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On Ethnicity, Culture, and Tribe
On Ethnicity, Culture, and ”Tribe” Sten Hagberg Purpose • Today’s lecture aims to discuss tricky concepts used in the study of African societies and cultures that still have tremendous impact on everyday life • Put forward the historical perspective on ”ethnicity”, ”culture”, and ”tribe”, as labels to portray traditional African political organization • Contextualise the texts by Evans-Pritchard, Southall, and Vail – as well as bring in how one could possibly study ethnicity today • Case-Study of Tiefo in Burkina Faso – ethnicity and politics in a home area association The term ”tribe” is no longer used by anthropologists, but it is used by many people in African countries Definitions • ”a group of people bound by common language, territory, and custom” • “a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader” • “a notional form of human social organization based on a set of smaller groups (known as bands), having temporary or permanent political integration, and defined by traditions of common descent, language, culture, and ideology” Tourist Industry and the Exotic – ”African Tribes with Traditional African Cultures” Republic of Niger – administrative categories, or How to define nomadic peoples http://extwprlegs1.fao.org/docs/pdf/ner146499.pdf Customary or traditional communities according Nigerien Law • Fraction • Quartier • Village • Tribu • Groupement Woodabe men impressing women -
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. -
Social Anthropology and Two Contrasting Uses of Tribalism in Africa Author(S): Peter P
Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History Social Anthropology and Two Contrasting Uses of Tribalism in Africa Author(s): Peter P. Ekeh Reviewed work(s): Source: Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Oct., 1990), pp. 660-700 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/178957 . Accessed: 23/01/2012 10:57 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cambridge University Press and Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Comparative Studies in Society and History. http://www.jstor.org Social Anthropology and Two ContrastingUses of Tribalismin Africa PETER P. EKEH State University of New Yorkat Buffalo A remarkablefeature of African studies has been the sharpdiscontinuities in the characterizationof transitionsin African history and society from one era to another. Thus, for an important example, colonialism has rarely been related to the previous era of the slave trade in the analysis of any dominant socioeconomic themes in Africa. Such discontinuity is significant in one importantstrand of modem African studies: The transitionfrom the lore and scholarshipof colonial social anthropologyto postcolonial forms of African studies has been stalled into a brittle break because its central focus on the "tribe" has been under attack. -
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. -
The Legacy of Michelle Rosaldo: Politics and Gender in Modern Societies Alejandro L Ugo and Bill Maurer
The Legacy of Michelle Rosaldo: Politics and Gender in Modern Societies Alejandro L ugo and Bill Maurer For the past twenty years the work of Michelle Z. Rosaldo has had a pro found impact on feminism and anthropology, both among scholars who knew and worked closely with Rosaldo, and continued her research agenda after her death in 198 1, and those, like the editors of this volume, who never knew Rosaldo but who find her work provocative and, in our own cases, were led to graduate work in feminist theory and anthropology in part because of her interventions. For both of the editors reading Ros aldo's lead essay in Woman, Culture and Society (Rosaldo and Lamphere 1974) was a defining moment in our antlu-opological educations and in our development as persons; it led us to rethink our position as gendered (male) subjects, to bring feminist analysis "home" to our everyday lives, and, ultimately, to become graduate students at Stanford University, where we studied with some of Rosaldo's colleagues and coauthors. Some of the contributors to this volume are anthropologists who knew and worked with Rosaldo (Lamphere, Collier, and Maccormack as col leagues and Gray as a student of hers) and some who had not but had relied heavily on her thinking (Diaz Barriga, Gutmann, Lugo, and Mau rer). Four of these scholars (Diaz Barriga, Gutmann, Lugo, and Maurer) are younger male ethnographers who were trained in the tradition of fem inist anthropology during the 1980s and received their Ph.D. degrees in the 1990s under female feminist anthropologists of Michelle Rosaldo's gener ation. -
Global Reconfigurations of Poverty and the Public: Anthropological Perspectives and Ethnographic Challenges
Global Reconfigurations of Poverty and the Public: Anthropological perspectives and ethnographic challenges Responsible Institution: Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen (UiB) Disciplines: Social Anthropology, History, Cultural Studies, Sociology Course Leader: Vigdis Broch-Due, Professor of International Poverty Research, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen Invited Course Leaders: Jean Comaroff, Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago Akhil Gupta, Professor and Chair, IDP South Asian Studies Department of Anthropology and International Institute, UCLA Alice O'Connor, Associate Professor,Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara & Director for the programs on Persistent Urban Poverty and International Migration at the Social Science Research Council (USA) Course Description: “The Poor”, - a group figuring so prominently in contemporary media and the discourses of aid, human rights and global insecurity, in fact consist largely of the classical subjects of anthropology. While anthropologists continue to produce ethnography about the specificities of different peoples, few address the problems that arise when all that cultural diversity is subsumed under the headings “Poverty” or “the Poor”. Anthropologists who do address questions of poverty are often sidelined in increasingly globalised policy debates that set quantitative “goals” and seek measurable formulae for attaining them. Why are anthropologists vocal on the plight of distinct peoples but silent or marginalized on the subject of the “the poor”? How do we research, theorize, let alone compose ethnographies, which focus on such a diffuse, standardised, globalised entity as “poverty” and “the poor”? Should we? And what are the consequences of remaining on the sidelines? These questions outline the analytical challenges of this PhD course. -
