Shore 1983, 1996, 2014).

Reindrift, hushold og kjønn: Sør-Troms på 1700-tallet, i historisk kildemateriale

<p>Focusing on women’s and men’s participation, this article sheds light on the reindeer herding on the island of Hinnøya and in the southern areas of the county of Troms, Northern Norway, during the 18<sup>th</sup> and 19<sup>th</sup> centuries. In this region the Sámi and the Norwegian populations have been living side by side for a long period. In addition to hunting and gathering, the economy of the Sámi population was based on farming, fishing, and reindeer herding. Based on a variety of scant sources, the study focuses on the organization of the household and the concept of household as applied to a reindeer herding population. Who was participating in the reindeer herding and how was it organized? Men’s and women’s roles in the household, their economic contributions and their attachments to specific places and areas, are also studied. Public documents such as assize minutes, tax registers, censuses and court testimonies dating from the 1740s onwards have been analysed with regard to ethnographic and biographical studies. The four mentioned sources allow for different approaches to the analysis of gender perspectives, families, kinship, female and male participation, household organizations, economic activities and land use. By comparing this material with ethnographic studies and travel literature, selected individuals are followed – at least partly – through the different phases of their lifetime. Their roles within the household, their social status and kinship shed light on different conditions of their economic base. It is shown, in a systematic discussion of the sources related to specific regions, that women contributed to and participated in the reindeer herding as a part of a combined economy. However, the sources are insufficient for a full reconstruction of the Sámi households in this geographical area.</p>

Work environments and HIV prevention: a qualitative review and meta-synthesis of sex worker narratives.

BackgroundSex workers (SWs) experience a disproportionately high burden of HIV, with evidence indicating that complex and dynamic factors within work environments play a critical role in mitigating or producing HIV risks in sex work. In light of sweeping policy efforts to further criminalize sex work globally, coupled with emerging calls for structural responses situated in labour and human-rights frameworks, this meta-synthesis of the qualitative and ethnographic literature sought to examine SWs’ narratives to elucidate the ways in which physical, social and policy features of diverse work environments influence SWs’ agency to engage in HIV prevention.MethodsWe conducted a meta-synthesis of qualitative and ethnographic studies published from 2008 to 2014 to elucidate SWs’ narratives and lived experiences of the complex and nuanced ways in which physical, social, and policy features of indoor and outdoor work environments shape HIV prevention in the sex industry.ResultsTwenty-four qualitative and/or ethnographic studies were included in this meta-synthesis. SWs’ narratives revealed the nuanced ways that physical, social, and policy features of work environments shaped HIV risk and interacted with macrostructural constraints (e.g., criminalization, stigma) and community determinants (e.g., sex worker empowerment initiatives) to shape SWs’ agency in negotiating condom use. SWs’ narratives revealed the ways in which the existence of occupational health and safety standards in indoor establishments, as well as protective practices of third parties (e.g., condom promotion) and other SWs/peers were critical ways of enhancing safety and sexual risk negotiation within indoor work environments. Additionally, working in settings where negative interactions with law enforcement were minimized (e.g., working in decriminalized contexts or environments in which peers/managers successfully deterred unjust policing practices) was critical for supporting SWs’ agency to negotiate HIV prevention.ConclusionsPolicy reforms to remove punitive approaches to sex work, ensure supportive workplace standards and policies, and foster SWs’ ability to work collectively are recommended to foster the realization of SWs’ health and human rights across diverse settings. Future qualitative and mixed-methods research is recommended to ensure that HIV policies and programmes are grounded in SWs’ voices and realities, particularly in more under-represented regions such as Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2491-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Ritual practices and wrapped objects: Unpacking prehispanic Andean sacred bundles

Collections of objects wrapped in containers, called bundles, are known throughout the Americas. Drawing upon ethnographic literature, especially descriptions of bundle use in the Andes, this article unravels the social context and practices involved in the creation and deposition of an archaeological bundle. The author presents an analysis of a bundle offering excavated from within the prehispanic fortification of Acaray, located on the Central Coast of Perú in the Huaura Valley. Careful attention to the configuration of the bundle offering, the contents, and their qualities permits a sophisticated interpretation of the offering’s broader meaning. The assemblage and deposition of the bundles solidified social bonds among people and powerful spirits. Through the bundling of people and place (Acaray), the building of physical defenses, and the calling of animated selves for spiritual defense through bundle ceremonies, new identities were made, and the dangers of war could be unmade, in the Huaura Valley.

