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Sociological Theory and Philosophical Analysis Other Books by Dorothy Emmet
Sociological Theory and Philosophical Analysis Other books by Dorothy Emmet Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism The Nature of Metaphysical Thinking Function, Purpose and Powers Rules, Roles and Relations Space, Time and Deity (editor) Sociological Theory and Philosophical Analysis A Collection Edited with an Introduction by DOROTHY EMMET and ALASDAIR MACINTYRE Palgrave Macmillan ® Editorial matter and selection Dorothy Emmet and Alasdair MacIntyre 1970 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means without permission. First published 1970 by MACMILLAN AND CO LTD London and Basingstoke AssoC£ated companies in Toronto Dublin Melbourne Johannesburg and Madras ISBN 978-0-333-10522-1 ISBN 978-1-349-15388-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-15388-6 The Papermac edition of this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Contents Introduction IX 1 Concept and Theory Formation in the Social Sciences Alfred Schutz 1 2 Is it a Science? Sidney Morgenbesser 20 3 Knowledge and Interest Jurgen Habermas 36 4 Sociological Explanation Tom Burns 55 5 Methodological Individualism Reconsidered Steven Lukes 76 6 The Problem of Rationality in the Social World Alfred Schutz 89 7 Concepts and Society Ernest Gellner 115 8 Symbols in Ndembu Ritual Victor Turner 150 9 Telstar and the Aborigines or La pensee sauvage Edmund Leach 183 10 Groote Eylandt Totemism and Le Totemisme aujourd'hui Peter Worsley 204 List of Contributors 223 Bibliography 225 Index 229 v Acknowledgements Acknowledgements for permission to reprint the papers in this collection are made to the following: For 'Concept and Theory Formation in the Social Sciences' and 'The Problems of Rationality in a Social World', to Martinus Nijhoff. -
Redalyc.Entrevista Con Fredrik Barth
AIBR. Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana ISSN: 1695-9752 [email protected] Asociación de Antropólogos Iberoamericanos en Red Organismo Internacional Anderson, Robert Entrevista con Fredrik Barth AIBR. Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana, vol. 2, núm. 2, mayo-agosto, 2007, pp. 179-195 Asociación de Antropólogos Iberoamericanos en Red Madrid, Organismo Internacional Disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=62320203 Cómo citar el artículo Número completo Sistema de Información Científica Más información del artículo Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal Página de la revista en redalyc.org Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto Entrevista con Fredrik Barth 179 ENTREVISTA CON FREDRIK BARTH Oslo, 5 de Junio de 2005 Entrevista: Robert Anderson Traducción: Lydia Rodríguez Nota del autor: Durante una estancia en la Universidad de Cambridge en el curso 2004-2005 y mientras trabajaba en un estudio sobre los orígenes biográficos de la obra Political Systems of Highland Burma, conversé con varias personas en relación a los recuerdos que tenían de Edmund Leach. Así fue como contacté con Fredrik Barth y le pedí permiso para grabar nuestra conversación y formar parte de la serie anthropological ancestors coordinada por Alan Macfarlane en Cambridge. Tomé un vuelo directo de bajo coste a Oslo en un aeropuerto cercano a Cambridge y subí al tranvía que culmina la ladera de las montañas desde las que se divisa Oslo. Esa brillante y soleada mañana entré en la casa donde vive desde 1961. El profesor Barth, entonces con 77 años de edad, acababa de regresar de un tribunal de tesis en la Universidad de Bergen. -
North American Academic Research Introduction
+ North American Academic Research Journal homepage: http://twasp.info/journal/home Research Between the Forest and the Village: the New Social Forms of the Baka’s Life in Transition Richard Atimniraye Nyelade 1,2* 1This article is an excerpt of my Master thesis in Visual Cultural Studies defended at the University of Tromso in Norway in December 2015 under the supervision of Prof Bjørn Arntsen 2Research Officer, Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, P.O.Box 65 Ngaoundere, Cameroon; PhD student in sociology, University of Shanghai, China *Corresponding author [email protected] Accepted: 29 February , 2020; Online: 07 March, 2020 DOI : https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3700533 Abstract: The Baka are part of hunter-gatherers group of central Africa generally called “pygmies”. They are most often presented as an indigenous, monolithic and marginalised entity. After a fieldwork carried out in Nomedjoh village in South-Easthern Cameroon, audiovisual and qualitative data have been collected. The theoretical framework follows the dichotomy between structuralism and constructivism. While the former considers identity as a sum of artefacts identifiable and transmissible from generation to generation, the latter, notably with Fredrik Barth, defines ethnicity as a heterogeneous and dynamic entity that changes according to the time and space. Beyond this controversy, the data from Nomedjoh reveal that the Baka community is characterised by two trends: while one group is longing for the integration into modernity at any cost, the other group stands for the preservation of traditional values. Hence, the Baka are in a process of transition. Keywords: Ethnicity, identity, structuralism, constructivism, transition. Introduction After the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world entered into a new era characterised by the triumph of globalisation. -
Introduction: in the Event—Toward an Anthropology of Generic Moments
