Field Of Social Anthropology Research Articles

On the discussion of the confrontation between Lamarckism and Mendelism in Russia (Novosibirsk Academgorodok, methodological seminars and social embedding of knowledge)

The article aims at providing grounds for the analysis of the confrontation of scientific views in the context of E. Agassi’s famous thesis: “science is always socially engaged, but it should not be socially dependent”. This socio-epistemological analysis focuses on the clash between Lysenko’s interpretation of the Lamarckian methodology of H. Spencer’s views and representatives of the Russian school of classical Mendelian genetics. A distinctive feature of Akademgorodok in the 1970s-1980s was that almost every academic institute had a person responsible for organizing a specialized scientific-methodological seminar on philosophical and methodological problems of a particular field of knowledge. Recollections of the participants of these seminars and reconstruction of the issues discussed at that time are rich empirical material, providing an opportunity to test modern conceptions in the field of social anthropology, social epistemology, and sociology of science. The revival of genetics in our country began with the founding of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences/SB RAS. It is shown that this confrontation between Lamarckism and Mendelism in 1930s-1960s develops from the denial of the theses of the ideological opponents to the emergence of accompanying interdisciplinary research. At the same time, a special role is given to the specification of the methodological function of philosophy and to those forms of its realization that scientists personally participating in scientific-methodological seminars, were more inclined to associate with “substantive” rather than “sociological” aspects of the description of the situation.

SAYAW NG BATI: A PERSPECTIVE ON TRANSCULTURATION OF THE SPANISH COLONIAL HERITAGE IN THE SOUTHERN TAGALOG REGION OF THE PHILIPPINES

Just like other dances that developed during the Christianization of the Philippines, the Sayaw ng Bati (Dance of Greeting), a dance performance conducted during the dawn of Easter Sunday in the Southern Tagalog Region, is a byproduct of transculturation, a process where the subordinate culture (the colonized) selects certain cultural items in the dominant culture (the colonizer) that fits their contexts and preferences. This paper then aims to elucidate how transculturation occurred in the Philippines that dramatically altered the precolonial heritage of the Filipino people during the Spanish colonization of the country. Using a variety of sources from reputable Filipino scholars in the field of cultural anthropology and dance, the precolonial and Spanish colonial experiences were reviewed and contrasted to understand how transculturation happened in Philippine society and to look for parallels between the two historical contexts, which also affected how dance forms imported from Europe were perceived and developed through the ingenuity of Filipinos during the colonization of the archipelago.

ЗАРУБІЖНІ ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ ПРОЦЕСУ СОЦІОКУЛЬТУРНОЇ АДАПТАЦІЇ БІЖЕНЦІВ

There are lots refugees in the world today. Therefore, the problems of their adaptation to the host society and culture comes a priority. Available foreign researches on these problems demonstrate a wide range of problems related to the socio-cultural adaptation of refugees. The purpose of the article is to review the work of representatives of the humanitarian sphere regarding the definition of key concepts of adaptation and the selection of modern scientific directions in its study. The research methodology is based on the historical method, the methods of historiographical analysis, synthesis and typology of scientific directions, and comparative analysis. Projects and scientific articles of researchers from the USA, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Turkey, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries were analyzed. The most important directions of socio-cultural adaptation research in the field of cultural anthropology, psychology, sociology, cultural studies and political science are defined. They all agree that this process is long and difficult, and does not always end positively for refugees. However, modern foreign researches demonstrate such a broad thematic diversity, to take into account the latest political and global social problems, that the definition of socio-cultural adaptation is enriched with new essential features. Classical theoretical works of the XX century regarding the adaptation of a person to the environment are now giving way to thorough researches of the adaptive capabilities of various categories of migrants, in particular refugees, which are based on practical developments, numerous interviews, questionnaires and surveys. European researchers pay considerable attention to the analysis of generations of refugees, while Russian researchers pay attention to individual features of socio-cultural adaptation.

