Ethnological Theory Research Articles

Youth Education Efforts of the 1940s

My paper aims to present the dance culture of the 1940’s and explore its scientific approach to dance. According to results of my research, the “national-rescue activity” originating in Budapest looked for the promise of demonstrating “cultural-superiority” in youth-education. Movement-artists and newly formed amateur ensembles also played role in this. The initial dance-research followed the European research direction, considered the application of ethnological theories as the basis. When examining the interaction of city and countryside with a cultural-historical anthropological approach, my questions formulated in my writing: Did the village research and Scientific Institute-work in the 1940’s have an impact on the style of dance that also played a representative role, appearing as a result of the youth education efforts in Budapest? How does appear in the source-works that published the research-results of that time? My paper seeks the answers to these questions.

Социально-философское осмысление проблем этноса и этнической идентичности в отечественной науке ХХ в.

This article delves into the nuanced discourse surrounding ethnicity and ethnic identity in the Russian science of the XX century. It critically examines the works of prominent scholars such as S.M. Shirokogorov, shedding light on the multifaceted nature of ethnicity and its implications for cultural diversity. The study also scrutinizes the methodological approaches of Soviet-era researchers, particularly their tendency to conflate ethnicity with nationality. Furthermore, it offers a comparative analysis of ethnological theories put forth by notable figures including M.I. Artamonov, Yu.V. Bromley, L.N. Gumilev, and S.M. Shirokogorov. By delineating the distinctions between ethnicity and nationality, the research underscores the significance of factors such as haplogroups, genetic studies, language, and mythological narratives in elucidating the unique cultural identities of various ethnic groups. In conclusion, by exploring diverse perspectives and methodologies, the research enriches our comprehension of the complexities surrounding ethnic identity in Russian scientific thought. Moreover, it emphasizes the role of interdisciplinary approaches in elucidating the intricate interplay between genetics, culture, and historical narratives in shaping ethnic identities. This nuanced understanding is crucial for fostering mutual respect and appreciation for cultural diversity in modern society.

Cultural and Traditional Importance of Road Side Graves in the Akumadan Traditional Area of the Offinso North District of Ghana

The study examined the cultural and traditional importance of roadside graves in the Akumadan Traditional Area of the Offinso North District of Ghana. The study used the Ethnological theory approach which takes into consideration the subculture of a group or group that has a common culture, its goal is to create detailed and comprehensive descriptions of the community and then interpret the ingrained patterns. Achieving the aspirational goal of becoming an ancestor after death becomes impossible if one attempts to use advance care directives in Ghana in particular and Africa in general to request an unnatural death. Since roadside cemeteries or burial places have not been previously investigated, the study unravels the mystery surrounding the realities of these roadside cemeteries in Ghana. A survey research approach was used and the approach serves as the driver to the entire research process. Primary and Secondary literature on culture, graves, and traditions were reviewed and the instruments used for data included interviews, observation, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews. These were transcribed and analysed in teams. Key amongst the findings was that ancestors should be kept at Akantifi (the edge of the city in Akan), a place for easy access. They also believed that the dead are part of them (the living) and they need not throw them away hence must be nearer them or by the roadside. It was also revealed that traditional spiritual protection of the community is in the hands of the dead therefore they should be buried near the community (either at the ‘entrance’ of the town or when leaving the town) and for easy ritual performance. Offinso North and for that matter Akumadan Traditional area of Ghana are rich in cultural and traditional belief systems. The paper recommends as a matter of policy that, these cultural and traditional belief systems must be properly documented as part of the rich culture of the traditional area; and a tourism hub must be created by all stakeholders to take care of the rich culture of the area. Keywords: Culture, Grave, Roadside, Tradition, Ancestors

Roadside Graves: Cultural and Traditional Significance of Akumadan Traditional Area of Offinso North District of Ghana

