Lecture 13: World Anthropologies and Review

1. SC2218: Anthropology andSC2218: Anthropology and
the Human Conditionthe Human Condition
Lecture 13: World Anthropologies,Lecture 13: World Anthropologies,
Review of LecturesReview of Lectures
Eric C. ThompsonEric C. Thompson
Semester 1, 2010/2011Semester 1, 2010/2011

2. The Final Lecture…The Final Lecture…
• Challenges for Anthropology Today
• World Anthropologies
• Reflections on the Course
– A Rapid Review
– What to Make of Anthropology?

3. Anthropology in the 21Anthropology in the 21stst
CenturyCentury
Three Challenges to Anthropology:
• 1. The Human Challenge
– Who are the anthropologists of the 21st
century?
– How and why does it matter who the anthropologists are?
• 2. The Theoretical Challenge
– What are anthropology’s major theoretical frameworks?
– How will they change and how are they relevant to contemporary
questions?
• 3. The Empirical Challenge
– How is the world changing?
– How is anthropology relevant in a new kind of world?

4. In a changing world,In a changing world,
how shall anthropologyhow shall anthropology
get on with the job?get on with the job?

5. Who are the Anthropologists?Who are the Anthropologists?
“Strangers Abroad” and Others . . .“Strangers Abroad” and Others . . .

6. The Human Challenge:The Human Challenge:
Anthropologists in the 21Anthropologists in the 21stst
CenturyCentury
Three Models of Anthropologists:
• “Colonial Encounters”
– 19th
& 20th
Century historical roots of
Anthropology
– Rivers, Evans-Pritchard
• “Native” Anthropologists
– Non-Europeans studying their “own” society
from an anthropological perspective.
– George Hunt, John Waiko
• Post-colonial “Strangers Abroad”
– Anthropology in a post-colonial, global era
– Beyond a North-South, West-East relationship
– Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh
John Waiko

7. ““A Man without Pigs”A Man without Pigs”
• How does John Waiko’s approach to anthropology compare to that of
other anthropologists we have studied in this course? What are some
of the similarities and differences? How does John Waiko’s
experience compare to that of other “strangers abroad”?
• What is John Waiko’s status in his home village? How does that
compare with and relate to his status outside his village?
• What sort of politics and economics do you see in action in the film?
How would a structural or structural-functional analysis help us to
understand Bendari political-economy? How would a poststructural
(discursive, historical) analysis help? What would be key features to
focus on in each type of analysis?
• How is the system of debts and relationships changing? Why?

8. American Anthropology, c.2010American Anthropology, c.2010
• Early 20th
century: Anglo-American
Anthropology (British & American)
• Late 20th
century: American anthropology
became dominant; British anthropology
declined in prominence.
• American Anthropology is the most
influential anthropology worldwide today.
• What are recent trends in American
Anthropology?

9. Twenty-three Influential ScholarsTwenty-three Influential Scholars
in American Anthropology Todayin American Anthropology Today
• Survey of Graduate Students (October 2010)*
• Venerable Generation (pre-1970s PhD)
– Benedict Anderson, Talal Asad, Mikhail Bakhtin,
Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Clifford Geertz,
David Harvey, Edward Said
• Senior Generation (1970s PhD)
– Arjun Appadurai, Joan Comaroff, John Comaroff,
Veena Das, Bruno Latour, George Marcus, Sherry
Ortner, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Michael Taussig
• Recent Generation (1980s PhD)
– Phillippe Bourgois, James Ferguson, Akhil Gupta,
Webb Keane, Anna Tsing, Aihwa Ong
*Survey of Six leading graduate schools in cultural anthropology.
Conducted by NUS Graduate students in SC6212: The Anthropological Perspective.

10. Who is Shaping American Anthropology?Who is Shaping American Anthropology?
(Based on List of 23 Scholars)(Based on List of 23 Scholars)
• Nationalities: American(7), French(3), Indian(3),
British(2), South African(2), Australian(1), Malaysian(1),
Palestinian(1), Saudi(1)
• 17 Men, 6 Women
– All 7 of the “venerable” generation are men.
– 9 men, 6 Women in more recent generations.
– In 6 departments surveyed, faculty members are 61
men and 60 women; those with PhD’s since 1991, 29
women and 14 men.
• Disciplines: American Anthropology(11), British
Anthropology(4), French Sociology(3), Literary
Theory(2), Geography(1), Indian Social Anthropology(1),
Politics(1)

11. Trends by PhD FieldTrends by PhD Field
• PhD Fields by Generation:
– Pre-1970s: French Sociology(2), Literary
Theory(2), American Anthropology(1), British
Anthropology(1), Geography(1), Politics(1)
– 1970s: American Anthropology(4), British
Anthropology(3), French Sociology(1), Indian
Social Anthropology(1)
– 1980s: American Anthropology(6)
• Few anthropologists in pre-1970s generation.
• None trained outside American Anthropology in
most recent generation; but several “immigrant
anthropologists” (not American by birth).

