History Of Social Anthropology Research Articles

‘A twenty-four hour job’. Hildred and Clifford Geertz’s first foray into the field and the scholarly persona of the ethnographer

ABSTRACT The paper details how, during the 'Modjokuto Project' of 1952–1954, Hildred and Clifford Geertz embodied in their decisions and actions the ‘Malinowskian palimpsest’ of the lonely ethnographer, thus creating a series of oppositions between their individualistic understanding of the ethnographer and the needs of teamwork in the field. Apart from the historical record, this reconstruction aims at focusing on several questions in the history of cultural anthropology and the social sciences: How do ethnographers come to understand their professional role and the specific scientific virtues attached to it? How are scholarly personae and other cognitive-normative schemas put to the test (and modified) during fieldwork? How does the lack of methodological reflection on the ways of the anthropologist impact on the completion of specific research projects and, more generally, the reproduction of professional lore and structures?

Axel Sommerfelt in the history of social anthropology

ABSTRACT An unsung alumnus of the Manchester School, Axel Sommerfelt (b. 1926) published little during his career, but has nevertheless had a major impact on contemporary Norwegian anthropology. Following six years as a lecturer in Salisbury, he taught at the University of Oslo from 1966 until his retirement in 1996. This article traces his intellectual itinerary. Beginning with a re-study of Fortes's Tallensi material, Sommerfelt later carried out fieldwork on inter-ethnic relations in south-western Uganda. He distinguished himself from his Norwegian colleagues through an interest in colonial history, nationalism and structural power which tends to be absent from Fredrik Barth's work. Sommerfelt's teaching and mainly unpublished writings reveal him as a supporter of a strong empiricist programme and a skilled Africanist who would have been a worthy contributor to the Manchester School, had he only published his work.

Badania terenowe jako gwarancja empiryzmu antropologii? (Komentarz do artykułu Łukasza Kaczmarka Między survey research a obserwacją uczestniczącą: rozdarcia metodologiczno-tożsamośąciowe w polskiej etnologii/antropologii kulturowej w XXI wieku)

This paper addresses the influence of a research method on the identity of anthropology as a discipline. Usingmy own academic biography as a point of departure, Iwould like to situate this issue in a wide historical perspective in order to show that its contemporary definitions have emerged from questions already present in the discipline’s past concerns. This paper suggests that deliberations on the anthropological method are anchored in a model of academic disciplines grounded in their specific methods. As a result, a discussion about fieldwork can in fact be considered to be a discussion about a model of doing anthropology. This understanding allows for an explanation of the discrepancies in understanding ethnographic researchmethods at differentmoments in the history of cultural anthropology.

The three lives of Gerd Baumann: a brief account of the anthropologist and his anthropology (1953-2014)

Sadly, Gerd Baumann passed away in January 2014. This paper aims to briefly delineate his personal and intellectual trajectory, from his early years in Germany, throughout his period in Great Britain, to his last years in Amsterdam. It focuses on some of the key events of his life, as well as on some of his key publications. It also introduces the role played by his mentors on his career as a way of situating his figure within a broader genealogical history of social anthropology.

Difficult folk? A political history of social anthropology by Mills, David

Difficult folk? A political history of social anthropology by Mills, David

Difficult Folk? A Political History of Social Anthropology. David Mills

<i>Difficult Folk? A Political History of Social Anthropology</i>. David Mills

The Metaphorical Use of Avuncular Terminology in Buriad Diaspora Relationships with Homeland and Host Society

AbstractThe significance of the kinship relationship between the mother's brother and sister's son (avunculate) was one of the most discussed topics in the history of social anthropology. Two theories of pre-Schneiderian age – descent and alliance approaches – both consider avuncular relations as being tense and contradictive, associated with certain privileges of the maternal uncle and his senior hierarchical position in relation to Ego. This paper tries to establish the relevance of this classical anthropological theme to contemporary social and political realities in Buriad society, specifically to extend the discussion of the classificatory/metaphorical use of avuncular kinship terminology to a new context – that of diaspora relationships with homeland and host society. A recent tendency in kinship studies argues that kinship terminology can be employed flexibly to handle relationships of various kinds, and suggests that kinship terms should often be understood as referring to a kind of social relationship rather than to a specifically genealogical connection. Two cases, which I present in the paper, show how Buriad diaspora communities in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia (China) involve the avuncular relationship to define their concerns and tensions in relation both to colonisers in the homeland in Russia and to the social inequality of migrants in their host societies. This local phenomenon shows that kinship terminology continues to have a wider social significance, being used, for example, to express current inequalities of power and the impact of political changes on local experience.

In Difficult Order: Anthropology, History, Politics, DisciplineDifficult Folk? A Political History of Social Anthropology. By David Mills. New York: Berghahn, 2008.

In Difficult Order: Anthropology, History, Politics, Discipline<i>Difficult Folk? A Political History of Social Anthropology</i>. By David Mills. New York: Berghahn, 2008.