The study investigated cultural and traditional significance of road side graves/burial grounds at the Akumadan traditional area of the Offinso North District. Inextricably linked to the human environment are burial grounds. It's been a common belief for a very long time that after someone dies, their spirit lives on in another form. The study used the Ethnological theory approach by John (2018) which takes into consideration the subculture of a group or group that has a common culture, it’s goal is creating a detailed and comprehensive descriptions of the community and then interpret the ingrained patterns. Achieving the aspirational goal of becoming an ancestor after death is impossible if one attempts to use advance care directives in Africa to request an unnatural death. This study has not been explored previously and therefore adds value to theories and realities of roadside graves or burial grounds. The inter-prettiest paradigm served as the driver to the entire research process for this study. According to interpretivists, reality can only be fully understood by the subjective interpretation of and intervention in reality, hence it focuses on the complexities of meaning as enacted in symbols, language, and social interactions. The study reviewed literature on both primary and secondary literature on culture, graves and traditions. The methods used to collect the data for this study included interviews, observation, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews and transcribed and analysed into themes. The targeted groups was traditional chiefs, sub-chiefs, opinion leaders, religious groups, accidentally sampled individuals 40 years below and 40 years above. Key amongst the findings include: Ancestors should be kept at a place for easy access (“Akantifi” meaning edge of city in Akan). They also believe the dead are part of them (living) and they need not throw them away; hence, they must be nearer them or by the roadside. They also added that is for traditional spiritual protection of the community (either the ‘entrance’ of the town or when leaving the town) and for easy ritual performance. As a policy implication, Offinso North and for that matter Akumadan Traditional area of Ghana is rich in cultural and traditional belief systems. These cultural and traditional believe systems must be properly documented as part of the rich culture of the traditional area. A tourism hub must be created to take care of the area's rich culture.

Theoretical exploration of Chinese anthropology and ethnology: the road to construct the Chinese School

AbstractThis paper starts with the four factors that affect Chinese anthropology and ethnology: the Soviet school of ethnology, Marxist ethnology, Western anthropological and ethnological theories, and Chinese experience and theory (government policies and scholar explorations). Based on the influence of foreign theories and the theoretical exploration of local efforts, this paper points out the transformations in Chinese anthropology and ethnology and its research characteristics in different periods. Since the reform and opening up in 1978, Chinese anthropological and ethnological studies have seen the constant expansion of study fields, increasing diversity of study contents, and the introduction of foreign theories and the exploration in Chinese theories in each stage. This shows that China has gradually explored the theoretical research course suitable for its own. The development course and transformations of Chinese anthropological and ethnological theories can be divided into the following three stages: the introduction of foreign theories and reconstruction of Chinese anthropology and ethnology (1978 to 1990), the orientation of Chinese issues and the verification of foreign theories (1990 to 2000), and the establishment of the Chinese School and its increasing international influence (since 2000).

El Arxiu d'Etnografia i Folklore de Catalunya o la transformación de la investigación etnográfica en Cataluña a principios de siglo

El Arxiu d'Etnografia i Folklore de Catalunya es la primera tentativa de institucionalizar la investigación etnográfica en Cataluña, constituyéndose, asimismo, en una de las primeras de todo el país. Unido al Noucentisme catalán, receptor de la teoría etnológica europea del momento (Lévy-Bruhl, W. Schmidt, Marett, etc. .. ), representó una transformación radical de lo realizado hasta el momento en el terreno de la Etnografía y el Folklore en Cataluña, cambio que se materializó en la teoría de la Psicoetnografla, creada por el director y fundador de la entidad, Tomas Carreras i Artau.