Relacja wewnętrzna w myśleniu chińskim

The article tackles the concept of „internal relation” and its usefulness in about Asian cultures. It was first introduced by Francis Herbert Bradley. Professor Stanis³aw Zapaœnik began using it in the field of cultural anthropology According to him, „internal relation” is a concept that can adequately express the logic of thinking that prevails in the cultures of Central and Asia. This thesis is proved by findings in many humanistic disciplines, which shown in this article taking China as an example.

Cultural aspects of Volodymyr Yanev’s scientific studies

The purpose of the research is to reveal the cultural aspects of Volodymyr Yanev's scientific work in the context of cultural anthropological and ethnopsychological studies. The research methodology is based on the involvement of the humanistic approach as the basis for understanding the scientific heritage of V. Yanev; the synergistic approach is used as a methodological basis for the multifaceted analysis of conceptual ideas of cultural, anthropological, and ethnopsychological knowledge; the axiological approach is used to identify the value principles of V. Yanev's scientific work. The article uses the following methods: analytical - for the study of historical-philosophical, cultural, ethno-psychological works on anthropological issues; semiotic analysis - for the reconstruction of meanings, signs and symbols embedded in the analyzed works of the scientist; comparative analysis - to compare various scientific theories developed in the field of cultural anthropology and ethnopsychology. The scientific novelty of the article arises from the fact that the first scientific work of the outstanding Ukrainian scientist – Volodymyr Yanev is interpreted through the prism of cultural-anthropological and ethno-psychological discourse, formed in the fields of European and world science in the 20th century. It is proved that the concepts of the educational ideal of the Ukrainian person proposed by the scientists are correlated with the theories of the representatives of the American ethnopsychological school. It is substantiated that V. Yanev's scientific research in the field of ethnopsychology, the history of Ukrainian culture and art can significantly complement modern Ukrainian humanitarianism with important scientific achievements of foreign Ukrainian studies. Conclusions. Based on the achievements of various fields of scientific knowledge – cultural and social anthropology, ethnopsychology, characterology, etc., V. Yanev developed original ethnopsychological concepts. The problem of personality in culture was developed by the scientist by identifying the peculiarities of the individuality of the Ukrainian person, as well as the characteristics of Ukrainian national psychology and national character inherent in Ukrainians. The scientific work of Volodymyr Yanev can be considered a significant theoretical basis for the formation of a cultural paradigm in the field of domestic humanitarian knowledge. Key words: scientific work of Volodymyr Yanev, cultural anthropology, ethnopsychology, Ukrainian man, cultural studies.

A Short Enquiry on Social Anthropology in Mathematics

Mathematical anthropology is a well-known subject of anthropology research nowadays. Mathematical anthropology solves intriguing and significant difficulties in anthropological theory. Several publications and books have published articles or scientific papers by notable scientists on this topic. The mathematical anthropology analysis fast and improvised that particular field exclusively in the framework of kinship. Several scientists have studied mathematical analysis of genealogy, kinship terminology, and culture theory, among other topics, but “Social Anthropology in Mathematics” is a new field of social anthropology, not a replacement for mathematical anthropology. It uses some simple mathematical formulas to explain any social anthropological investigation. The study of social anthropology in mathematics requires the use of simple mathematical formulas. This is the subject of the current brief communication.

Teaching Ethnographic Methods for Cultural Anthropology: Current Practices and Needed Innovation

Historically, ethnographic methods were learned by cultural anthropology students in individual research projects. This approach creates challenges for teaching in ways that respond to the next generation’s calls to decenter anthropology’s White, heteropatriarchal voices and engage in collaborative community-based research. Analyzing syllabi from 107 ethnographic methods training courses from the United States, we find the tradition of the “lone researcher” persists and is the basis of ethnographic training for the next generation. There is little evidence of either active reflection or team-based pedagogy, both identified as necessary to meet career opportunities and diversification goals for the wider field of cultural anthropology. However, we also find that, by centering the completion of largely individual research projects, most ethnographic methods courses otherwise adhere to best practices in regard to experiential and active learning. Based on the analysis of syllabi in combination with current pedagogical literature, we suggest how cultural anthropologists can revise their ethnographic methods courses to incorporate pedagogy that promotes methodologies and skills to align with the needs of today’s students and communities.