Indigenous edible plant use by contemporary Khoe-San descendants of South Africa's Cape South Coast

There is evidence that hunter-gatherer societies of both the Middle and the Later Stone Ages in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) used many plant species, particularly those with underground storage organs (USOs), as sources of carbohydrate. In the CFR, USOs – mostly monocotoledon geophytes – are particularly diverse and abundant. However, little is known about which species were targeted by hunter-gatherers. Here we use, for the first time in the CFR, ethnobotanical methods to survey the use of indigenous edible plant species amongst contemporary people of Khoe-San descent, in an attempt to gain insight on hunter-gatherer resource use. Specifically we surveyed 18 participants living in rural areas around Still Bay. They identified 58 indigenous edible plant species (from a potential list of over 140). The identified species had 69 uses, almost half of which were for fruit and a quarter for vegetable foodstuffs. Plants bearing USOs comprised only 12% of uses. As a group, species that produced fruit had the highest popularity, followed by nectar producing species and lastly plants with USOs. The popularity of this last-mentioned group was largely underpinned by the strong preference for the tubers from two Cyphia species. Knowledge of edible geophytes belonging to the Iridaceae was low, despite that these species were widely documented as important carbohydrate sources in the ethnographic, historical and archaeological literature. Shrubs were the most frequent growth form 34% of edible plant species identified by the survey group. Geophytes and trees both comprised 21% of species identified. Species of Thicket Biome affinity dominated the sample (52%) followed by the Fynbos Biome (38%); wetlands contributed the remainder at 10%. The diverse array of different biomes, each with their own suite of edible plant resources, would have been important for sustaining hunter-gatherer communities on the Cape south coast. With the exception of the edible apical meristems of palmiet (Prionium serratum), which occurs rarely in the study area, the survey failed to identify species that could have formed a staple source of carbohydrate for the pre-colonial Khoe-San peoples of the Cape south coast. This is almost certainly due to the loss of hunter-gatherer lifestyles after colonisation in the 1700s and the concomitant introduction of cereal crops.

Polski obraz biedy utrwalony w języku i w kulturze

<p>W artykule podjęto próbę rekonstrukcji najważniejszych składników językowo-kulturowego obrazu biedy. Kierując się założeniami metodologicznymi rekonstrukcji JOS, proponowanymi w pracach Jerzego Bartmińskiego i innych badaczy nurtu etnolingwistycznego, autorka wzięła pod uwagę trzy typy danych: dane systemowe zebrane na podstawie słowników języka polskiego (ogólnych, etymologicznych, frazeologicznych oraz słowników synonimów i antonimów), dane tekstowe (przysłowia, bajki ludowe, przykładowe teksty publicystyczne) oraz informacje kulturowe (wierzenia i zwyczaje ludowe opisane w pracach etnograficznych).</p><p>Analiza zgromadzonego materiału pozwoliła stwierdzić, że pojęcie biedy jest przeciwstawiane bogactwu i traktowane inaczej niż ubóstwo. Łączliwość rzeczownika bieda wyłącznie z przymiotnikami intensyfikującymi wskazuje, że użytkownicy języka dostrzegają przede wszystkim nasilanie się zjawisk związanych z trudną sytuacją materialną. Eufemizacja wyrażana jest natomiast zazwyczaj za pomocą wyrazu niedostatek, charakterystycznego dla polszczyzny oficjalnej.</p><p>W świetle utrwalonych połączeń wyrazowych bieda jawi się przede wszystkim jako odrębny byt towarzyszący ludzkiemu życiu, istota żywa zjawiająca się u człowieka wbrew jego woli (jak intruz), postrzegana zazwyczaj jako osoba. Taki obraz łączy się z ludowym wyobrażeniem biedy (jako chudej kobiety lub nagiego dziecka) obecnym w ikonografii oraz w tekstach bajek. W niektórych przysłowiach biedę przedstawia się jako nauczyciela uczącego doceniać rzeczy powszednie.</p><p>Inne metafory realizowane w utrwalonych multiwerbizmach bazują na wyobrażeniu biedy jako choroby, przedmiotu lub pojemnika. W tekstach publicystycznych i naukowych traktuje się biedę jak przeciwnika lub zagrożenie, z którymi należy walczyć, w ludowym obrazie świata przeważa natomiast fatalizm. We wszystkich typach danych pojęcie biedy jest negatywnie wartościowane.</p>