Schyłek imperiów i jego skutki na Półwyspie Bałkańskim

In the Ottoman Empire there was no visible dividing line between secular and religious law. The Ottoman state divided its subjects according to their religion into millets or ‘communities’. Religion was the basis for these divisions; language and ethnological theories played merely a secondary part. The rationale for this state of affairs was the system of government. Ottoman law was a religious code, which could not be imposed on unbelievers, who could not be recruited into the army.A new spirit of national consciousness awoke among the peoples of the millets with the attempt to create civil laws to replace religious ones. They had to reorganise themselves on national lines if they were hold their own at all in modern international politics because nationality was the contemporary basis of Western states and, owing to the ascendancy of the West in the world, the relations of non-Western peoples to each other and to Western powers had to approximate to the forms which the Western world took for granted. During the nineteenth century, nationality became the leading concept and nationalism celebrated its universal victory. During the nineteenth century, nationalism won hearts and minds of the Balkanites as ‘some kind of a social-emancipatory ideology’ (Moritsch 2002: 83), and ever more voices could be heard, claiming the Balkans for the Balkanites. In the Ottoman Empire, however, the Spring of Nations did not come to the Ottoman nation, but such occurred among the peoples who were under Ottoman rule. Nationalists of all Balkan nations jointly emphasised small differences between them, both in the present as well as in the past. In the process, mythology replaced history; tolerance and multiculturalism were its first victims.

The Emergence of Japanese Ethnology

This paper attempts to clarify the emergence of Matsumoto Nobuhiro as an ethnologist in the period 1919–23. Matsumoto Nobuhiro (1897–1981) was an ethnologist who is known as a pioneer in Southeast Asian studies and the Japanese mythology in Japan. Previous researches have already pointed out the influence of Yanagita Kunio and of the French School of Sociology on Matsumoto’s academic work from the late 1920s. However, they did not examine Matsumoto’s research in the early 1920s when Matsumoto started studying ethnology. The clarification of the formation o fMatsumoto’s ethnology in this period can contribute to the understanding of emergence and formation of ethnology in Japan. Based on the analysis of Matsumoto’s writing in the period 1919–23, this paper explains that Matsumoto became ethnologist because he joined the discussion on the human origins under influence of Evolutionism. It argues that he researched primitive culture of various peoples in order to clarify the origins of the Japanese and Chinese culture. Further, the paper shows that Matsumoto became ethnologist due to studying Western ethnology under the guidance of ethno-psychologist Kawai Teiichi and folklorist Yanagita Kunio, and it mentions also influenceofMatsumoto’s teachers of Chinese history on the formation of Matsumoto’s ethnology. Therefore, the paper demonstrates that the Japanese ethnology emerged from the discussion on the human origins under influence of Evolutionism by importing Western ethnological theories in close relation with the Japanese folklore studies and history.

The Emergence of Japanese Ethnology

This paper attempts to clarify the emergence of Matsumoto Nobuhiro as an ethnologist in the period 1919–23. Matsumoto Nobuhiro (1897–1981) was an ethnologist who is known as a pioneer in Southeast Asian studies and the Japanese mythology in Japan. Previous researches have already pointed out the influence of Yanagita Kunio and of the French School of Sociology on Matsumoto’s academic work from the late 1920s. However, they did not examine Matsumoto’s research in the early 1920s when Matsumoto started studying ethnology. The clarification of the formation o fMatsumoto’s ethnology in this period can contribute to the understanding of emergence and formation of ethnology in Japan. Based on the analysis of Matsumoto’s writing in the period 1919–23, this paper explains that Matsumoto became ethnologist because he joined the discussion on the human origins under influence of Evolutionism. It argues that he researched primitive culture of various peoples in order to clarify the origins of the Japanese and Chinese culture. Further, the paper shows that Matsumoto became ethnologist due to studying Western ethnology under the guidance of ethno-psychologist Kawai Teiichi and folklorist Yanagita Kunio, and it mentions also influenceofMatsumoto’s teachers of Chinese history on the formation of Matsumoto’s ethnology. Therefore, the paper demonstrates that the Japanese ethnology emerged from the discussion on the human origins under influence of Evolutionism by importing Western ethnological theories in close relation with the Japanese folklore studies and history.

On relations between ethnology and psychology in historical context

Ever since records began, accounts of other peoples and their institutions and customs have included comments about their mental characteristics. The present article traces this feature from the 18th century to roughly the First World War, with a brief sketch of more recent developments. For most of this period two contrasting positions prevailed: the dominant one attributed human differences to ‘race’, while the other one explained them in terms of psychological, environmental and historical factors. The present account focuses on the latter, among them those who asserted ‘the psychic unity of mankind’. Generally it is shown that from the early period when writings were based almost entirely on secondary sources, to the beginnings of empirical studies, ethnological theories were indissolubly linked to psychological concerns.