12. Trends in American AnthropologyTrends in American Anthropology
• Few anthropologists from pre-1970s
• Influence of French Sociology (Bourdieu,
Foucault, Latour)
• Declining influence of British Anthropology
• Rising influence of anthropologists and
others from former British colonies (India,
Malaysia, Palestine, Middle East)

13. Two TrendsTwo Trends
• American Anthropology becoming more
International
• Development of World Anthropologies

14. The Theoretical Challenge:The Theoretical Challenge:
Culture, Discourse, & TheoryCulture, Discourse, & Theory
Evolving Anthropological Theory:
• 19th
Century: Race
• 20th
Century: Culture
• 21st
Century: Discourse, Power
• New concepts and ways of understanding
human diversity evolve out of ongoing
empirical research and theoretical
reflection.

15. Evolving Anthropological Theory:Evolving Anthropological Theory:
• 19th
Century: Race
– Human behavior and variation explained by biology
• 20th
Century: Culture
– Human behavior and variation explained by symbolic
systems (culture) and human relationships (society)
• 21st
Century: Discourse, Power
– Culture is a process, always changing, always in
motion; not a fixed thing, structure or ‘product’ (see:
film “Sight Unseen”)
– Culture is not neutral. It involves Power; contested
ideas of understanding of ourselves and others.

16. Trends in American AnthropologyTrends in American Anthropology
Theory and Practice, 1980 - NowTheory and Practice, 1980 - Now
• Critique of Traditional Anthropology
• Postcolonialism
• Postmodernism
• Poststructuralism, Discourse
• Nationalism, Imagined Communities
• Globalization
• Neoliberalism
• Applied/Action Anthropology

17. The Empirical Challenge:The Empirical Challenge:
Globalization & PostmodernityGlobalization & Postmodernity
• Historically, anthropology has focused on (cultural)
difference associated with (relative) isolation.
• Radical “time-space” compression is a hallmark of
globalization and postmodernity.*
(*See for example: Arjun Appadurai (1996) Modernity at Large; David Harvey (1989) The
Condition of Postmodernity)
• Anthropologist now must apply their concepts
(culture, social structure, discourse, etc.) and
develop new concepts for understanding
phenomena such as:
– Mass Culture (mass communications, television, etc.)
– Multiple identities (e.g. John Waiko: Professor of Anthropology,
Member of a Binandere Clan)

18. What to make of
ANTHROPOLOGY?

19. 1st Generation
Cultural Structures
(Grammars, Words, Styles, Signifiers)
1st Generation
Agents (Subjects/Individuals)
(Drawing on the Structures to relate to others, influence
action, interpret meanings – their own and others)
Culture as an Iterative Process
Agents are “Subjects” of (“subject to”) cultural structures – they
cannot operate meaningfully outside of the structure.
Cultural Structures are emergent structures, dependent on the
agents for their existence.

20. 1st Generation
Cultural Structures
1st Generation
Agents (Subjects)
2nd Generation
Agents (Subjects)
2nd Generation
Cultural Structures
Culture always changes,
CULTURE IS WHAT YOU
MAKE IT!

21. AnthropologyAnthropology
anthropos = humankind
logia = study of
the study of YOU, AND
ME AND ALL OF US

22. AND NOW…AND NOW…
A RAPID REVIEWA RAPID REVIEW
Email:Email: socect@nus.edu.sgsocect@nus.edu.sg
For consultation duringFor consultation during
Reading WeekReading Week

23. AnthropologyAnthropology
anthropos = humankind
logia = study of
the study of people

24. The Objective of AnthropologyThe Objective of Anthropology
• Why do people do the things they do?
• Before Modern Anthropology:
– Because of their race (biology).
– Because they are less intelligent.
– Because they are superstitious.
– Because they are primitive or less evolved.
• Modern Anthropology: Culture
• Current Anthropology: Discourse, Power

25. Themes: Major Topics that AnthropologistsThemes: Major Topics that Anthropologists
study from a Cultural Perspectivestudy from a Cultural Perspective
• Families and Kinship
• Gender and Sexuality
• Economics and Exchange
• Ethnicity, Race, Nationalism and other forms of
“Imagined Communities”
• Anthropologists Study many other aspects of
“the human condition”
– Medical Anthropology
– Religion
– Emotions
– Politics
– And many other topics!