Dual organization and social inequality in a Venezuelan chiefdom, AD 550–1000

We use archaeological data from the El Gaván site (B12), the paramount center of a pre-Hispanic regional chiefdom during the Late Gaván phase (AD 550–1000) in Barinas, Venezuela, to test two hypotheses about dual organization derived from the ethnographic literature of lowland South America: (1) the hypothesis of gender-linked polarity-complementarity (GLPC); and (2) the hypothesis of exogamous moieties with virilocal residence (EMVR). Spatial analyses of artifact distributions on the floors of two excavated houses reveal that both houses were divided into two complementary activity areas that can be associated with the adult females and adult males of the households, consistent with the GLPC hypothesis. Shifting our perspective to the community level, we conduct statistical analyses of artifacts from test pits in each of the site’s two sectors of house mounds; the results are consistent with the EMVR hypothesis. We then consider how dual organization might have intersected with conditions of social inequality in the El Gaván chiefdom.

MORALIDADES, RACIONALIDADES E POLÍTICAS SEXUAIS NO BRASIL CONTEMPORÂNEO

Resumo Neste artigo, discuto a hipótese de que a emergência da noção de direitos sexuais e a crescente utilização da linguagem dos direitos humanos para consolidar uma ampla agenda de reivindicações relativas aos prazeres, aos corpos e às práticas sexuais significam mais que o mero reconhecimento de que essa dimensão da experiência humana foi alvo da ingerência autoritária do Estado no passado, e de que precisa agora de proteção especial. Tendo como referência a já significativa literatura etnográfica brasileira sobre práticas, valores, identidades e intervenções públicas relativas à sexualidade, tomo a emergência da noção de direitos sexuais como aspecto central de um processo mais amplo de transformação que acontece no nível das políticas sexuais e que incide sobre o próprio dispositivo da sexualidade. Fruto da relação dinâmica entre diferentes atores sociais (ativistas, gestores públicos, políticos, juristas, pesquisadores etc.), tais direitos são aqui considerados como símbolo da emergência histórica de um "novo" regime secular da sexualidade, acompanhado por um estilo de regulação moral que lhe é próprio.

‘Heathen aboriginals’, ‘Christian tribes’, and ‘animistic races’: Missionary narratives on the Oraons of Chhotanagpur in colonial India

AbstractThrough a description of the interactions of Christian missionaries in Chhotanagpur with the Oraons, this article illustrates the different ways in which the missionaries grappled with and restructured their notions of the ‘tribe’ and the ‘Oraon’ across the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Oraon, I argue, was initially recognized in terms of his heathen practices, his so-called compact with the Devil, and his world of idolatry and demonology. But, by the end of the nineteenth century, he increasingly became, in missionary language, an animistic aboriginal tribe, a ‘primitive’ within an evolutionary schema. As the missionaries searched for an authentic Oraon language, for myths, traditions and histories, an array of categories—heathen, savage, race, tribe, and aboriginal—seemingly jostled with one another in their narratives. Indeed, the tension between religion and race could never be resolved in missionary narratives; this was reflected in colonial ethnographic literature that drew upon and yet eventually marginalized missionary representations. I conclude by referring to a case in the 1960s filed by Kartik Oraon against the Protestant convert David Munzni before the Election Tribunal at Ranchi, which was ultimately resolved in the Supreme Court, that raised the question whether religion or race determined tribal identity.