IntroductIon In the Event—toward an Anthropology of Generic Moments Bruce Kapferer Against the Case as Illustration: The Event in Anthropology The exploration of events and situations has long been at the focus of anthro- pological ethnographic description. In common with many other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, this has been so in two main and frequently combined senses: (1) as exemplifications or illustrations, usually in the form of case studies, of more general ethnographic descriptive or theoretical assertions, or (2) as happenings or occasions, slices of life, that establish a conundrum or problematic that the presentation of an ethnography and its analysis will solve or otherwise explain. Most anthropological ethnographies offer examples or variations of the first. The second is relatively common, especially among histo- rians, but perhaps the work of Clifford Geertz is the most celebrated example in anthropology. An outstanding instance is Geertz’s (1980) study Negara, which opens with the mass suicide of the Balinese court before the Dutch invaders. This event sets the stage for his exploration of the Balinese theatre state, Geertz demonstrating the suicide as consistent with a Balinese political logic that pres- ents power as defined and determined in the performance of status. The concern with events and situations in this book seeks to extend beyond these more or less conventional usages and to argue for a deepening of the methodological significance of events and situations in anthropological ethno- graphic practice. The overall direction of the approach that I essay is one that takes the event as central to anthropological analysis rather than the concept of society, in relation to which the event or the event-as-case is commonly engaged, either to substantialize the abstract (society) or to provide a means to grasp the foundational or general organizational principles of society. -
Blackwell Companion to the Anthropology of Politics
1 Blackwell Companion to the Anthropology of Politics Human Rights Richard A. Wilson [email protected] I. Human Rights, Cultural Relativism and the Cold War In the middle of the twentieth century, cultural anthropology was largely hostile to the notion of human rights, but by the end of the twentieth century, the study of human rights had become a significant strand within political anthropology. This is an account of that realignment of the place of rights in the discipline from marginality to mainstream. The key to understanding anthropology's historical opposition to human rights lies in the centrality of the concept of 'culture' and the resultant adherence to a moral-ethical position of cultural relativism within the discipline during the Cold War period of 1945-1989. In the United States by the 1940s, cultural anthropology was becoming established in universities as one of the youngest of the social sciences. The founding father of modern cultural anthropology in the US was a German emigré Franz Boas (1859-1941), who carried out empirical research among Inuit (Eskimos) and North American Indians. Boas reacted against the widely accepted evolutionary theories of the time, advocated by those such as the British anthropologist Edward Tylor, the sociologist Hebert Spencer and Lewis Henry Morgan who in turn influenced Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Evolutionism broadly asserted that all societies progressed in a unilinear fashion along a scale from the most 'simple' to the most 'complex', with each stage achieving a higher level of moral and societal improvement. In the context of the European colonialism of the time, this social evolutionism involved an explicit ranking of societies which reinforced the colonial project and a sense of western superiority. -
The Making and Unmaking of Ethnic Boundaries: a Multilevel Process Theory1
The Making and Unmaking of Ethnic Boundaries: A Multilevel Process Theory1 Andreas Wimmer University of California, Los Angeles Primordialist and constructivist authors have debated the nature of ethnicity “as such” and therefore failed to explain why its charac- teristics vary so dramatically across cases, displaying different de- grees of social closure, political salience, cultural distinctiveness, and historical stability. The author introduces a multilevel process theory to understand how these characteristics are generated and trans- formed over time. The theory assumes that ethnic boundaries are the outcome of the classificatory struggles and negotiations between actors situated in a social field. Three characteristics of a field—the institutional order, distribution of power, and political networks— determine which actors will adopt which strategy of ethnic boundary making. The author then discusses the conditions under which these negotiations will lead to a shared understanding of the location and meaning of boundaries. The nature of this consensus explains the particular characteristics of an ethnic boundary. A final section iden- tifies endogenous and exogenous mechanisms of change. TOWARD A COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY OF ETHNIC BOUNDARIES Beyond Constructivism The comparative study of ethnicity rests firmly on the ground established by Fredrik Barth (1969b) in his well-known introduction to a collection 1 Various versions of this article were presented at UCLA’s Department of Sociology, the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies of the University of Osnabru¨ ck, Harvard’s Center for European Studies, the Center for Comparative Re- search of Yale University, the Association for the Study of Ethnicity at the London School of Economics, the Center for Ethnicity and Citizenship of the University of Bristol, the Department of Political Science and International Relations of University College Dublin, and the Department of Sociology of the University of Go¨ttingen. -
