Showing papers in "Ethnos in 2003"
TL;DR: The authors argued that if we are to succeed in investigating risk contextually, without ending up in a relativistic muddle which merely acknowledges myriads of diverse risk perceptions, it is necessary to problematize the assumed simplistic cultural nature of risk.
Abstract: In risk research, culture has been used mainly as a 'black box' of unknowns into which 'irregularities' of risk perceptions that could not be otherwise accounted for can be referred. In social anthropology it has been taken for granted that what is to be considered a 'risk' depends entirely on cultural settings and assumptions; risks are culturally defined and selected. This article takes a critical stance towards any such simplistic ideas about risk and culture. Culture is approached from a perspective of cognitive theory and is hence understood as shared schemata that define categories, relationships and contexts, making it possible to process meanings and order information. It is argued that if we are to succeed in investigating risk contextually, without ending up in a relativistic muddle which merely acknowledges myriads of diverse risk perceptions, it is necessary to problematize the assumed simplistic cultural nature of risk.
264 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the emergence of the Slow Food Movement, an international consumer movement dedicated to the protection of "endangered foods" and examine Slow Food's cultural politics.
Abstract: This paper explores the emergence of the Slow Food Movement, an international consumer movement dedicated to the protection of ‘endangered foods.’ The history of one of these ‘endangered foods’, lardo di Colonnata, provides the ethnographic window through which I examine Slow Food's cultural politics. The paper seeks to understand the politics of ‘slowness’ within current debates over European identity, critiques of neo-liberal models of rationality, and the significant ideological shift towards market-driven politics in advanced capitalist societies.
183 citations
TL;DR: Among the Baatombu in Northern Benin, child fosterage is not an exception in crisis situations, but the common upbringing pattern: until some years ago, most of the children did not grow up with their biological parents, but were fostered by social parents as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Among the Baatombu in Northern Benin, child fosterage is not an exception in crisis situations, but the common upbringing pattern: until some years ago, most of the Baatombu children did not grow up with their biological parents, but were fostered by social parents. There is a strong attitude of shame related to biological parenthood and an attempt to deny it. Young children are given to paternal or maternal relatives in order to stay with them until their marriage. This involves the transfer of all parental duties and rights to the social parents. Every gesture and practice of demonstrating property rights over one's biological child is therefore a definite breach of norms. Schooling, urbanization, and modernization also trigger off a transformation process. Particularly in the urban context, new forms of social parenthood, such as tutorship and temporary arrangements, have been developed. However, they have clear links to the old frame of ideas and norms.
71 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the sources of power that a Big Man in West Africa mobilised in order to appropriate mining rights and to establish leadership in a gold mining camp.
Abstract: The article provides an example of how 'formal' and 'informal' modes of power and legitimacy, as well as material and symbolic leadership resources, may intersect and interrelate. It analyses the sources of power that a Big Man in West Africa mobilised in order to appropriate mining rights and to establish leadership in a gold mining camp. As an entrepreneur in an economic field directly regulated by state laws and authorities, he has to operate within these structures while at the same time subverting them by creating a 'system of personal power' that resembles Sahlins' classic model of the Big Man in Melanesia. Although he is elected to represent the gold diggers, his leadership position rests not so much on a formal vote as on wealth, violence, and charisma. These attributes are underscored in performances that draw on symbols of power and prestige, linking commonly held ideas about traditional rule and conspicuous consumption to personal legitimacy.
66 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that their emphasis upon the creativity of daily practice is forthcoming from a powerful and egalitarian social philosophy and the difficulties of translating such a philosophy, where the human self is contextualised within a wider cosmic setting, are raised.
Abstract: The article states the high evaluation that an Amazonian people, the Piaroa, place upon the artful skills of everyday existence. It is argued that their emphasis upon the creativity of daily practice is forthcoming from a powerful and egalitarian social philosophy. The difficulties of translating such a philosophy, where the human self is contextualised within a wider cosmic setting, are raised. The aim of translation would be to enable us to engage in dialogue with the Piaroa about common concerns (upon the relation of the individual to the collectivity, for instance, or upon the idea of freedom, or the question of the relation of customs to rational decision making). These are a people who overtly shun the idea of a social rule, yet strongly value sociality, their own customs, and the mutuality of the ties of community. At the same time they demonstrate even more forcefully an ‘obstinate individualism’. A major puzzle to be discussed is the notion that personal autonomy is understood as a social capacit...
63 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the interrelatedness of different types of risk, both in their perception and in the coping strategies, is addressed in mining communities in Northern Benin, where gold miners are exposed to physical risks as well as economic risks of uncertain yields.
