Transcript Agenda Postmodernism Recap The Achievements of Anthropology The Future of Anthropology

Agenda
Postmodernism Recap
The Achievements of Anthropology
The Future of Anthropology
Aims and Goals
Science or Humanistic discipline
Concept of Culture
Topics
Applied anthropology
Postmodernity in Anthropology has
focused on
1. an examination of the power relations
according to which the Other has been
constructed
2. examinations of the rhetorical devices
and preoccupations of ethnographers
themselves
Postmodernist Critique
Postmodernists believe that objective neutral knowledge
of another culture, or any aspect of the world is impossible
anthropology’s epistemology and scientism is shown to
be Western construct
Ethnographies distort reality at best, and have political
implications all other voices and interpretations are
silenced.
If a text is an author’s representation, and if that
author’s work is taken as an authoritative account, then all
other voices and interpretations are silenced
Historically, the interpretations voiced have been by
white protestant males in Western industrialized nations
since ethnography is a form of writing, much of its selfproclaimed objectivity and empirically grounded authority
would be better seen as rhetorical effects of the way the
ethnographic genre was constructed
If constructed, such texts could be, should be, opened up
for inspection, and strategically de-and reconstructed.
Critiques of Postmodernism
How does Postmodernism and the deconstructing of
texts help us to understand the anthropological endeavor
Taken to its logical extreme postmodernism comes close
to turning anthropology into a sub field of literature.
If all writing is nothing more than interpretations of
interpretations then ethnography is fiction
And no conclusions can ultimately be reached about
anything
anthropology is a representational genre rather than a
clearly bounded scientific domain
Postmodernist Legacy
There is not any real new change in practice
most central influence is on the nature of ethnography
1970s ,1980s 1990s anthropologists began to write ethnographies
in which their recounting of their own experiences and feelings
takes a prominent role.
The recounting of field experiences can become the narrative
device by which anthropological experiences can become the
narrative device through which anthropological understanding is
conveyed Eg Rosaldo
The awareness of rhetorical devices can inform our own writing
and help us evaluate the writing of others
anthropologists must now ask how new forms of authority and
voices other than their own can be included in the ethnography
BREAKDOWN OF
NATIONAL SCHOOLS
DEVELOPMENT OF
SPECIALIZATIONS
1940
1950
AMERICAN
CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
1960
1970
ECOLOGICAL ANTH.
NEO-EVOLUTIONISM
CULTURAL
MATERIALISM
C&P
ETHNOSCIENCE-CUM-COGNITIVE
INTERPRETIVE
BRITISH
SOCIAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
FRENCH
ETHNOLOGIE
NEO-STRUCTURALISM
(LEACH, GLUCKMAN,
BARTH, BAILEY,
STRATHERN)
1980
1990
2000
Schools and
analytical theories
in abeyance
Main duality:
Political Economy
vs.
Interpretive &
Deconstructionist
approaches
MAUSS — LÉVI-STRAUSS:
FRENCH STRUCTURALISM
MODERN PERIOD
POSTMODERN PERIOD
2010
The Achievements of Anthropology
Do we know more about human culture than
our great-great grandparents
There is an accumulation of knowledge about
individual cultures. Other cultures are much
better documented than they were before
anthropology has gained basic insights into
human nature
Race does not account for variations in human
behaviour
The Future of Anthropology
What is the nature and goal of anthropology?
Should anthropological explanation be modeled
on scientific theory –building or on humanistic
interpretation?
Is the idea of culture useful?
What new topic areas will become of interest?
What is, or should be, the goal of
anthropology
Is anthropology after insights into humanity?
Should it be primarily applied?
Should it be essentially descriptive of human
experience?
What is the point of it all?
Should anthropology rely on a scientific
mode of explanation – proposing hypotheses,
testing them with empirical data, and
constructing theory from law like
generalizations
or should it be based on humanistic
interpretation?
are scientific models inappropriate for
understanding the symbolic nature of culture
Do we want to interpret, not explain?
What does it mean to be scientific
focus on statistics eg. HRAF
Does it mean “observational science”
Does it mean developing grand theory or universal theory
Anthropology may have been wrong, but is it on the road
to truth
Truth is independent of the source
“Mendel was an Augustinian monk, but he got it right
about the wrinkled peas; and it would not have mattered if
he had been a black handicapped Spanish-speaking lesbian
atheist. “ Fox 1996
Can we really have British, American, feminist science of
anthropology
if all truths are indeed epistemologically
relative and have no universal application,
then the proposition that all truths are
epistemologically relative is itself relative
and has no universal application, and we
have no reason to accept it. It is the
product of its own context, biases, social
conditions,etc.
