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Two Books Explore the Sins of Anthropologists Past and Present

Published on May 11, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, books, ethics, persons and theories, Us and Them

The Chronicle of Higher Education

In her new book, From Racism to Genocide: Anthropology in the Third Reich, Gretchen E. Schafft, an applied anthropologist(George Washington University) explores how the principles of early-20th-century physical anthropology, were put to work by the Nazis. Several months after the invasion of Poland, Hitler’s aides established the Institute for German Work in the East, which employed scholarly anthropologists to complete such tasks as “racial-biological investigation of groups whose value cannot immediately be determined” and “racial-biological investigation of Polish resistance members.”

A few years after her discovery at the Smithsonian (75 boxes full of material produced in Poland by the Nazi anthropologists), Ms. Schafft was contacted by a physical anthropologist who wanted to use the Nazis’ data to shed light on “patterns of migration and population settlement.” She resisted, arguing that the information had been collected through cruel means and for evil purposes, and is in any case highly suspect.

Some related moral dilemmas are chewed over in Biological Anthropology and Ethics: From Repatriation to Genetic Identity (State University of New York Press), a collection edited by Trudy R. Turner, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. >> continue (link updated)

SEE ALSO:
Murray L. Wax: Some Issues and Sources on Ethics in Anthropology (American Anthropological Association, Handbook on Ethical Issues in Anthropology – Chpt 1)
Book review: Worldly Provincialism: German Anthropology in the Age of Empire (American Ethnologist)

The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Problems with Chinese Anthropological Research

Published on May 5, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Asia, Us and Them

Anthroman

In China, whenever researchers refer to ethnology, it means the study of 55 ethnic groups instead of 56. That means Han is a standard, a criterion， from which the study of other 55 ethnic groups must learn. There are many famous anthropologists who have been aware of his but never speak of it. Mr. Fei Xiaotong is one of them. Chinese anthropological study will not have its own position before Chinese anthropologists realize that all 56 and other people within Chinese boundary are of equal significance in anthropological research and there is no ethnic group that should be in a position of supervision.

The evolutionary scheme another obstacle in Chinese anthropological research. If we say that people in plains are in a stage of highest civilization, these who in plateau are less civilized, and these who in mountainous areas are the least civilized or primitive and savage, we are not doing social science but constructing social science. >> continue

(inspired by Ethno::log: Fei Xiaotong dies age 94)

The New Chinese Anthropology: A View from Outside by J.S. Eades The Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing, University of Kent, UK

Anthroman

“Stone Age Tribes”, tsunami and racist evolutionism

Published on May 4, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Andaman & Nicobar societies, anthropology in the news, Asia, indigenous people / minorities, Us and Them

The belief that the so-called Western civilisation represents the final goal of human evolution, the idea that we’re on the top of the evolution is still alive – both among journalists and anthropologists as the coverage of the tsunami disaster has shown. Today, again such a story full of racist evolutionism appeared – the Daily Telegraph writes: Chief’s death brings end of Stone Age tribes a step nearer. Quote: “Some anthropologists believe that the tribes are a vital link in the chain of human evolution. They have no written script.” >> continue

SEE ALSO:
19th Century Social Evolutionism – Anthropological theories
(Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama)

The belief that the so-called Western civilisation represents the final goal of human evolution, the idea that we're on the top of the evolution is still alive - both among journalists and anthropologists as the coverage of the tsunami disaster…

New Eurozine issue on Politics of border making and (cross-)border identities

Published on May 3, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cosmopolitanism, Europe, globalisation, Us and Them

Eurozine is a netmagazine that publishes both own texts and articles previously published in European magazines. Their new “focal point” looks very interesting. From their introduction: “Have borders become irrelevant with the project of a united Europe, which is supposed to overcome the historical divisions of the continent and the political isolation of its East? No, just the opposite. Essayists and researchers look at the dilemmas of border building and cross-border cooperation in the EU and its neighborhood. >> continue (link updated)

Eurozine is a netmagazine that publishes both own texts and articles previously published in European magazines. Their new "focal point" looks very interesting. From their introduction: "Have borders become irrelevant with the project of a united Europe, which is supposed…

News from T.Hylland Eriksen: On Useless universities,Human security & Pluralism

Published on April 30, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, journal articles / papers, University / Academia, Us and Them

Three new texts can be found on the website of anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen. The first one is a translation of an article published earlier in the Norwegian newspapoer Morgenbladet and deals with the commercisalisation of Norwegian universities:

On the fundamental uselessness of universities
Politicians try to make the universities more efficient, in accordance with the gospel of New Public Management. Many countries have now introduced quantitative techniques for ‘measuring’ the efficiency of academics, and have finally made the long-expected connection between funding and productivity, measured in student credits and publications. The universities become a kind of industrial enterprise. University employees are well on their way to becoming musicians who have been instructed to play twice as fast, so that productivity can be increased. >> continue (a bit farther down the page)

I haven’t read the other articles and as I’m on my way out, I’ll just mention them quickly (Focus on security and trust seems to be a hot research issue):

From obsessive egalitarianism to pluralist universalism? Options for twenty-first century education
Although there are important, sometimes disturbing, connections between neoliberalism and certain forms of knowledge pluralism, I do not propose to explore them here. Instead, I shall focus on conditions for the transmission of knowledge in our time, arguing that it is necessary to find a third way between the Scylla of fixed, authoritarian knowledge and the Charybdis of relativist confusion. >> continue

Risking security: Paradoxes of social cohesion
Although the concept of human security, as it is currently being used in the worlds of development studies and peace and conflict research, was introduced as late as the mid-1990s, it can be used to address questions which are as old as the social sciences themselves. >> continue

On the fundamental…