Abstract: Gold miners in Northern Benin are exposed to physical risks as well as economic risks of uncertain yields. The interrelatedness of different types of risk, both in their perception and in the coping strategies, will be addressed in this paper. It also challenges theoretical perspectives on risk that assume coherent world-views and highlights processes of communication and group behaviour.
56 citations
Abstract: This article explores ethnographically the ‘village’ as a stage for the enactment and reproduction of a racialised set of white middle-class social and moral values. To do this I draw upon interview material with middle-class whites who live in a suburban ‘village’ on the border of rural Leicestershire and urban Leicester in England. I explore the way in which my co-conversationalists reflexively and imaginatively defend their area's ‘village’ identity through a discourse that ‘others’ its wealthy Asian residents. Although these raced others have achieved economic parity with the more affluent wealthy white middle-class residents, they are imagined to lack the ‘proper’ middle-class values of respectability and decorum, which are associated with the traditional white rhythms of English village life.
41 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that master-servant relations are more significant for the domestic reproduction of inequality than hitherto acknowledged, and pointed out that the employment of servants is partly motivated by the masters' avoidance of defiling tasks and substances; servants are frequently appointed according to their caste specialization; and employers maintain considerable distance from untouchable servants.
Abstract: The relationship between upper or middle class families and their domestic servants is an understudied subject matter in the anthropology of India. This article argues that master-servant relations are more significant for the domestic reproduction of inequality than hitherto acknowledged. Most earlier studies have discussed this inequality in terms of class, but this article argues that master-servant relations also are flavoured by caste. The employment of servants is partly motivated by the masters' avoidance of defiling tasks and substances; servants are frequently appointed according to their caste specialization; and employers maintain considerable distance from untouchable servants. Upper and middle class children, then, are socialized into a tacit world-view in which caste and inequality are naturalized and taken for granted as a part of the social order.
38 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a practice approach to the professionalization of Latin American feminist NGOs is applied to the study of one NGO in Medellin, Colombia, which emphasizes the political economic context and negotiated, constructed quality of women's lived experience of shifting NGO strategies.
Abstract: A ‘practice’ approach to the professionalization of Latin American feminist NGOs is applied to the study of one NGO in Medellin, Colombia. Instead of asking whether such NGOs are ‘doing good,’ I suggest an approach emphasizing the political economic context and negotiated, constructed quality of women's lived experience of shifting NGO strategies. I explore ethical and epistemological difficulties with the ‘doing good?’ question.
37 citations
TL;DR: In this article, Elders from twenty-six Indian tribes participated in two studies in order to explain why the transportation of radioactive waste poses serious threats to their traditional knowledge and use of the angry rock.
Abstract: Numic people in the western United States are co-adapted with their traditional lands and these lands are spiritually and physically co-adapted with these people. This relationship has been documented through studies funded by the Department of Energy, Nevada Operations. 1 The u.s. Department of Energy Nevada Operations studies of American Indiacultural impacts from the transportation of Low Level Radioactive Waste were managed by Frank DiSanza. Consultation with the involved tribes was guided by Robert Furlow through the American Indian Program. Elders from twenty-six Indian tribes participated in two studies in order to explain why the transportation of radioactive waste poses serious threats. Key in their interpretation is the perception that radioactive material is an angry rock. Indian knowledge and use of this rock goes back for thousands of years. As a powerful spiritual being the angry rock constitutes a threat that can neither be contained nor controlled by conventional means. It has the power to...
35 citations
TL;DR: This paper used Mauss's notion of habitus, the learned bodily techniques that often appear natural, to discuss some of the ways in which the culture of the Focolare Movement is transmitted to its members.
Abstract: The manner in which a religious culture is transmitted and internalised defies conventional ethnographic description. Exterior forms of behaviour, articulated expressions of motivation, observable rules and appearances can be described, but the interior, ascetic dimensions of the experience are less amenable to observation and analysis. In this study the author uses Mauss's notion of habitus, the learned bodily techniques that often appear natural, to discuss some of the ways in which the culture of the Focolare Movement is transmitted to its members. As a member of the Focolare, the author has internalised many aspects of Focolare religious culture, and uses reflexive experience to discuss the methodological issues surrounding spiritual relationships with informants. The article also discusses the importance of a gender-specific analysis and the consequences of doing 'anthropology at home' in a supposedly alien fieldwork setting, that of the Focolare permanent Mariapolis at Fontem in South West Cameroon.