Creating a Sense of Glorious Destiny. Mastery of Speech in the Libellus de Situ Civitatis Mediolani (Late 10th-Early 11th Centuries)

In the decades around 1000, an anonymous cleric at Milan Cathedral wrote a booklet on the history of his city which he built as a collection gathering, in chronological order, the Lives of the local bishops. The unfinished work not only testifies to the learning and culture of the author but also to the historical relevance of an ambitious text commissioned to support the political claims and the legitimacy of the Milanese church in its quest for primacy in the kingdom of Italy. This chapter explores the refined style of the author and the ways in which he constructed a coherent and cohesive narrative by sewing together individual biographies. The medieval reception of this biographical collection also shows the ways in which the text was repurposed to fulfil different functions and multiple goals, both within and beyond the city of Milan. Finally, this study analyses the text in the light of two interpretative concepts borrowed from the field of social anthropology. De situ clearly appealed to the literary tastes of the scholars trained in the cathedral school, thus addressing an audience shaped as a specific »community of learning«. More generally, the collection contributed to nourishing the sense of identity of the clergy and the people of Milan, that is a »textual community« which, through the acts of reading and listening to the text, felt it belonged to that glorious history and expected to see its reflection in the present.

REALISASI PENGGUNAAN DANA DESA DALAM MENGEMBANGKAN PEREKONOMIAN MASYARAKAT DI DESA TAMANSARI KECAMATAN SUMBERMALANG KABUPATEN SITUBONDO JAWA TIMUR

The Village Fund is prioritized to finance the implementation of local village-scale programs and activities in the field of village development such as housing facilities and infrastructure, food security, health, education and to finance the field of community empowerment, namely programs aimed at increasing the capacity of rural communities in entrepreneurial development, increasing income, and expansion of the economic scale of individual citizens or community groups. After the village fund, the community began to feel a positive impact as seen from the collaboration between the government and the community in increasing the development of village facilities and infrastructure such as community economic activities aimed at improving the economy of the Tamansari village community. The research uses an ethnographic approach, because initially this method was mostly used for research in the field of cultural anthropology. The type of research used by researchers is qualitative research. The economic development of the Tamansari Village community before the existence of village funds has not been able to be felt by the community as a whole.

Public Funding of Research into Ethnological Activities in Andalusia (Spain): Boosting the Academic Career of Researchers

The advent of democracy in Spain and the establishment of the different autonomous communities marked the beginning of a process to transfer political, economic and other competences over Culture and Cultural Heritage. Following its creation in 1984, the Ministry of Culture of the Andalusian Autonomous Government incorporated a Directorate-General for Cultural Assets into its organisational structure and embarked on an ambitious programme of actions to support Andalusian historical heritage, including creation of a management structure, enactment of a specific heritage law and budget allocations for protection tasks. From the outset, a type of heritage little known until then emerged: ethnological heritage. Dynamic actions were also promoted to fund research into this area, including grants for ethnological activities, financing for publications and funding for ethnological symposiums. This paper analyses the different ethnological activities carried out and their funding, and assesses the extent to which this investment favoured the professional development of teaching staff in the field of Social Anthropology in Andalusia, specifying the marginal effects and differentiating them according to gender and university size using binary choice models (Logit).

