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What happened at the AAA-conference in San Jose – a round up

Published on by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news

I haven’t been at the annual meeting of tha American Anthropological Association but some other anthro-bloggers have (no journalists, though!). Information is scarce. Nevertheless, a few new reviews and blog posts have appeared since my first round up First news from the AAA-conference? one week ago:

See also earlier posts about the AAA meeting

First news from the AAA-conference?

San Jose: American Anthropologists Stand Up Against Torture and the Occupation of Iraq

I haven't been at the annual meeting of tha American Anthropological Association but some other anthro-bloggers have (no journalists, though!). Information is scarce. Nevertheless, a few new reviews and blog posts have appeared since my first round up First…

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More book reviews: Publishers are approaching bloggers

Published on by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, books, internet, University / Academia

Columbia University Press recently approached Savage Minds, asking if we would like to review new books from their catalog”, Kerim Friedman writes and begins reviewing the first book “The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on popular politics in most of the world” by Partha Chatterjee.

I (and some other anthropology bloggers) have received this email by Columbia University Press (CUP) as well and you can expect reviews of their anthropology books here on antropologi.info as well (the first book has arrived).

“The new trend is getting bloggers to write about you”, according to marketing consultants. This seems to be true as I was approached by an Norwegian publisher only a few days later and the first review was published by guestblogger Syeda Rahima Parvin (in Norwegian). Earlier this year, a museum in Germany has taken contact with me.

Of course, journalistic standards apply here in the same way as in newspapers (no advertising!).

There has been some discussion on this subject, see:

How to approach bloggers about products

Best ways to approach bloggers for product reviews

Columbia University Press recently approached Savage Minds, asking if we would like to review new books from their catalog", Kerim Friedman writes and begins reviewing the first book "The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on popular politics in most of…

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“YouTube clips = everyday ethnography”

Published on by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, internet

To decipher consumers’ needs, corporate ethnographers review countless Youtube clips and read scads of blogs. “Viewing a film about the Yanomamo tribe in the Amazon rain forest in Anthropology 101 is like seeing a Youtube clip where a little kid in Peoria is sticking marshmallows in his face,” Robbie business anthropologist Blinkoff says in The Baltimore Sun.

And by following Flickr an anthropologist can “see what tools people use on a daily level,” as well as how their living arrangements in the same room may change over the course of several years, our fellow anthro-blogger Kambiz Kamrani says:

As consumers around the world proactively post to their blogs, stream if not lead parts of their lives online, virtual anthropologists now vicariously ‘live’ amongst them, at home, at work, out on the streets.

>> read the whole article in The Baltimore Sun

UPDATE: Kambiz Kamrani has blogged about this in the meanwhile: I’ve been quoted in the Baltimore Sun’s “Common realities”

SEE ALSO:

Virtual Armchair Anthropology: Trend Watching Fieldwork Online

Rise of armchair anthropology? More and more scientists do online research

Ethnographic Flickr

Ethnographic Skype

Cyberanthropology news archive

To decipher consumers' needs, corporate ethnographers review countless Youtube clips and read scads of blogs. "Viewing a film about the Yanomamo tribe in the Amazon rain forest in Anthropology 101 is like seeing a Youtube clip where a little kid…

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Cameroon: "Ethnic conflicts are social conflicts"

Published on by lorenz Posted in Africa, anthropology in the news, politics, Us and Them

According to official statistics, Cameroon’s population of about 16.5 million encompasses 350 ethnic groups. The sporadic eruption of inter-ethnic conflict in Cameroon has prompted concern about the future of this Central African country, according to IPS writer Sylvestre Tetchiada.

The first notable tensions between ethnic groups, he writes, date back to the beginning of the 1990s, also the time when single party rule came to an end in Cameroon.

However, anthropologist Charly Gabriel Mbock cautions that there is more to ethnic conflict than meets the eye. He says:

“Most of the so-called ethnic conflicts are the consequences of poorly-studied and poorly-resolved social problems. The conflicts, before they are called ethnic, are initially — and remain essentially — social.

Ethnic divisions are often exploited for political and religious gain:

“The elites of Cameroon…instigate or worsen inter-ethnic divisions for personal gain. The public powers clearly draw an advantage from the disorder provoked by the elites, to the extent that ethnic manipulation has become a business for most politicians and senior government officials.”