Prehistoric Wars and the Origin of Military Power (based on Archaeological and Historical-ethnological Data)

The objective of this study is to correlate historical, ethnological, and archaeological sources regarding the symbolism of military power. For that purpose the status of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age burials with weapons in the Danube Basin, Caucasus, and southeastern Europe was analyzed in the context of ethnological theory. These data are discussed with reference to the typology of warfare in pre-state societies, contrasting primitive wars and later “true” wars (those involving fighting for spoils). Ethnological evidence demonstrates the dramatic rise of the status of military chiefs. Eventually, as fighting for spoils becomes more common, the chiefs rapidly rise to the height of power and acquire the right to distribute trophies. This tendency is documented by archaeological evidence, art, and mythology, indicating the developing symbolism of weaponry and military themes and testifying to the rise in the status of persons involved in warfare, specifically military leaders.

Random alliance networks

The morphological properties of kinship and marriage alliance networks, such as circuits, are typically considered as indicators of sociological phenomena — yet, they may also be partly coincidental. To assert the contribution of chance to these morphological features, we develop a standardized method where empirical alliance networks are compared with a random baseline. We apply our framework to a variety of empirical cases and show that some corpuses are remarkably well reconstructed by our random model, while others still feature significant divergencies which may be partly connected to field-based experience. On the whole, our approach may be used to scrutinize the matrimonial role of social groups as asserted by native or ethnological theory.

The divine kingship of the Shilluk of the Nilotic Sudan

The divine kingship of the Shilluk of the Nilotic Sudan

La traducción de J.G. Herder al alemán del romance Abenámar o Die Herrlichkeit Granada’s

This article introduces a critical comment on the first rhymed verse translation of the Spanish border ballad, Abenamar, into German initially performed by German Scholar and Philosopher, J.G. Herder. This early Sturm und Drang publication illustrates Herder’s historic, linguistic and ethnological theories and its purpose, in accordance with the first Romantic theories, was to give the German public an insight into the lives, identities and mentalities of another people from another time. In spite of the fact that this translation came from a French source, Herder succeeded in captivating the Spanish-Arabic fusion atmosphere as well as reproducing an enhanced German rhymed verse version of the initial works.

Etnoastronomia no Brasil: a contribuição de Charles Frederick Hartt e José Vieira Couto de Magalhães

Após uma breve revisão bibliográfica sobre arqueoastronomia e etnoastronomia, o artigo analisa algumas obras do final do século XIX que trazem informações sobre a etnoastronomia de índios brasileiros. Estes relatos são de autoria do naturalista canadense Charles Frederick Hartt (1840-1878) e do polimata brasileiro José Vieira Couto de Magalhães (1837-1898). Embora moldados pelas cosmovisões dos seus autores e pelas teorias científicas da etnologia da época, registram uma pequena fração dos sistemas de conhecimento indígenas sobre a natureza, seus mitos celestes, constelações e calendários. Os autores são contemporâneos e se corresponderam, mas registraram de forma independente alguns conhecimentos comuns aos povos que falavam uma língua tupi.

Objetos, imagens e sons: a etnografia de Theodor Koch-Grünberg (1872-1924)

O texto caracteriza teórica e metodologicamente a etnografia de Theodor Koch-Grünberg (1872-1924), antropólogo alemão que fez quatro visitas ao Brasil entre 1896 e 1924 e que se notabilizou pelos trabalhos escritos sobre os índios dos rios Negro e Branco, pelas coleções etnográficas e pelos registros sonoros, fotográficos e cinematográficos realizados em suas expedições. O autor relaciona esses registros documentais com o projeto etnográfico do antropólogo, vinculado à Völkerkunde alemã.