Review: De los plátanos de Oller a los Food Trucks: Comida, alimentación y cocina puertorriqueña en ensayos y recetas, by Cruz Miguel Ortiz Cuadra

Review: <i>De los plátanos de Oller a los Food Trucks: Comida, alimentación y cocina puertorriqueña en ensayos y recetas</i>, by Cruz Miguel Ortiz Cuadra

IMMERSIVE AUDIO EXPOSITION AND ITS VISUAL CONTENT AS ACTUALIZATION OF MUSEUM DESIGN PRINCIPLES

The article is devoted to the experimental practice of new local history and museum design, the study of collective identity, the actualization of “gene memory” and the representation of the Finno-Ugric ethnic group of the North of Udmurtia, Russia. The project continues to develop a long-term partnership of an inter-regional consortium consisting of specialists in the fi eld of cultural anthropology and authentic geography, local history, music and stage art, folklore, design, architecture and modern art practices, and the local community. The article deals with the study of the principles of organizing a traditional a local history museum, its tactile and spatial reconfi guration based on immersive interaction with the visitor, his active participation, polylogue, post-empathy and total involvement (psychophysiological “linkage” with reality). It covers a wide range of topics from technological to meta-immersion, creation spaces of holistic experience, space-event, space-situations, where the viewer becomes a key subject.

Ecocriticism and "Thinking with Writing": An Interview with Tim Ingold

Over the course of an influential career spanning several decades, Tim Ingold, Professor Emeritus at the University of Aberdeen, has established himself as a preeminent voice in the field of Social Anthropology. Author of studies including The Perception of the Environment (2000), Being Alive (2011) and The Life of Lines (2015), this interview was inspired by the potential of his wide-ranging scholarship to unearth some fascinating avenues for research in literary studies. The breadth of his writing on habitation, perception and skilled practice, suggests myriad applications for his thinking beyond the purely anthropological, and particularly for bridging the concerns of literary and environmental studies. The philosophical depth of his work, apparent in his analyses of processes of growth and formation in both biological and socio-cultural domains (indeed questioning the supposed divisions between these fields), proves that his scholarship provides a refreshing counter-narrative to many prevailing schools of thought in current literary theory, especially to much of the discourse of New Materialism and Speculative Realism. In addition, this interview contains his views regarding certain emerging issues in literary studies, such as the material practices of reading, and the ascendency of the computer screen over the printed book, areas where his anthropological perspective is both stimulating and revealing. As a renowned scholar who has recently surveyed the changes in the academy and in disciplinary relationships throughout his long career, his observations provide valuable insights into the capability of the arts to guide us into a wider, more interconnected world. Crucially, his responses also speak to the world of academia, and how we can foster a practical awareness of ecological issues within the often-rarefied spheres of academic research and practice.

It Will Be Fun and Terrifying: Nationalism and Protest in Post-Soviet Russia by Fabrizio Fenghi