TL;DR: This article explored a range of practices seen as harmful or violent by transgender-identified people and argued that detailed ethnography which queries the ontological assumptions of those who claim to have experienced violence is the most effective route to acting ethically.
Abstract: In addressing Nancy Scheper-Hughes's (1995) call for 'the primacy of the ethical' in anthropological research, this paper complicates anthropologists' ethical position by exploring a range of practices seen as harmful or violent by transgender-identified people. I argue that an ethical stance on the violence experienced by one's study participants is deeply complicated by what comes to count for participants as harm and violence. By investigating a range of social contexts and practices - political activism, social service support groups, and ethnographic practices - I argue that detailed ethnography which queries the ontological assumptions of those who claim to have experienced violence is the most effective route to acting ethically.
TL;DR: This paper explored the processes whereby complex scientific developments are rendered into locally intelligible idioms as part of strategies to incorporate a "public" in decisions which may have profound implications in the longer term.
Abstract: This paper explores the processes whereby complex scientific developments are rendered into locally intelligible idioms as part of strategies to incorporate a ‘public’ in decisions which may have profound implications in the longer term. We focus in particular on the recent developments in genetic technologies and take as our example the deCode biogenetic project in Iceland. We trace how the images and metaphors drawn upon by all sides of the debate created powerful resonances with Icelandic history and culture. We analyse these representations and the broader themes of ethnicity and nationalism which they invoke.
TL;DR: The authors argue that perceptions of risk and responsibility are culturally embedded in the particular contexts in which these actors operate; that they are tightly interwoven as aspects of developing global markets; and presented as forces of nature in discourses that produce not only 'truths' but also power.
Abstract: This paper addresses aspects of 'market culture' as it is expressed in media discourse and among financial traders and corporate managers. Particular focus is placed on their perspectives on risk and responsibility. It is suggested that the ideas and actions of financial traders and corporate leaders contribute in significant ways to the structuring of market transactions across the world. They contribute to the diffusion of perspectives on markets and market actors, influence our understandings of the scope of individual action in market transactions, and play a vital role in the development and organization of contemporary markets. The paper argues that perceptions of risk and responsibility are culturally embedded in the particular contexts in which these actors operate; that they are tightly interwoven as aspects of developing global markets; and presented as forces of nature in discourses that produce not only 'truths' but also power. It is suggested that the fetishization of the market contributes t...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that notions of affinity and equality define human-animal relationships among the Suri, but that these do not resolve the tensions inherent in the fact that cattle for them has both economically useful and emotionally rewarding features.
Abstract: Livestock herding peoples are known for their close involvement with their animals, valuing them in multiple ways. This paper addresses the issue of the nature of emotional and moral commitment to livestock animals, particularly cattle, among a group of livestock herders in southwest Ethiopia, the Suri. From certain cases of cattle and sheep sacrifice it could be concluded that the Suri exercise particular cruelty towards their animals on ritual occasions. How do Suri themselves see the issue of 'affection vs cruelty' towards livestock animals? How do Suri attitudes toward animals relate to their attitudes toward humans, notably neighbouring ethnic groups with whom they are in conflict and who accuse them of using excessive violence? The paper argues that notions of affinity and equality indeed define human-animal relationships among the Suri, but that these do not resolve the tensions inherent in the fact that cattle for them has both economically useful and emotionally rewarding features. The author compares human-animal relations among the Suri with those found in industrial societies. [Journal abstract]
TL;DR: The authors argued that the selection of burglaries as source of risk deploys the understanding that the flip side of the increase in property crime is increased affluence and that both are part of modernization.
Abstract: Consensus among Greeks claims that the rates of burglaries and thefts have been increasing during the last ten years and that this constitutes a major social problem for which immigrants, and, especially Albanians, are responsible. This article theorizes that the selection of burglaries as source of risk deploys the understanding that the flip side of the increase in property crime is increased affluence and that both are part of modernization. The selection of houses as targets of aggression enables people, especially men, to construe themselves as protectors of houses objectifying the longstanding ideals of household management and as members of a modern society in which security is a matter of individual consumer choice. The portrayal of immigrants as destitute thieves reinforces the construct of the Greek nation state as a successful albeit vulnerable household writ-large.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a period of intense risk construction in Spain, where a feeling of risk extended all around and the Spanish political agenda was, for a time, dominated by risk issues.
