persons and theories | antropologi.info

Multiculturalism or anti-racism?

Published on September 3, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, culture traditions, persons and theories, Us and Them

Alana Lentin, Open Democracy

The multiculturalist model that elevates difference to a social principle is under attack. People committed to creating a world of justice and equal rights should not waste time defending it.

Multiculturalism’s exclusive focus on culture can present an apolitical picture of “minority” experience and agency that evades the daily realities of institutionalised racism. This emphasis on culture lies at the heart of the problem of multiculturalism, and – I would argue – makes it an unworthy prize for progressive voices now seeking to reclaim it. >> continue

Alana Lentin, Open Democracy

The multiculturalist model that elevates difference to a social principle is under attack. People committed to creating a world of justice and equal rights should not waste time defending it.

Multiculturalism’s exclusive focus on culture can present an…

Researchers claim to have solved the mystery of the people who don’t count

Published on August 20, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, language, Latin- and Central America, Native American, persons and theories

The Guardian

The Piraha of the Amazon have almost legendary status in language research. They have no words at all for number. They use only only three words to count: one, two, many. To make things confusing, the words for one and two, in Piraha, are the same syllable, pronounced with a falling or rising inflection.

And to make things really difficult, the word for one can sometimes mean “roughly one”, and the word for two can sometimes mean “not many”. The Piraha have puzzled anthropologists for decades.

Peter Gordon, a behavioural scientist at Columbia University in New York, reports in Science today that the Piraha may may not be very good at counting because because they do not have the words for it. >> continue

The Guardian

The distance between us

Published on August 16, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, persons and theories, Us and Them

The Dallas Morning News

If they lean back in the chair, away from him, he’s got more work to do. But if they lean forward, he knows in a few minutes they’ll be huddled with him over a contract. “There’s so much you can glean from observing the distances between people when they interact,” says Dr. William Pulte, anthropologist, linguist and associate professor in Southern Methodist University’s Education Department.

Proxemics, the study of how people perceive and use the space around them, was founded in the 1950s by anthropologist Edward T. Hall, and popularized in several of his books – “The Silent Language” (1959) and “The Hidden Dimension” (1966). Hall observed that humans like to keep their distances from one another, and that those distances vary according to social interactions. >>continue

The Dallas Morning News

If they lean back in the chair, away from him, he's got more work to do. But if they lean forward, he knows in a few minutes they'll be huddled with him over a contract. "There's so…

Mary Douglas critical of the new anthropology

Published on August 9, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, books, persons and theories

Haaretz, Israel

Mary Douglas:

“Today too much dominance is given to the anthropologists themselves within the research. This is strange, as it used to be that the main criticism was that anthropologists kept themselves invisible in the research in a way that was really artificial. This accusation – pretending to be anonymous on the part of the writers – changed, and in its stead there has been an opposite phenomenon: dominance of the writers over the research material. Thus, today we are exposed far more to the experiences and thoughts of the writer, while the methodology and the orderly method have declined considerably.”

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Haaretz, Israel

Mary Douglas:
"Today too much dominance is given to the anthropologists themselves within the research. This is strange, as it used to be that the main criticism was that anthropologists kept themselves invisible in the research in a way…

Emphasis on ‘culture’ in psychology fuels stereotypes, scholar says

Published on July 24, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, culture traditions, interdisciplinary, journal articles / papers, persons and theories, Us and Them

Currents online, University of California

In an invited lead article in the current issue of the influential journal Human Development, UCSC psychology professor Per Gjerde challenges his colleagues to reconsider popular ideas about the role of culture in human development.

Much of the trouble stems from the use of nations as proxies for cultural units, said Gjerde. Notions of culture are linked to national boundaries and geographical areas, like “East” and “West,” fueling generalizations about “American individualism” and “Asian collectivism,” said Gjerde.

Gjerde is critical of the fieldwork that forms the basis for most notions of culture, saying it has been conducted in “limited and bounded social contexts” and that the fixation on groups has obscured the exploration of variation and complexity within and between human beings.

Gjerde’s model would take a more interdisciplinary approach to the study of culture, incorporating the writings of anthropology and other fields, and it would consider the influence of power, coercion, and class differences on individual psychological development. >>continue

Currents online, University of California

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