Reviewed by: It Will Be Fun and Terrifying: Nationalism and Protest in Post-Soviet Russia by Fabrizio Fenghi Nathan Brand (bio) Fabrizio Fenghi, It Will Be Fun and Terrifying: Nationalism and Protest in Post-Soviet Russia (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2020). 294 pp., ill. Works Cited. Index. ISBN: 978-0-299-32440-7. Scholars of the post-Soviet world have generally accepted that the public sphere in Russia could be characterized by a mixture of political passivity, apathy, and disengagement. Nancy Ries's well-known study of everyday and media discourses in the perestroika period argues that "litanies" and "lamentations" were the order of the day.1 Serguei Oushakine later developed the concept of "post-Soviet aphasia" – a kind of fundamental "lack" in language or conceptual metaphor to describe the lawlessness of the post-Soviet period in Russia.2 More recently, Russian film studies has developed a vocabulary of "lack" to describe the often politically ambiguous "quiet" wave of auteur films since the turn of the century. Fabrizio Fenghi's book focuses on the National Bolshevik Party (NBP), surely one of the most fascinating political experiments of the post-Soviet period. In contrast to characterizations of the public sphere in terms of passivity, the National Bolsheviks (Nazbols or Natsbols in the book) retained a remarkably politically active following. Never shy of causing a stir, they frequently incorporated radical aesthetic experiments into their protests and demonstrations. By the early 2000s, what had started as a countercultural movement in the pages of the magazine Limonka had grown into a substantial political force: in 2001, a number of Natsbols were jailed on charges of terrorism and the illegal purchase of weapons; the government accused the NBP cofounder, Eduard Limonov, of planning an armed insurgency in Kazakhstan. Fenghi's study looks at the social practices and cultural networks of the NBP. His book traces the divergent trajectories of the Natsbol project, emphasizing at once how it helped lay the foundations for what would become post-Soviet protest culture and how a group that "had been among the most vocal opponents of Putin's government" (P. 54) came to publicly support the Russian authorities following the beginning of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. In doing so, Fenghi toes a fine line [End Page 470] between his two main protagonists; the recently (2020) deceased writer Eduard Limonov and his onetime coagitator in chief Alexander Dugin. The acrimonious split between the two founding members of the NBP is manifested at the theoretical level in Fenghi's book, with his dissection of the political pronouncements and aesthetic innovations of the NBP the starting point for a broader discussion of nationalist and protest cultures. The book is split into five evenly sized chapters, with the first two dedicated to the NBP's literary roots and the aesthetic developments born of its countercultural magazine Limonka. Here, Fenghi demonstrates how, despite the scholarly characterization of an "apathetic" post-Soviet public sphere, the NBP maintained quite a program of political protests and demonstrations to accompany its radical literary and artistic gestures. The middle chapter, and perhaps the most interesting from a general reader's standpoint, focuses on the NBP as a social practice. Fenghi draws on fascinating ethnographic field research, interviews, and personal anecdotes that not only make the book a better read, but ground it in the field of cultural anthropology. This chapter, which serves as the suture point for the surrounding discussions of Limonov and Dugin, also shows an admirable engagement with the sphere of visual arts. This is indeed a realm that scholars of Russian and Slavic Studies seem reticent to deal with: although scholars in film studies, art history, and so on work with a range of visual materials, visual studies in Russia has yet to come together as a discipline. Fenghi's delicate manipulation of this material demonstrates that there is surely further room for maneuver. The final two chapters deal with Dugin's "conservative postmodernism" and the development of what Fenghi terms "conservative bohemia." Here, Fenghi gives a generously clear view on an often-esoteric set of ideas. There is further engagement with artistic projects from the likes of the...

Indigeneity in the context of globalization: epistemological and sociocultural aspects

In recent decades, the “indigenization of modernity” has become one of the significant trends of the reconfiguration of landscapes of social and cultural diversity. In its contemporary meaning, the concept of indigeneity expresses the desire of indigenous peoples and various social and cultural communities, formerly marginalized within the borders of national states, to independently determine their development. From the global perspective, indigeneity is no longer associated with certain types of societies or cultural scripts of authenticity and traditional lifestyles. Indigenous actors cease to play the role of the Other in contemporary discourses and intellectual life of the West. The transition from the genealogical model of indigeneity based on the ideas of origin, kinship and cultural authenticity to the relational model allows to shift the focus from the features of the indigenous ones to the relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous actors. Indigenous peoples constitute and represent their culture taking into account public opinion, national legislation and international conventions, which leads to the fundamental transformation of the actors themselves. Their characteristics can no longer be represented only in terms of primordiality. Under globalization, the cultural patterns of indigeneity are diverse and conceptualized on the basis of new approaches to the study of the social organization of cultural diversity and models of its management. The concepts “partial relations”, “entanglement” and “intercultural relations” constitute the discourse of indigeneity, which implies recognition of multiple partial relations connecting subject and object, indigenous and non-indigenous worlds and cultural practices. Changes in the discourse of indigeneity both in social-cultural and epistemological aspects are also associated with reconfiguration of the thematic field of social anthropology.

Etnomüzikoloji disiplininin gelişim süreci ve Türkiye’de yapılan çalışmalar ışığında Martin Stokes’un popüler müzik araştırmalarının incelenmesi

Etnomüzikoloji disiplininin gelişim süreci ve Türkiye’de yapılan çalışmalar ışığında Martin Stokes’un popüler müzik araştırmalarının incelenmesi

Deconstructing “Single” Mothers by Choice: Transcending Blood, Genes, and the Biological Nuclear Family?