The Metaphorical Dimensions of Hopi Ethics

Richard Brandt, author of the seminal work Hopi Ethics (1954), was one of the first philosophers who emphasized the importance of understanding local ethics of native peoples for the analysis of philosophical problems in Western ethics. At the time he conducted his research, the Hopi did not have a writing system for their language. Brandt (1954:69) noted that the Hopi did not appear to have developed distinctly ethical terminology: For the Hopi apparently do not have a term like 'moral' by which to make sharp distinction between 'wrong' and 'morally wrong' nor they seem to have a pair of terms as exclusively associated with the ethical as 'praise-worthy' and 'blame-worthy.' I concur with Ladd (1957:316) that Brandt's approach indicates that he applied a Western classification of moral principles to order his findings. To analyze or evaluate any of the Brandt's findings goes beyond the scope of this paper. The findings are based on an outsider's interpretative categories and a methodological approach that uses a priori premises. Brandt's work on Hopi ethics has been thoroughly reviewed by scholars representing fields of anthropology and philosophy; for example, Titiev (1955), Edel (1955), and Bidney (1955:49), who criticizes Brandt for making no significant contribution to ethnological theory or ethical theory in particular. One of Brandt's techniques was to present the Hopi informants with eighteen problem stories and ask them to evaluate these problem stories in ethical terms. As Titiev (1955:1307) rightly points out, some of the episodes Brandt presented were so far out of the range of the Hopi world as to appear fantastic. He continues, Imagine asking the semi-desert dwelling Hopi to judge (p. 228) if 'ten ship wrecked men' ought to eat some of their number in order to save the rest! (1955:1307).

Your People, My People: An Exploration of Ethnicity in Ruth

This article reviews competing theories of ethnic identity to suggest different points in the book of Ruth at which Ruth the Moabite may become an Israelite. Close reading of the text favours the suggestion that Ruth enters the Israelite ethnie upon her acceptance by the Bethlehem community in ch. 4. This accords with a Constructivist vision of ethnic identity, where biological descent is not always necessary for ethnic belonging. Though the ethnic vision of Ruth is often supposed to contrast with that in Ezra—Nehemiah, the nuances of ethnological theory suggest a greater congruence between these two texts. The conclusion identifies some advantages and dangers of employing anthropological theory in biblical studies.

Tradition and Heritage in Ethnological Practice and Theory

All scholarly fields feed on rhetoric of praise and criticism, mostly self-praise and self-criticism. Ethnology and folklore studies are not exceptions in this, regardless of whether they constitute a single field or two separate but related ones. This essay discusses questions concerning ethnological practice and object formation, cultural theory and the theory of tradition (or the lack thereof), cultural transmission, cultural representation, and the ethics and politics of cultural ownership and repatriation. It draws on general observations as well as on work in progress. The main concern is with a discursive move: from tradition to heritage, from the ethnography of repetition and replication to cultural relativist descriptions and prescriptions of identity construction and cultural policy, from ethnography as explanation to ethnography as representation and presentation. In addition, the essay seeks to delineate other underlying tenets that appear to constitute our traditions and heritages - both as strengths and as long-term constraints and biases. Where is ethnology headed in its quest to transcend theories and practices? Less theory and more practice? More theory on practice? Or more practice on theory?

Strange creatures: anthropology in antiquity

Traces the anthropological and ethnological theories of the ancient Greeks and Romans from the creation of the world to the invention of the Americas. In ancient Greek and Roman thinking, whether the world is flat or spherical it will have imaginary boundaries and liminal areas where the norms of nature and culture are thought to break down. Analogies are constantly drawn between 'primitive' peoples at the 'edges of the world' and 'primitive' people in prehistory. Distance, both in time and space, leads to difference, and the idea that strange things happen out there or happened back then dominates Greek and Roman thinking on other cultures. This book examines ancient ideas of the creation of the world, the beginnings of life and origin of species, humans and animals, utopias and blessed islands, and 'barbarian' cultures beyond the Mediterranean world, before going on to trace the influence of ancient anthropological and ethnological thought on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. We begin with primordial chaos and end with the invention of the Americas, taking in on the way many strange creatures, among them the noble or ignoble savages of Britain, Gaul and Ireland, the Man-faced Ox-creatures of Empedocles, the Dog-heads of India, the Amazons, Centaurs, Columbus, and the Tupinamba of Brazil.