Even with interpretations you still want to be
believed. You still implicitly argue that your
interpretation is somehow the truth. Otherwise it
is simply a story.
Humanistic Anthropology
addresses the question: what it is to be human
 recognizes that we live in a world of symbols with their
contexts and interpretations,
Humanistic anthropology is moving away from
anthropology as a naturalistic science which understands
cultures and societies through causation, structure, and
function
It contests that anthropological research is physical,
empirical and modeled on a positivistic version of science
focus on the self and away from collective symbols.
Accordingly, there is a push towards writing
ethnographies of the self,
Applied Anthropology
One of the distinctive methodological
processes characterizing anthropology
historically is participation/observation and
seeing things from "the people's point of
view.“
What value does this have in contemporary
world (eg. Iraq)
is this essentially translation application ?
Does the Concept of Culture still hold value?
Old View
bounded, small scale entity
defined characteristics (checklist)
unchanging, in balanced equilibrium
or self-reproducing
underlying system of shared
meanings: 'authentic culture'
identical, homogeneous individuals.
New ideas about Culture
'cultures' are not, nor ever were, naturally bounded
entities Cultures' are dynamic, fluid and constructed
situationally, in particular places and times
culture is a contested process of meaning-making
Eg. Merry 18th and 19th century Hawaii
Contests took place between people in asymmetrical
relations of power
Symbols and ideas never acquired a closed or
entirely coherent set of meanings: they were
polyvalent, fluid and hybridized. Key terms shifted in
meaning at different historical times.
 How are these concepts used and contested by differently
positioned actors who draw on local, national and global links in
unequal relations of power?
How is the contest framed by implicit practices and rules - or do
actors challenge, stretch or reinterpret them as part of the contest
too?
In a flow of events, who has the power to define?
How do they prevent other ways of thinking about these concepts
from being heard?
How do they manage to make their meanings stick, and use
institutions to make their meanings authoritative?
With what material outcomes?
Eg. Homosexuality in Canada, the anti-and pro American rallies
'corporate culture'
the early 1980s, 'culture' became a buzz word in
management studies
corporate culture, often equated with a mission
statement, had become the sine qua non of any serious
organization
literature attributed the culture concept to
anthropology: Geertz, Turner, Douglas
This interchange between academics and
practitioners has increased in the 1990s as managers
have called on researchers and consultants to provide
'training' to change organizations.
Culture and development
'culture' is entering a new domain, overseas development, with the
help of anthropologists
Wagner (1975) argued that in the very act of fieldwork
anthropologists 'invent' a 'culture' (in the old sense) for a people.
Anthropologists plunge into situations which are beyond their
interpersonal and practical competence.
To cope with this, they encourage themselves by thinking that they
are dealing with a 'thing' and they can learn how it 'works'.
Some people in the host society gain insight into the
anthropologist's perspective - - and for the first time perceive their
daily life as a thing that works in patterned ways.
The anthropologist proceeds as if what is being studied is 'a
culture'. In the process, what people had hitherto experienced as an
embedded way of life becomes objectified and verbalized invented as 'culture'.
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The politicization of 'culture
In all three fields, (politics,
business, development) politicians,
business people and academic
advisers are using 'culture' as a
political tool. anthropology is
implicated in the politicization of
'culture'.
Wagner (1975) argued that in the very act of fieldwork
anthropologists 'invent' a 'culture' (in the old sense) for a people.
Anthropologists plunge into situations which are beyond their
interpersonal and practical competence.
To cope with this, they encourage themselves by thinking that they
are dealing with a 'thing' and they can learn how it 'works'.
Some people in the host society gain insight into the
anthropologist's perspective - often whilst trying to control and
domesticate her or him - and for the first time perceive their daily
life as a thing that works in patterned ways.
The anthropologist proceeds as if what is being studied is 'a
culture'. In the process, what people had hitherto experienced as an
embedded way of life becomes objectified and verbalized - in
Wagner's terms, invented - as 'culture'.
The Kayapo
horticulturalists living in the rain
forests of Eastern Brazil.
Mid 1970s 700 of the 800 died of
disease.