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. -
'Anthropologists Are Talking': About Anthropology and Post-Apartheid
This article was downloaded by: [Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo] On: 21 March 2012, At: 01:09 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/retn20 ‘Anthropologists Are Talking’: About Anthropology and Post- Apartheid South Africa Sindre Bangstad a , Thomas Hylland Eriksen a , John L. Comaroff b & Jean Comaroff b a University of Oslo, Norway b University of Chicago, USA Available online: 19 Mar 2012 To cite this article: Sindre Bangstad, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, John L. Comaroff & Jean Comaroff (2012): ‘Anthropologists Are Talking’: About Anthropology and Post- Apartheid South Africa, Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, 77:1, 115-136 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2011.590218 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms- and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. -
Haney Foundation Series : Ethnography in Today's World : Color
Ethnography in Today’s World ................. 18429$ $$FM 05-28-13 10:19:34 PS PAGE i HANEY FOUNDATION SERIES A volume in the Haney Foundation Series, established in 1961 with the generous support of Dr. John Louis Haney ................. 18429$ $$FM 05-28-13 10:19:34 PS PAGE ii Ethnography in Today’s World Color Full Before Color Blind Roger Sanjek UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS PHILADELPHIA ................. 18429$ $$FM 05-28-13 10:19:34 PS PAGE iii Copyright ᭧ 2014 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112 www.upenn.edu/pennpress Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10987654321 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sanjek, Roger, 1944– Ethnography in today’s world : color full before color blind / Roger Sanjek.—1st ed. p. cm. — (Haney foundation series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8122-4545-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Ethnology—United States—Methodology. 2. Ethnology—Methodology. 3. Anthropology—United States—Methodology. 4. Anthropology—Methodology. I. Title. GN345.S255 2014 305.800973—dc23 2013019444 ................. 18429$ $$FM 05-28-13 10:19:35 PS PAGE iv For my teachers: Anne Schwerner, Robert Stigler, Marvin Harris, Lambros Comitas, Jaap van Velsen, George C. Bond, Allen Johnson ................. 18429$ $$FM 05-28-13 10:19:35 PS PAGE v This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix PART I. -
Segmentary Versus Centralized States Among the Ancient Maya
Anthropology Faculty Publications Anthropology 12-1-1996 Questions of Political and Economic Integration: Segmentary versus Centralized States Among the Ancient Maya John W. Fox Garrett W. Cook Arlen F. Chase University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [email protected] Diane Z. Chase University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/anthro_fac_articles Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Repository Citation Fox, J. W., Cook, G. W., Chase, A. F., Chase, D. Z. (1996). Questions of Political and Economic Integration: Segmentary versus Centralized States Among the Ancient Maya. Current Anthropology, 37(5), 795-801. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/204563 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Article in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Article has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Questions of Political and Economic Integration: Segmentary Versus Centralized States among the Ancient Maya Author(s): John W. Fox, Garrett W. Cook, Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. -
Thomas Kerlin Park Chronology of Education University of Wisconsin - Madison Ph.D
Curriculum Vita: Thomas Kerlin Park Chronology of Education University of Wisconsin - Madison Ph.D. Anthropology and History 1983 M.A. Agricultural Economics 1982 M.A. Anthropology 1977 McGill University, Montreal, Canada B.A. 1st Class Honors in Anthropology and Philosophy 1974 University of Bergen, Norway Studied Anthropology 1971-2 Thesis: Administration and the Economy: Morocco 1880 to 1980. The case of Essaouira. 592pp. Ph.D. thesis in Anthropology and History, (Directed by Aidan W. Southall and Jan Vansina) University of Wisconsin- Madison. Employment 1992-> Associate Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology and Associate Research Social Scientist, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology; University of Arizona. 1986-1992 Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology and Assistant Research Social Scientist, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology; University of Arizona. Summer 1990 Faculty Associate, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University. 1990-> Member Core Consulting Faculty, Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison Spring 1986 Visiting Assistant Professor, Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison 1984 - 1985 Project Coordinator for research on land tenure in Mauritania. Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Honors, Awards, Scholarships, and Fellowships 1997 June, Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change. Bloomington, IN 1993 Summer, Fulbright Exchange Scholar Cairo, Egypt. 1981-82 National Resource (HEA) Arabic U of W - Madison 1979-80 Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Morocco 1979-81 Social Science Research Council Dissertation Morocco 1978-79 National Defense Foreign Language Arabic U of W - Madison 1977-78 National Defense Foreign Language Arabic U of W - Madison 1976-77 National Defense Foreign Language Arabic U of W - Madison 1975-76National Defense Foreign Language Arabic U of W - Madison 1974 Graduated First Class Joint Honors Anthropology & Philosophy McGill U.