Abstract: This paper describes a period of intense risk construction in Spain. By autumn 2000 there was a coincidence of different alarming events affecting Spanish society and widely covered by media. A feeling of risk extended all around and the Spanish political agenda was, for a time, dominated by risk issues. This paper tries to establish how useful the concept of 'risk shadow' can be in order to analyse the construction of risk in a global context. The narratives of risk seem to give this phenomenon its cultural consistency, because more than a scientific fact, risk construction is a cultural matter.
TL;DR: A central thought in sociologists such as Anthony Giddens (1990, 1991) and Ulrich Beck (1992) have addressed risk as a crucial feature of late modern society as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: W orks by sociologists such as Anthony Giddens (1990, 1991) and Ulrich Beck (1992) have addressed risk as a crucial feature of late modern society. A central thought in their work is that modern society has entered a new phase in its historical development. Industrial production and the market assume novel structural features emerging from the mobility of capital, people and technology over the globe. Traditional social relationships, groupings and identities erode along with the progression of late modernity. New concerns emerge that reframe the relationship between Man and the environment, questioning the assumptions of industrial society regarding ecology and nature (see e.g. Lash et al. 1996). Gone is an era characterized by authentic being and trust in social and political institutions. The embeddedness of the individual in a firm order of meanings and expectations is disappearing. Certainty has given way to uncertainty, resulting in a state of collapsing ontological security and a sense of fundamental vulnerability and lack of faith (Giddens 1990). As a characteristic of late modernity Zygmunt Bauman (1998) points to a growing fear and a heightened sensitivity to all kinds of threats to meaningful human existence. But far from being a homogeneous global transnational culture, globalization shapes new conditions of social marginalization and structural inequalities. New boundaries are created between local and global orders and as the global order gains strength so does the local — ‘glocalization’ perhaps being a more fitting term for this dual process (Bauman 1998:70). In this light it comes as no surprise that risk has become a salient topic in the social sciences. In Europe and the United States research organizations devoted to the study of risk have mushroomed since the late 1970s. New peer reviewed journals are launched, international conferences are initiated and
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the restructuring of social life that emerges with this ethnic mobilization for sports and culture in Thailand's Mien (Yao), and explore the importance of sports competitions and cultural displays among highland ethnic minorities in Thailand.
Abstract: The recent importance of sports competitions and cultural displays among highland ethnic minorities in Thailand suggests a growing resonance of national forms of sociability and presentability. A national contact zone simultaneously provides a context for unprecedented ethnic mobilization and identification among the country's minorities. Taking the case of Thailand's Mien (Yao), I explore the restructuring of social life that emerges with this ethnic mobilization for sports and culture. These activities produce an identity effect that defines Mien in national terms. The ability and need to organize in relation to the nation facilitates the position of a select few Mien villages as the bearers of social life and cultural traditions, and imports new forms of inequality into local life.
TL;DR: This paper argued that cultural globalization is more about cultural difference than about the creation of a 'world culture' and emphasized the role of the Other itself in its own Ot... The authors see the local brokers as 'global cosmopolitans' who act as if this unique objectified culture is their own.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the appropriation and re-production of Japanese culture by Israelis in Israel. The paper argues that both studies that locate processes of cultural appropriation in the context of a clear colonial or post-colonial relationship and studies that emphasize the free ‘global cultural supermarket’ cannot fully explicate the processes of cultural appropriation. Since the 1980s there has been a growing popular interest in Japanese culture in Israel. This Japan craze is characterized by the high involvement of local Israelis in the promotion of Japanese culture and by the obvious absence of Japanese in the ‘Japanese’ cultural projects and displays. The study sees the local brokers as ‘global cosmopolitans’, who act as if this unique objectified culture is their own. The case presented enables us to see yet again that cultural globalization is more about cultural difference than about the creation of a ‘world culture’. The paper also emphasizes the role of the Other itself in its own Ot...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose quelques conclusions on the relation entre les processus politiques nationaux et locaux, e.g., le Politicien and le Pretre.
Abstract: Dans la continuite des remarques de Bernard Helander (1995 en danois, 2001 traduction anglaise) sur la problematique de la resolution des conflits en Afrique contemporaine et s'appuyant sur l'etude d'un conflit violent chez les Mursi du sud-ouest de l'Ethiopie, l'A. discute ce que Helander appelle l'aire extremement complexe des interfaces entre la politique nationale plus inclusive et les interets locaux. Dans l'impossibilite de tirer des conclusions generales sur ce cas specifique d'aire complexe, il centre son analyse sur deux personnages-cles : le Politicien et le Pretre. Aucun des deux ne fut implique directement dans la violence, mais ils deployerent tous les deux des efforts importants pour trouver un moyen de vivre au-dela de cette violence. Proposant d'abord quelques conclusions sur la relation entre les processus politiques nationaux et locaux, l'A. discute egalement son implication personnelle dans ce conflit et quelques questions a propos de l'analyse de conflits violents en tant qu'observateur exterieur mais implique.
