The Anthropological Lens

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Morton
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Social Accountability ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Local People ◽  
South Sudanese ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Encounters ◽  
Anthropological Literature ◽  
Insight Into

Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973) is widely considered the most influential British anthropologist of the twentieth century, known to generations of students for his seminal works on South Sudanese ethnography Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (OUP 1937) and The Nuer (OUP 1940). In these works, now classics in the anthropological literature, Evans-Pritchard broke new ground on questions of rationality, social accountability, kinship, social and political organization, and religion, as well as influentially moving the discipline in Britain away from the natural sciences and towards history. Yet despite much discussion about his theoretical contributions to anthropology, no study has yet explored his fieldwork in detail in order to get a better understanding of its historical contexts, local circumstances or the social encounters out of which it emerged. This book then is just such an exploration, of Evans-Pritchard the fieldworker through the lens of his fieldwork photography. Through an engagement with his photographic archive, and by thinking with it alongside his written ethnographies and other unpublished evidence, the book offers a new insight into the way in which Evans-Pritchard’s theoretical contributions to the discipline were shaped by his fieldwork and the numerous local people in Africa with whom he collaborated. By writing history through field photographs we move back towards the fieldwork experiences, exploring the vivid traces, lived realities and local presences at the heart of the social encounter that formed the basis of Evans-Pritchard’s anthropology.

scholarly journals Private Lives, Public Histories: The Diary in Twentieth-Century Britain

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Moran
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Private Lives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Private Citizens ◽  
Mass Circulation ◽  
Public Archives ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractThis article examines the growth of interest in diary keeping in twentieth-century Britain. It explores how diary keeping by private citizens was encouraged in the first part of the century by mass-circulation newspapers, diary manufacturers, diary anthologists like Arthur Ponsonby, and the social research organization Mass Observation in response to changing notions of the self, privacy, and daily life. It discusses the ways in which, in the context of a growing interest in public archives, these private diaries have more recently been imagined as compelling forms of historical evidence, as well as some of the problems of organization and interpretation that these kinds of texts present. I argue that the inherently opaque and incomplete nature of private diaries means that they can add nuance to our understanding of the recent past and offer insight into the randomness and singularity of everyday experience as it is being lived.

scholarly journals Boarding and lodging practices in early twentieth-century Scotland

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
JEFF MEEK
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
North America ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Economic Importance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Position ◽  
Insight Into

ABSTRACTThe social and economic position of lodgers in Europe and North America has attracted considerable scholarship, yet the financial and interpersonal relationships between lodgers and boarders and their hosts in working-class homes is somewhat underdeveloped. This article examines patterns of lodging and boarding in working-class homes in Scotland between 1861 and 1911, focusing upon multiple layers of connection between paying guests and householders. This article demonstrates that connections had national and ethnic roots, and that taking in lodgers and boarders was of prime cultural and economic importance for many. The ability to offer space played a crucial role in the social and economic status of single, separated and widowed women, and this article offers an insight into the sometimes troubled relationships between landladies and their tenants.

“Savage Beasts,” “Great Companions”: The First Dogs to Winter on the Antarctic Continent

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 651-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Patterson ◽  
Janette G. Simmonds ◽  
Tristan L. Snell
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Nonhuman Animal ◽  
Interspecies Interactions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Antarctic Continent ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Antarctic Environment

Abstract By investigating the nature of the social interactions between “sledge dogs” and explorers in the first land-based exploration in Antarctica, this research contributes to an animal-human perspective in Antarctic historical studies. Consideration of the interspecies interactions provide further insight into attitudes to nonhuman animal welfare, including towards wildlife, at the turn of the twentieth century. The companionship of favored animals appeared to have alleviated some of the stresses of isolation and confinement in the inhospitable Antarctic environment.

Wantok and Lain ‐ a look at two Melanesian cultural concepts in two Tok Pisin texts

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-156
Author(s):  
Paweł Kornacki
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
World View ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Cultural Concepts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Anthropological Literature ◽  
Bride Price ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Group Family

Abstract This article looks at salient interpersonal uses and meanings of two prominent Tok Pisin social relations nouns ‐ wantok ('friend', 'same language speaker') and lain ('group', 'family', 'clan') ‐ which it is proposed exemplify key cultural Melanesian concepts in some anthropological literature of the area. Whereas certain aspects of language use in Tok Pisin were identified as potentially divisive and socially harmful, some scholars endeavoured to identify a group of concepts indicative of culturally specific Melanesian values. For example, the words wantok and lain were claimed to jointly represent 'the value of the clan' across Melanesian societies, while embodying and supporting a distinct world-view of the Melanesian peoples. This article studies two Tok Pisin texts which focus on the cultural significance of concepts of wantok and lain in their rural/traditional environment. While the first text offers a native speaker's insight into the social significance of the cultural expression wantok sistem ('system favouring friends'), the other one details the roles of lain in the passage of a bride-price ceremony. Given that both texts presuppose the cultural background of rural Tok Pisin, a brief look at some characteristic usage of the two words in electronic media suggests that certain aspects of traditional uses and meanings of these words may be extended and employed to conceptualize new social and political phenomena.