26. The Concept of CultureThe Concept of Culture
• Holistic views of human affairs
(e.g. E.B. Tylor’s definition).
• Respect for cultures as unique
ways that different people have
developed.
– Boas’s attack on 19th
theories of
unilinear social evolution
– Cultures have to be understood on
their own terms (not as “stages” in
human development)
E.B. Tylor
Franz Boas

27. Dr. Eric’s definitions ofDr. Eric’s definitions of
Cultural and SocialCultural and Social
• Culture refers to our signaling systems (which,
among other things, coordinate our actions)
– Culture is learned, shared knowledge
– Cultural systems are systems of meaning
• Social refers to our behavioral systems,
specifically those behaviors through which we
relate to other people (e.g. exchanges)
– Social Systems are systems of relationship
and exchange.

28. Culture is…Culture is…
• A system of shared meanings.
• A system for signaling and reproducing
those shared meanings.
• Social-Cultural Systems:
– Kinship and Marriage
– Gender and Sexuality
– Economics and Exchange
– Communities and Identities

29. KinshipKinship
• Kinship = Social-Cultural Elaborations of
Biological Reproduction
• Marriage = Cultural recognition of a sexual
relationship; legitimization of paternity.
• Kinship is “based in” biology.
• But kinship is not determined by biology.

30. Gender and SexualityGender and Sexuality
• Gender and Sexuality are a cultural systems
“built on” sex
– They are socially and culturally constructed
• Sexual biology matters – if we were hydra or
clown fish, we would have different gender
systems or none at all.
• BUT, we can and do build many different gender
and sexual systems.

31. Economics and ExchangeEconomics and Exchange
• Economics: the study of the production,
distribution and consumption of goods and
services.
• Economy: a system of production,
distribution and consumption of goods and
services.
• Exchange:
– Distributing Goods and Services AND
– Creating/Enacting Relationships among People

32. Culture of Economics & ExchangeCulture of Economics & Exchange
• Economics does not just meet “basic needs”.
• People enact relationships based on beliefs
and knowledge (cultural models).
• Examples:
– !Xharo exchange
– Kula Ring
– Potlatch
– Wholesale Sushi
– Branding, Modern Stock Exchange, Money

33. Commodification of Human RelationshipsCommodification of Human Relationships
• Culture Values in Modern, Economically
“Rational” Markets:
• Money
– Arbitrary symbolic value based on shared
beliefs
• Commodity Fetishism
– Valuing the relationship among goods;
devaluing relationships among people

34. CommunityCommunity
• Communities are based in senses of
belonging and identity.
• Markers of commonality are arbitrary. They
are socially and culturally agreed upon.
• Communities exist because people imagine
them to exist. (They are fundamentally
cultural – shared belief, ideas, feelings).
• Communities are not “fictional”… They are
social and cultural realities.

35. The “Crisis of Representation”The “Crisis of Representation”
• How have anthropologists represented the
people they study?
• How and why are these representations
problematic?
• Issues from the reflexive “Writing Culture”
movement of the 1980s & 1990s.*
*Reflexive – an action directed or turned back on the
agent of that action; marked by or capable of reflection

36. Anthropology c.1960-1980Anthropology c.1960-1980
• Scientific, Structural-Functional Approach
• Cultural Relativism; Non-hierarchical (no culture is
better than another; they are just different)
• Non-evolutionary (rejection of unilinear evolution of
cultural ‘stages’ from 19th
c.)
• Societies and Cultures seen as “Whole”, functional,
equilibrium systems (structures) of thought and
behavior
• Most anthropologists are white (European /
American) men doing research in the “Third World”.

37. Problems c.1960-1980Problems c.1960-1980
• If cultures are whole, equilibrium systems,
how does one account for change?
• Entry of larger numbers women and non-
Europeans into anthropology, began to
question male and Euro-centric biases.
• Critique of Ethnography: Representations of
“Others” by Europeans for Europeans
• Critique of Colonialism, Anthropology’s Role
• Globalization, Urbanization, Rapid Change

38. Trends in American AnthropologyTrends in American Anthropology
Theory and Practice, 1980 - NowTheory and Practice, 1980 - Now
• Critique of Traditional Anthropology
• Postcolonialism
• Postmodernism
• Poststructuralism, Discourse
• Nationalism, Imagined Communities
• Globalization
• Neoliberalism
• Applied/Action Anthropology

39. World AnthropologiesWorld Anthropologies
• New Anthropological Traditions
• Native Anthropology
• National Anthropologies
• What is next… ?
• Networking New, World Anthropologies

40. Questions?Questions?
Email:Email: socect@nus.edu.sgsocect@nus.edu.sg
For consultation duringFor consultation during
Reading WeekReading Week