Could plant extracts have enabled hominins to acquire honey before the control of fire?

Honey is increasingly recognized as an important food item in human evolution, but it remains unclear whether extinct hominins could have overcome the formidable collective stinging defenses of honey bees during honey acquisition. The utility of smoke for this purpose is widely recognized, but little research has explored alternative methods of sting deterrence such as the use of plant secondary compounds. To consider whether hominins could have used plant extracts as a precursor or alternative to smoke, we review the ethnographic, ethnobotanical, and plant chemical ecology literature to examine how humans use plants in combination with, and independently of, smoke during honey collection. Plant secondary compounds are diverse in their physiological and behavioral effects on bees and differ fundamentally from those of smoke. Plants containing these chemicals are widespread and prove to be remarkably effective in facilitating honey collection by honey hunters and beekeepers worldwide. While smoke may be superior as a deterrent to bees, plant extracts represent a plausible precursor or alternative to the use of smoke during honey collection by hominins. Smoke is a sufficient but not necessary condition for acquiring honey in amounts exceeding those typically obtained by chimpanzees, suggesting that significant honey consumption could have predated the control of fire.

Spirits and Molecules: Ethnopharmacology and Symmetrical Epistemological Pluralism

ABSTRACTEthnopharmacology is the scientific study of indigenous drugs. Herein, I discuss some of the metaphysical issues at stake when rendering traditional medicines scientifically legible. I draw on my laboratory experience, my limited experience with Amazonian shamanism, and the ethnographic literature to consider drugs as relational entities animated in their particular cosmological milieu, with wider historical determinants stabilizing their ontologies. In relation to the problem of incommensurability that comes to the fore in ethnopharmacology, I review the broad problems faced by ethnopharmacology researchers, and extending Daston's concept of ‘applied metaphysics’ from history of science, I analyse ethnopharmacology as a process of synchronic translation across distinct regimes of knowledge and practice, offering insights into an anthropology of incommensurability that rests upon symmetrical epistemological pluralism. This theory may facilitate ethnopharmacologists and anthropologists in negotiations between incommensurable regimes of knowledge by fostering recognition of a plurality of ways of knowing.

Reproducing colourful woven bands from the Iron Age salt mine of Hallstatt in Austria: An interdisciplinary approach to acquire knowledge of prehistoric dyeing technology

Textiles from the Bronze Age and Iron Age have been preserved for more than 3000years in the salt mine of Hallstatt, Austria. Copper originating from prehistoric mining tools made of bronze has probably altered the colour of many of the textiles. Three woven bands from the Iron Age were chosen for reproductions in order to show how they might originally have looked, and to acquire knowledge of prehistoric dyeing technology. Dyeing techniques documented in historical, ethnographic, and experimental archaeological literature were analysed. Fibre, dye and element analyses of the prehistoric bands formed the basis for the experimental development of dyeing methods using woad (Isatis tinctoria L.), weld (Reseda luteola L.) and scentless chamomile (Tripleurospermum inodorum (L.) Sch. Bip.). The hand spun yarns were woven with rep band and tablet weaving techniques. Each band was successfully reconstructed in two possible colour variants. The light fastness of the dyed woollen yarns ranges between level 3 and 6 and matches everyday requirements today. Element and dye analyses and a post-mordanting experiment with copper acetate explain today's colours of the woven bands. A detailed picture of conceivable dyeing techniques in the Hallstatt Culture is provided, concerning the handling of textile material during dyeing, woad processing and dyeing procedures, mordanting techniques, and the tools and resources required. Dyeing with natural dyes is an ancient cultural technology that is simple in terms of equipment and resources, but sophisticated in terms of the knowledge required. It fully reflects the comprehensive knowledge prehistoric people had of the chemical properties of natural substances, the effect of temperature on (bio)chemical processes, and the ability to control and manage these processes. In central Europe, the beginning of this knowledge dates back to Bronze Age, the 2nd millennium BC, as proven by the textile finds in Hallstatt.