Anthropology and the development of the Transpersonal Movement: Finding the Transpersonal in Transpersonal Anthropology

Transpersonal Anthropology (hereafter ‘TA’) is a growing field within Social Anthropology. It has many similarities with Transpersonal Psychology and, I believe, can offer useful ideas and approaches to study. In particular, it offers a much wider view of human experience than Western psychology because it is based on non-Western peoples, their concepts, philosophies, ways of life and experiences. Secondly, Social Anthropology as a whole has undergone much soul-searching and analysis of its methods,and many of its findings are appropriate across the Social Sciences. But in my view TA appears to have narrowed its vision, and maybe our two disciplines can fruitfully inform each other. I will begin with a brief history of Social Anthropology and its treatment of the sacred and spiritual. This gives something of an explanation as to how TA has developed in a particular way. I will offer an alternative model based on my Fieldwork: I have been studying the Transpersonal within mild altered states of consciousness (ASCs), both sacred and secular, as part of ordinary everyday ‘streams of consciousness’ (James, 1950), and therapeutic effects of such states.

Situations, Crisis, and the Anthropology of the Concrete: The Contribution of Max Gluckman

Gluckman and the Manchester School pioneered approaches in anthropology that are now commonplace. But they were interested in achieving generalizations of both a local and more global kind. Their central methodology was that of situational analysis and extended-case analysis, which are examined here as attempts to make anthropology, via its ethnographic field method, a scientific discipline that opened out to novel ideas and theories concerning the human condition. This essay critically assesses the thinking that underpinned the methodology of situational analysis and suggests some areas of redirection. The overall idea is to impart some sense of the spirit that motivated various aspects of the Manchester innovation, especially the politics that gave it some coherence, and the wider importance of its directions that are occasionally overlooked in reflections on the history of social anthropology.

From Tribes and Traditions to Composites and Conjunctures

Gluckman's approach to case studies is seen as a pivotal moment in the history of social anthropology. The shift was from nor mative accounts of structure to the tracking of sequences of events. An example from the author's study of happenings on Kilimanjaro illustrates the complex factors that enter a processual approach. Some dimensions of a century of social history can be seen to surround the struggle over a piece of property.

The vicissitudes of The Gift

Depuis les annees soixante les anthropologues, quelles que soient leurs traditions nationales, tendent a s'accorder sur l'interpretation a donner de l'Essai sur le don de Marcel Mauss. A les en croire, ce texte propose une theorie de l'echange dont le trait principal serait l'identification du don a l'esprit ou a la personne du donateur. En mettant l'accent sur la dimension spirituelle de l'echange, cette perspective differe cependant de maniere significative de l'interpretation proposee par les contemporains de Mauss qui insistaient pour leur part sur les references faites au Droit, aux obligations et aux prestations generalisees. Retracant toutes les references que les anthropologues ont pu faire de l'Essai avant de les ordonner selon une chronologie precise, l'A. s'attache a identifier le moment ou s'est pris ce tournant particulier. Il analyse les conditions sociales, les contextes qui contribuerent a etablir la doxa de cette nouvelle lecture. Montrant comment une representation particuliere de l'Essai est devenue la regle obligee, le developpement de cette etude de cas propose quelques outils methodologiques permettant d'apprehender d'autres episodes dans l'histoire recente de la discipline.

On the History of British Social Anthropology:After Tylor: British Social Anthropology 1888-1951.;The Expansive Moment: The Rise of Social Anthropology in Britain and Africa 1918-1970.

After Tylor: British Social Anthropology 1888-1951. George W. Stocking Jr. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.570 pp. The Expansive Moment: The Rise of Social Anthropology in Britain and Africa 1918-1970. Jack Goody. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 238 pp.

Terror, totem, and taboo: Reporting on a report

Should we analytically constitute or dissolve the category of terrorism? The Basque case is adduced to illustrate the dynamics of constructing and deconstructing a reified notion of terrorism. Two approaches are confronted: the legal‐technical work of a committee of terrorism experts and the ethnographic work of an anthropologist. The experts’ position that social science should be subservient to police and intelligence counter‐insurgency is questioned. The intellectual history of cultural anthropology is invoked for advancing a critique of current theories of terrorism; in particular, the resurgence of psychological fallacies and unicausal arguments in explanations of terrorism is reexamined. It is argued that ritual situations are typically not governed by intrinsic or instrumental means‐ends connections and that the search for positive causes may not be the best strategy for studying contexts of behavior, such as terrorism, in which the element of chance plays a key role. Anthropologists have learned a...

The History of Social Anthropology and &quot;Personal Document&quot;

The History of Social Anthropology and &quot;Personal Document&quot;

The history of cultural anthropology: Two views

Elvin J. Hatch. Theories of Man and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 1973. viii + 384 pp. References and index. $12.00. Paul J. Bohannan and Mark Glazer, eds. High Points in Anthropology. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973. xix + 449 pp. References. $6.95.