explain anthropology with a related film (The study field is ANTHROPOLOGY)
Anthropology as Cultural Analysis: Lila Abu-Lughod: Where are halfies and feminists in cultural analysis? Provocation, challenge to anthropology. Fundamental distinction between the self and the others. Ethnographies of the particular => Tactical humanism
Halfies belong to two worlds, but not completely, in between. Feminist the other is under the constant attack of the self. Conflict (discrimination, imposition, unequal rights) History of anthropology:
* Western men study non-Western “savages”, “barbarians”, whose cultures are frozen in time. Ethnographic present as a writing style as opposed to the dynamic and ever-developing Western civilization.
Anthropologists who think that they “discover”!
Colonialism, decolonization, imperialism: Edward Said’s Orientalism=> Problem of representation and interpretation
Self and Other definitions depend on which criteria even in one society, race-ethnicity/class/gender. Age and other demographic variables. Status. Subcultures, counter cultures.
Anthropologists’ multiple accountability towards their readers and cultures the study. Two groups overlap now. Discipline is reconstructed after Said.
Three ways of writing against Culture:
1) Discourse and Practice: Strategies, improvisations, rituals
and rules given different meanings, legitimizations.
2) Connections and interconnections: People, goods, ethnographers and the people they study.
3) Ethnographies of Particular: No generalization and no claim for objectivity. No hierarchical authority.
The complexity of human beings’ everyday lives and social relations. => Tactical humanism.
Understanding the others and their human rights. Convey the fragmented and fluid sense of culture. Change the politics.
Renato Rosaldo:
Anthropology, i.e. learning about the others require time and patience. High, low culture, popular culture. Same things have different meanings: Dog as a pet, hunting equipment, pig as a pet. Social boundaries in everyday life, and how we cross them. How we treat differences, don’t talk to strangers!
Classic Norms as the Lone Ethnographer working on “timeless traditional culture” in his fieldwork and “discover” the tribes.
Founding fathers, like Durkheim, trying to find out patterns and questions how to achieve social stability. 1960s and 1970s. This changed drastically. The youth movements, feminists, LGBT movements challenged all sciences and education. Cultural and social analysis are remade.
Geertz: a) Object of analysis: Anyone can study any culture.
b) The language of analysis: No longer ethnographic present, historically situated.
c) The position of the analyst: Not neutral, ever-present and increased self-awareness. Taking an analytical distance: Make familiar strange, make strange familiar.
Anthropological analysis must be something btw. museum display and garage sale.