The concept of biological kinship is a sociocultural construction of facts taken for granted as “natural.” The concept of blood, of “bond,” of “connection,” symbolizes the fact that relatives are perceived as having claims on one another by virtue of DNA. It is taken for granted that the biological relation attains a meaning in human relations. Yet, this taken-for-grantedness is rarely deconstructed. Thus, the purpose of this article is threefold: (a) to examine the conceptualization of the links between the social and the biological in societies of the Global North, and to analyze the assumptions that implicitly underpin the literature on new forms of family, in particular, “single” mothers by choice with donor-conceived children. Two of the most prolific scholars on the subject, from the field of psychology in the United Kingdom and from the field of social anthropology in Spain, will be discussed, taking into account a preliminary analysis of 35 ethnographic interviews with “single” mothers by choice that I have conducted during my fieldwork in Spain and in the United Kingdom; (b) to interrogate the discourses that categorize this group of women who have chosen to be mothers; and (c) to suggest a new research agenda building on the critical insights produced from addressing the first and second aims.

‘Bridging the gap between the intellectual and the human’: The awkward biography of anthropologist and scholar-activist Iona Simon Mayer (1923–)

ABSTRACTThis article tracks the coming together of anti-apartheid activism, feminism and humanism in the life and work of the social anthropologist and scholar-activist Iona Simon Mayer (1923–). Her biography is acutely awkward given her inner conflict and subsequent scholarly debate about the degree of acknowledgement that was due to her as a collaborator with her husband Philip during his fieldwork in Kenya in the late 1940s, but especially in the analysis and writing of Townsmen or Tribesmen (1961), a famous ethnography on the resilience of ‘Red’ Xhosa culture in East London. The article seeks to balance a recognition of the creative work that Iona achieved with her much-loved husband across decades of joint fieldwork, analysis and writing with her hitherto entirely unacknowledged independent contributions to African ethnography, closely associated with her involvement in a Black Sash feminist circle in Grahamstown of the 1970s. Iona’s feminism was of a more modern mould than that of the South African-born women who pioneered the field of social anthropology in the region in that it involved a vehement critique of patriarchy in African culture, drawing creatively on a dynamic new literature on the anthropology of performance but articulated in a typically eloquent denunciation of ‘hard-edged’ authoritarian power structures. Above all, the article tracks what Mayer retrospectively identified as an inner tension between ‘the intellectual’ and ‘the human’ across her anthropological career, making a case for a liberating period of resolution through her inter-related work as an anti-apartheid activist and feminist anthropologist.

Cerimônia na alfabetização de jovens e adultos: aparato performático

Resumo A ação alfabetizadora pode ser analisada como um ritual de passagem da cultura oral para cultura escrita, na qual se atribui uma nova identidade – a do sujeito alfabetizado – e uma nova relação social a partir do enunciado sei ler. Neste artigo, a partir de uma análise de registro de cerimônias de abertura e de encerramento de Cursos de Alfabetização de Jovens e Adultos, sob a noção de cerimônia no campo da antropologia social de Stanley Tambiah, em convergência com o modo de problematizar os rituais de Michel Foucault, foi possível identificar como tais cerimônias, pelo seu efeito performático, constituem um aparato importante na produção do sujeito educado.

Archetyp wojownika i zwycięzcy w działaniach edukacyjnych i wychowawczych

In the present article, the author attempts to describe the role of the Warrior and the Winner as archetype models within the context of educational activity. He carries out an in-depth analysis ofKen Carter’s (a teacher and trainer) behaviours, emotions and actions, which accompanied him during many years of work with high school students of Richmond High School in California. This example is the most important part of the analysis as it illustrates the process of identifying with the archetypal roles of the Warrior and the Winner and demonstrates their practical applications in real-life situations. Moreover, the author attempts to show these archetypal models in a broader cultural, social and educational context, referring to rich literature of the subject in the field of cultural anthropology, psychology and pedagogy, as well as to the transactional analysis concept.