Drugs’ Life: Accessibility and Use of Biomedical Drugs in Myanmar

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celine Coderey
Keyword(s):  
Local People ◽  
Geographical Proximity ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Social ◽  
Biographical Approach ◽  
Economic Reality ◽  
Cultural Affinity ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Anthropological Literature

Based on the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Rakhine State (Western Myanmar), this article aims to define the local accessibility of biomedical drugs and the use people make of them. Following the ‘biographical’ approach developed by Van der Geest and his colleagues (1989, 1996, 2002), the article shows how the appropriation by local people of biomedical drugs is very much determined by the social, cultural and economic reality in which people live, their personal biographies, their past experiences, as well as the relation they have with the medicines deliverers and the degree of trust, familiarity, socio-cultural affinity and geographical proximity characterizing relations. This analysis intends to fill a gap in the anthropological literature on contemporary Myanmar where the topic of biomedical drugs remains largely unexplored.

Alice Bálint and Her Diaries: ‘… This little fixation seems to remain …’

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Borgos
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Object Relations ◽  
Jewish Woman ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
Insight Into

This article reconstructs Alice Bálint's personal and professional development, dilemmas and attachments, relying on her recently revealed diaries kept between 1917 and 1929. They are an especially interesting document in many respects, touching upon politics, love, womanhood and profession. The year 1923 consists of her entries during her analysis with Ferenczi, dissecting the tensions in her most significant ‘object relations’ – her analyst, her husband and her mother. These notes demonstrate how her conflicts with sexuality, motherhood and profession relate to her attitude to the analysis and Ferenczi himself. The more general ‘yield’ of the diaries is to provide a valuable insight into the social and political circumstances of early twentieth-century Hungary and its opportunities and limitations for a (middle-class, Jewish) woman with diverse talents and intellectual ambitions.

Social Stratification and Political Power

1952 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard Bendix
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Interest Representation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tacit Assumptions ◽  
Number Of Individuals ◽  
Insight Into

Contemporary studies of political power have often been based on the belief that the major determinants in the struggle for power may be ascertained by analyzing the social stratification of a society. This belief is supported by the following series of more or less tacit assumptions: The ideas and actions of men are conditioned by their social and economic position in society. When large number of individuals occupy a comparable social position, they may be expected to think and act alike. They are likely to share social and economic interests which are promoted—in competition or conflict with other social groups—through political organization and interest-representation. Hence, a study of politics should be concerned with the social composition of the members and leaders of different political organizations; this kind of knowledge will provide a clue to the power which such organizations can exert and to the political goals which their leaders are likely to pursue.I wish to examine the relation between stratification and politics in four respects:(1) How did Marx deal with the problem of social stratification and political power?(2) What insight into the relation between stratification and politics can be gained from retrospective investigations?(3) Does a knowledge of social stratification enable us to understand the development of totalitarian movements and their conquest of power?

The Search for a Foundation of the Human Sciences and the Social Sciences in Neo-Kantianism and Dilthey, and Husserl’s Exploration of Consciousness

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vittorio Hösle
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Edmund Husserl ◽  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Laboratory Work ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Traditional Concept ◽  
Wilhelm Dilthey ◽  
The Social

This chapter begins with a discussion of Neo-Kantianism. It then covers the works of Wilhelm Windelband (1848–1915) and Heinrich Rickert (1863–1936), the most important representatives of the second branch of Neo-Kantianism, the Baden School, which is concerned with the philosophical grounding of the human sciences and the social sciences as distinct from the natural sciences. It also looks at the work of Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911) who had, before Neo-Kantianism, attempted to ground the human sciences in an “understanding psychology” that was not based on laboratory work but guided by a philosophy focused on the meaning of life; and that of Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), the most important critic and stimulator of Dilthey, and probably the twentieth-century thinker who remained most loyal to the traditional concept of reason.

The Changing Face of Irish Ireland: Séamus Ó Grianna's and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne's Fictions of the Donegal Gaeltacht

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-380
Author(s):  
Ríona Nic Congáil
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Irish Language ◽  
Shared Interest ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Historical Fact ◽  
Insight Into

Séamus Ó Grianna and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, whose lifespans overlapped only briefly, rank among the most prolific Irish writers of the twentieth century. Their bilingualism, moreover, offers them access to two languages, cultures, and viewpoints. Their shared interest in the Donegal Gaeltacht during the revivalist period, and their use of fiction to explore and represent it, provide their readers with a remarkable insight into the changing ideologies of twentieth-century Ireland, and particularly Irish-Ireland, touching on broad issues that are linguistic, cultural, political, gendered, and spatial. This essay begins by analyzing the narrative similarities between Ó Grianna's Mo Dhá Róisín and Ní Dhuibhne's Hiring Fair Trilogy, and proceeds to examine how both writers negotiate historical fact, the Irish language, the performance of Gaelic culture, the burgeoning women's movement, and the chasm between rural and urban Ireland of the revival. Through this approach, the essay demonstrates that the fictions of these two writers reveal as much about their own agendas and the dominant ideas of the epoch in which they were writing, as they do about life in the Donegal Gaeltacht in the early twentieth century.

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