Information Flows in Kinship Networks
MATHEMATICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL VOLUME 1 NO. 1 PAGE 1 OF 16 NOVEMBER 2000 1 INFORMATION FLOWS IN KINSHIP NETWORKS 2 PAUL J. M. JORION MAISON DES SCIENCES DE L'HOMME 54 BOULEVARD RASPAIL, PARIS 75006 [email protected] Abstract: The capacity of kinship networks to be multi-functional, i.e. to shape other domains of the social life such as religion or the economy, reflects their function of channeling information flows. The more tightly the kinship network is structured into self-reproducing exogamous units, the better it resists the historical trend of losing its function as information channel and jointly its grip on the other aspects of the social life. For kinship networks to hold their multi-functionality, do actors need to be aware of their structure? In other terms, do the rules need to be explicit and followed in full awareness by the participants to the network? Or are the structuring principles able to operate behind the scenes even when their subjective representation is absent? The author reports on this the views expressed in personal conversations by his former professors: Lévi-Strauss, Fortes, Leach, Needham, Goody, Barnes and Macfarlane. In supporting the second view, that the awareness of the actors is indifferent, quantitative anthropology and psychoanalysis reveal their surprising affinity. Introduction Kinship networks are here envisaged with the emphasis put on their capacity of representing the transmission of information flows. This is somewhat artificial and reductive -
Owh6sigrist 01.Pdf
Christian Sigrist: Segmentary Societies: The Evolution and Actual Relevance of an Interdisciplinary Conception. in: Bernhard Streck (Hg.): Segmentation und Komplementarität. Organisatorische, ökonomische und kulturelle Aspekte der Interaktion von Nomaden und Sesshaften. Beiträge der Kolloquia am 25.10.2002 und 27.06.2003. Halle 2004 (Orientwissenschaftliche Hefte 14; Mitteilungen des SFB „Differenz und Integration“ 6) S. 3–31. © Christian Sigrist 2004 Segmentary Societies: The Evolution and Actual Relevance of an Interdisciplinary Conception* Christian Sigrist 1. The evolution of the conception in a colonial context and its sociological and anthropological roots In the first year of the Second World War Meyer Fortes and Edward Evans-Pritchard published a reader on African Political Systems (APS) as an attempt to bring into focus one of the major problems of “African sociology” (1940: VII): This epistemic designation appears to be remark- able. The editors could have named it as well: African ethnology. The deviation from academic routine corresponded on the one hand to the epistemological orientation of the “British School” of social anthropology. On the other hand, it ostentatively elevated African societies on the same cognitive level as “advanced” industrial societies paying tribute to rising sensitivity among African intellectuals. And thirdly, the title reflects acute political concerns of colonial policy, particularly in the field of indirect rule. The authors drew attention to the contradictory results of British interventions in the domain of indirect rule in different types of societies. Whereas non-centralised societies were exposed to a process of centralisa- tion by the introduction of chieftainship, in the centralised ones the power of traditional chiefs was diminished. -
1 HIST 2732: Power & Inequality Core Course Fall 2016, University of Pittsburgh Mondays, 1-3:30 Pm Instructor: Lara Putnam
HIST 2732: Power & Inequality Core Course Fall 2016, University of Pittsburgh Mondays, 1-3:30 pm Instructor: Lara Putnam, [email protected] Office Hours: Mondays 10 am-noon and by appointment Posvar 3702 How have scholars approached the study of power and inequality? How has historical research incorporated and added to theoretical insights coming from other disciplines in this regard? This seminar focuses on four distinct dimensions of power and inequality—class, race/ethnicity, gender, and global disparities—each of which has inspired wide-ranging academic debate on definitions, mechanisms, and the possibility of change. We will survey key scholarly interventions generated by historians, sociologists, anthropologists, feminist theorists, critical geographers, and others, giving priority to the last two decades of theoretical debate and empirical investigation. How are systematic patterns of inequality generated and sustained? What roles do cultural beliefs, social practice, political institutions, and macroeconomics play? How do different kinds of inequality—such as those around class, racism, ethnicity, and gender—interact? How do differently scaled systems of inequality—within the household, community, nation, and international system—interrelate? This course counts towards certificate programs in Cultural Studies, Gender Sexuality and Women’s Studies, and Latin American Studies. Course calendar: 1. Aug. 29: Introduction 2. Sept. 12: Class: Marx and Marxian debates a. Anthony Giddens and David Held, eds., Classes, Power, and Conflict: Classical and Contemporary Debates (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982). 3. Sept. 19: Class: Thompson and Thompsonian approaches. Note: Lisa Lindsay will join our seminar discussion of her book. a. E. P. Thompson, “Preface,” in The Making of the English Working Class (IICA, 1963), 9-14. -