 Missionaries provided medicine
in exchange for the Kayapo's
adopting western clothes, building
their village along a street, and
suppressing their ceremonials
A state organization controlled
their trade and communication with
the outside, and embezzled their
cash from the nut crop
The Kayapo felt dependent and in a situation over which
they had no control
Turner saw his role as an
anthropologist as 'uncovering the
authentic social and cultural
system beneath the corrosive
underlay'
He found his authentic culture in
the surviving social and ceremonial
rituals which, to him, reproduced
Kayapo as social persons in a
moral universe
This Kayapo chief wears a
feather headdress which
establishes his rank.. He is
smoking natural tobacco
in his traditional pipe
made out of ironwood.
The Kayapo did not see it like
that: it was just the way they did
things
They did not have a concept
through which to objectify and
label their everyday life as a
'culture'.
A Kayapo chieftain wears the
traditional botoque through his
lower lip. The plate is made out of
balsa wood, and is a sign of courage
meant to frighten the enemy.
He argued that they
needed such a concept
to deal with their
situation: to give them
an identity and
distinguish themselves
as a 'culture' on a par
with other indigenous
people and vis-à-vis the
dominant national
society in an interethnic state system.
However, the Kayapo
realized that what
missionaries and state
administrators used as
justification for
subordination and
exploitation, another set of
Westerners valued highly.
'Culture', which had
seemed an impediment,
now appeared as a resource
to negotiate their coexistence with the
dominant society
After a Disappearing
World documentary was
made, the Kayapo
sought further
documentaries so as to
reach the sympathetic
elements in the west.
In 1989 the Kayapó protested a government proposal to build
hydroelectric dams along the Xingu River. Their appeal aroused
worldwide support and the project was shelved. If it had been
implemented, the damming would have flooded much of their
territory
When they arranged to meet the Brazilian government to
oppose the Altamira dam, they choreographed themselves for
the western media in order to gain support of the western
audience and add pressure on the government.
Gone were the shorts, T-shirts
and haircuts that had appeased the
missionaries; with men's bare
chests, body ornament and long
ritual dances, the Kayapo
performed their 'culture' as a
strategy in their increasingly
confident opposition to the state.
by the 1990s the Kayapo had
obtained videos, radios,
pharmacies, vehicles, drivers and
mechanics, an aeroplane to patrol
their land, and even their own
missionaries.
Young Kayapo girls
painted with Jemipapo, a
black paint which is made
from Jemipapo fruit
crushed and mixed with
fish oil.
Kayapo had learnt to
objectify their everyday life as
'culture' (in the old sense) and
use it as a resource in
negotiations with government
and international agencies.
Kayapo politicians seem to
have been fully aware of the
constructedness of 'culture'
They presented themselves
as a homogeneous and
bounded group
They defined 'culture' for
themselves and used it to set
the terms of their relations
with the 'outside world'
In a history spanning forty years,
missionaries, government officials, the
Kayapo, anthropologists, international
agencies and non government agencies
had all competed for the power to define
a key concept, 'culture'.
 Missionaries and government agencies
initially had used the concept to define
an entity that could be acted upon,
producing disempowerment and
dependency among the Kayapo.
Kayapo girls dancing
during the Jemipapo
ceremony. Note the girl
at the lower center with
the traditional Kayapo
haircut.
The Kayapo strategy to wrest control
of this concept from missionaries and
government officials and turn it against
them was part of a struggle not just for
identity but for physical, economic and
political survival.
Kayapo leaders have used ethnographic film to assert their
own definition of their 'culture' and used the strategies others
have used against them to challenge the processes that have
marginalized them
Topical trends
If the cultural world is shrinking is
anthropology losing its subject matter
Exotic cultures untouched are non
existent
Soon cultures of the world are
homogenized into a single culture
1. Cultural Survival of Indigenous
Peoples
N Americans are concerned with preserving their
cultures
Concern is not so much a matter of
anthropological research as it is for basic human
rights issues.
2. The study of complex societies
A growing interest in applied anthropology after the affluent
decade of the 1950s and 1960s witnessed the rediscovery of ethnicity
and poverty, birth of which were defined as urban problems.
Therefore policy makers have been more inclined to use the
findings of anthropologists to help some of these social problems at
home.
Research opportunities in other cultures have diminished – newly
independent countries reluctant to let western anthropologists in
Funding problems
study small ethnic communities, socialized occupation groups, or
other sub cultural groups which operate in within the complex
societies.
3. The Greater Use of Anthropological
Knowledge
So that anthropological insights will have an
impact on policy makers.
Development agencies
Companies
Governments