>> read the whole story at IPS News

>> Democratization and Ethnic Rivalries in Cameroon (Collection of papers denouncing the different faces of the political corruption of ethnicity in Cameroon, since the early hours of democracy. Examines the role played by the media in the exacerbation of ethnic rivalries; the survival of ethnic taxonomies in the post-colonial state etc)

>> News from Cameroon

Links updated 5.9.2019

SEE ALSO:

Thomas Hylland Eriksen: A non-ethnic state for Africa?

Turning away from ethnicity as explanatory model

Thomas Hylland Eriksen: Ethnic identity, national identity and intergroup conflict: The significance of personal experiences

Who Are the Rioters in France? The protests can’t be explained by religion, culture or by pointing to that the rioters are immigrants

According to official statistics, Cameroon's population of about 16.5 million encompasses 350 ethnic groups. The sporadic eruption of inter-ethnic conflict in Cameroon has prompted concern about the future of this Central African country, according to IPS writer Sylvestre Tetchiada.

The first…

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“Ethnopsychoanalyse kann Fremdes vertraut machen”

Published on by lorenz Posted in Ethnologie Sozialanthropologie Kulturanthropologie, interdiziplinär, Kultur Tradition, Wir und die Anderen

“Die Ethnopsychoanalyse ist eine Gegenbewegung, um herauszufinden, wie Fremdes vertraut werden kann”, sagte Ethnologe und Psychoanalytiker Mario Erdheim in einer Sendung im ORF ueber die Tagung “Kulturanalyse – Psychoanalyse – Sozialforschung”.

Im Wiener Volkskundemuseum wurden aus Anlass des Freud-Jahres Potenziale und Bedingungen der Nutzung psychoanalytischen Wissens für die Analyse von Kultur und Gesellschaft diskutiert. Die Ethnologie hat sich schon früh psychoanalytische Einsichten zur Theorie und Analyse von Kultur und Gesellschaft genutzt. Zwischen 1955 und 1971 unternahm einer der Begründer der Ethnopsychoanalyse, Paul Parin, gemeinsam mit seiner Frau Goldy Parin-Matthéy und Fritz Morgenthau sechs ethnopsychologische Forschungsreisen in Westafrika.

Die Ethnopsychoanalyse, so Erdheim, interessiere sich dafür, wie das Individuum Kultur erlebt. Klassisch psychoanalytisch werde danach gefragt, was bewusst erlebt werden darf, was verdrängt, was abgespalten werden muss.

Die Konfrontation mit fremden Lebensformen stößt einen Reflexionsprozess über das Eigene und das Fremde an. Die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Fremden hilft aber auch Angst zu reduzieren, eben weil es uns vertrauter wird, sagt Erdheim im ORF:

“Wenn sie etwa sehen, wie uns der Islam immer fremder wird, ist die Ethnopsychoanalyse eine Gegenbewegung, um herauszufinden, wie Fremdes vertraut werden kann”, sagt Erdheim. Das Fremde könne zwar tatsächlich gefährlich sein. Oft werden aber nur die eigenen Ängste auf das Fremde projiziert, weil sie in der eigenen Kultur nicht wahrgenommen werden können bzw. dürfen.

Die Ethnopsychoanalyse basiert stark auf der Kulturtheorie Freuds, die in den letzten Jahren starker Kritik unterzogen worden ist. Erdheim sieht darin, so der ORF, kein Problem. Freud sei ein Kind seiner Zeit gewesen, seine Worte duerfe man nicht wie eine Bibel lesen. Die Aufgabe der Nachkommenden sei es, in seinem Sinn aktuelle Fragen zeitgemäß zu beantworten.

>> zum Beitrag vom ORF

SIEHE AUCH:

Social Neuroscience – Psychologists neuroscientists and anthropologists together

Wenn Ethnologen mit Hirnforschern zusammenarbeiten, fliegen die Fetzen

Parapsychologie meets Ethnologie: Neues Buch von Klaus E. Müller

"Die Ethnopsychoanalyse ist eine Gegenbewegung, um herauszufinden, wie Fremdes vertraut werden kann", sagte Ethnologe und Psychoanalytiker Mario Erdheim in einer Sendung im ORF ueber die Tagung "Kulturanalyse - Psychoanalyse - Sozialforschung".

Im Wiener Volkskundemuseum wurden aus Anlass des Freud-Jahres Potenziale und…

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