Swedish Anthropology: Past and Present Ulf Hannerz | Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University
kritisk etnografi – Swedish Journal of Anthropology VOL. 1, NO. 1, 55-68 URN: URN:NBN:SE:UU:DIVA-355995 Swedish Anthropology: Past and Present Ulf Hannerz | Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University I have been in Swedish anthropology, and what went before it, for well over half a century now. What follows is an assemblage of recollections, opinions and attempted overview.1 It was the early 1960s. I was nineteen, an undergraduate newcomer at Stockholm University, and without definite plans for how I would spend my life. But I had become interested in Africa – a “wind of change” was blowing through the continent, as one British prime minister commented when he witnessed a large part of the Empire turning independent. What could I do at the university to satisfy my curiosity? Not much, it seemed. In the early 1960s, the human sciences at Swedish universities were mostly complacently inward-turning, occasionally concerning themselves with European themes, casting a glance toward North America mostly as it related to Swedish emigration as a topic in history, but certainly not paying much attention to the rest of the world. So I decided to spend a term taking the introductory course, and whatever else might be on offer, in the discipline known as General and Comparative Ethnography. (The term “anthropology” was at the time officially connected only to “physical anthropology,” a quaint one-man enterprise in a back alley of Swedish academic life, engaging in skull measurements and self-publishing text books.) I believe there were twelve of us taking the course. Beyond a sort of academic legitimation, however, this did not offer much of a response to my kind of African interests either. -
Neurobiology, Empathy and Social Cognition: the Potential Benefits of Theatre in Traumatised Communities
Neurobiology, Empathy and Social Cognition: the potential benefits of theatre in traumatised communities. Adrian Galley GLLADR002 A dissertation submitted in fullfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts in Drama DRM01 Faculty of the Humanities University of Cape Town 2012 University of Cape Town COMPULSORY DECLARATION This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature: Signature Removed Date: 1 Abstract The ubiquity of technology enables unprecedented contact between people, yet it neglects essential face-to-face communion; e-mail, text-messaging and even social media strip away the metadata of our interpersonal communications; the emotional cues and clues that are a necessary part of everyday social interaction. At the same time, the relentless densification of urban populations enforces proximity among strangers, with routine encounters increasingly bereft of emotional nourishment. The affective numbing that ensues shares many characteristics of post-traumatic stress disorder. The current study explores how exposure to theatre may help to maintain the emotional health of individuals alienated by the stresses of 21st century urban living; moreover, it examines how performance is able to facilitate emotional and social healing in post-conflict communities. An examination of the scientific literature reveals the evolution of emotion as part of a neurobiological mechanism facilitating social cognition. Tracing the progress of philosophical attitudes towards affect, one finds a pervasive wariness that is consistently reflected in the development of the performing arts from classical times to the present. -
Co-Laborative Anthropology Crafting Reflexivities Experimentally
Secondary publication on the edoc server of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Chapter in an edited volume Co-laborative anthropology Crafting reflexivities experimentally Jörg Niewöhner∗ 2016 This is the submitted, english-language manuscript (preprint) of the published chap- ter in an edited volume as follows: Title Yhteistyöstävä Antropologia [Co-laborative anthropology] Subtitle Kuinka edistää refleksiivisyyttä kokeellisesti [Crafting reflex- ivities experimentally] Author Niewöhner, Jörg Date of publication 2016 Title of the edited volume Etnologinen tulkinta ja analyysi: Kohti avoimempaa tutkimus- prosessia [Ethnological interpretation and analysis: Towards a transparent research process] Editors Jouhki, Jukka; Steel, Tytti Pages 81–125 Publisher Ethnos ∗[email protected]; ORCiD: 0000-0002-9034-9761 CO-LABORATIVE ANTHROPOLOGY: CRAFTING REFLEXIVITIES EXPERIMENTALLY Jörg Niewöhner The Finnish translation of this piece has been published in: Jukka Jouhki and Tytti Steel (2016) Ethnologinen tulkinta ja analyysi. Kohti avoimempaa tutkimusprosessia. Ethnos, Helsinki: 81-125. Introduction: why co-laborate? Anthropology is concerned with liVed sociality, i.e. humans liVing in groups. It wants to understand how humans arrange themselVes within particular environments as well as the dynamics of these arrangements. This is a straightForward research question – and a grand challenge. It is particularly grand For social and cultural anthropologists considering that they tend to work alone with little more support than a Field notebook and a pencil. It is thus perhaps disciplinary prudence that most practitioners of anthropology today consider addressing this question futile if not dangerous. The history of anthropology shows how attempts at grand explanations or narratiVes remain contingent and ethically disputable. Practitioners Feel more comFortable in their respectiVe specialty niches.