TL;DR: In the early 20th century, anthropologists turned their backs on the evolutionist paradigm, while in the wake of National Socialism and its quest for a common Germanic race and culture folklorists limited their cross-cultural comparisons to Europe as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Fruitful exchanges of ideas existed between early 20th century anthropology (volkenkunde) and folklore studies (volkskunde) in the Netherlands. Folklorists proposed using the fieldwork methods and comparative approach of ethnography. Anthropologists thought folklore studies might be able to shed light on survivals of earlier stages in their own society. During the 1930s, however, anthropologists turned their backs on the evolutionist paradigm, while in the wake of National Socialism and its quest for a common Germanic race and culture folklorists limited their cross-cultural comparisons to Europe. Cultural politics in Germany and other European countries in the 1930s and early 1940s directed the concepts, methods and institutionalization of folklore studies, and consequently led to a distancing from the concepts and practice of cultural anthropology.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the organization of collective labor for irrigation canal maintenance in a High Atlas village, an organization that compensates for the fluctuation of available labor over the domestic cycle of individual households.
Abstract: This paper examines the organization of collective labor for irrigation canal maintenance in a High Atlas village, an organization that compensates for the fluctuation of available labor over the domestic cycle of individual households. Such labor transactions between households are accomplished by employing several different, and seemingly incompatible, cultural logics: a tradition of division by five, an emphasis on the importance of agnatic kin, a belief in the natural authority of elder over younger men, and an ideal equality among all men. Empirically the groups forged by villagers are fair and unfair according to different specific types of equality under consideration and, especially, the temporal framework employed. This integration of different forms of inequality and the importance of timeframes to their operation bears on anthropological and economic theory, and the practical aims of development.
TL;DR: Turner as discussed by the authors was a Celtic numismatist, who started his career in the British Museum and, after many years as a civil servant, ended up administering the British Academy, first as Secretary (succeeding Mortimer Wheeler) and then as Treasurer (Turner 1976).
Abstract: H ow did I become an anthropologist? The remoter beginnings must lie in family history. Several of my forebears served in India, most but not all of them in the army. My father was a Celtic numismatist, who started his career in the British Museum and, after many years as a civil servant, ended up administering the British Academy, first as Secretary (succeeding Mortimer Wheeler) and then as Treasurer (Turner 1976). He surely transmitted to me a love of research, albeit more by example than by words.
TL;DR: Karl Eric Knutsson became professor of social anthropology at Stockholm University in 1970 as discussed by the authors at the height of the student rebellion, which was at the same time when a large number of graduate students crowded into what they saw as a centre for solidarity with the Third World countries and for studies thought to contribute towards a new world in the making.
Abstract: Karl Eric Knutsson became professor of social anthropology at Stockholm University in 1970. This was at the height of the student rebellion. Students crowded into what they saw as a centre for solidarity with the Third World countries and for studies thought to contribute towards a new world in the making. An enthusiastic group of graduate students formed around Karl Eric who had very much been their active choice for the chair. While undergoing their own training they simultaneously also became unqualified but dedicated teachers at the rapidly expanding department. A series of visiting professors were brought in to add competence and new ideas to the budding department. Gerald Berreman, Maurice Bloch, Lincoln Kaiser and Sandra Wallman were among those who made lasting impressions on Stockholm anthropology. Karl Eric also joined the editorial committee of Ethnos and contributed towards modernising the journal, which went through a process of change that paralleled developments at the department: from comparative ethnography to social anthropology. Karl Eric had a solid academic background with degrees in both anthropology and comparative religion. With his dissertation, presented at the Göteborg University, Authority and Change: A Study of the Kallu Institution among the Macha Galla of Ethiopia (1967) Karl Eric made a lasting contribution to Ethiopian studies. In this monograph he explored the role of the Kallu, a ritual specialist among the Oromo, and the relationships between people and land. Karl Eric’s experiences among the Oromo of Ethiopia were to stay with him throughout his life. Here he had met wisdom, common sense and oratory skills that engraved in him a profound conviction that people everywhere can usefully and wisely contribute towards solving problems. In his installation lecture at Stockholm University he described anthropology as the art of seeing from within and from below. This lesson from rural Ethiopia continued to guide his work later in life when he became an actor on the world scene. His experiences from fieldwork in rural Africa and from applied anthropology, in