This study proposes a rereading of the documents kept in a folklore archive from Romania, with a focus on the methods used by those who drafted and archived these documents. The research demonstrates ...that, in the absence of testimonies regarding the manner in which fieldwork was conducted, the documents of the archive can provide valuable information on the field research and the vision on folklore of several generations of researchers. Thus, archives of folklore are seen as witnesses of the history of ethnology.
This article draws attention to the importance of comparative research in two neighbouring research traditions and the production of ethnological knowledge. Examining the intersections between ...Slovenian and Croatian ethnology reveals two types of parallels: the first involves intercultural comparisons in empirical research, while the second deals with patterns of knowledge production and is more focused on the theoretical and ethodological issues. They are presented through fragments in a short overview of comparatively informed intersections going back several centuries. Since the institutionalization of Slovenian and Croatian ethnology around 1900, contacts between them became more intense, which were most systematic during joint work on the Slovenian-Croatian Ethnological Parallels conference series, which has lasted for several decades (since 1981). These conferences also offer an appropriate perspective on the paradigmatic transformation of both disciplines: at the end of the 1960s and during the 1970s they were marked by the departure from the cultural historical study of folk culture, and from the 1990s onward by expansion and diversification (in terms of subject matter and methodology) of dialogue with anthropological research.
As a discipline, anthropology has increased its public visibility in recent years with its growing focus on engagement. Although the call for engagement has elicited responses in all subfields and ...around the world, this special issue focuses on engaged anthropology and the dilemmas it raises in U.S. cultural and practicing anthropology. Within this field, the authors distinguish a number of forms of engagement: (1) sharing and support, (2) teaching and public education, (3) social critique, (4) collaboration, (5) advocacy, and (6) activism. They show that engagement takes place during fieldwork; through applied practice; in institutions such as Cultural Survival, the Institute for Community Research, and the Hispanic Health Council; and as individual activists work in the context of war, terrorism, environmental injustice, human rights, and violence. A close examination of the history of engaged anthropology in the United States also reveals an enduring set of dilemmas, many of which persist in contemporary anthropological practice. These dilemmas were raised by the anthropologists who attended the Wenner-Gren workshop titled "The Anthropologist as Social Critic: Working toward a More Engaged Anthropology," January 22-25, 2008. Their papers, many of which are included in this collection, highlight both the expansion and growth of engaged anthropology and the problems its practitioners face. To introduce this collection of articles, we discuss forms of engaged anthropology, its history, and its ongoing dilemmas.
Margaret Mead Lutkehaus, Nancy C
2018, 2018., 20180626, 2008, 20080101
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world."--Margaret Mead This quotation--found on posters and bumper stickers, and adopted as the motto for hundreds of ...organizations worldwide--speaks to the global influence and legacy of the American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-78). In this insightful and revealing book, Nancy Lutkehaus explains how and why Mead became the best-known anthropologist and female public intellectual in twentieth-century America. Using photographs, films, television appearances, and materials from newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals, Lutkehaus explores the ways in which Mead became an American cultural heroine. Identifying four key images associated with her--the New Woman, the Anthropologist/Adventurer, the Scientist, and the Public Intellectual--Lutkehaus examines the various meanings that different segments of American society assigned to Mead throughout her lengthy career as a public figure. The author shows that Mead came to represent a new set of values and ideas--about women, non-Western peoples, culture, and America's role in the twentieth century--that have significantly transformed society and become generally accepted today. Lutkehaus also considers why there has been no other anthropologist since Mead to become as famous. Margaret Mead is an engaging look at how one woman's life and accomplishments resonated with the issues that shaped American society and changed her into a celebrity and cultural icon.
This article will situate Durkheim's work by revisiting two debates that influenced his attempt to define and give direction to sociology and anthropology: the debates between Durkheim and Gabriel ...Tarde and the debates between Durkheim and Arnold van Gennep. The battle between Tarde and Durkheim has in recent years been the object of several conferences and publications. This has happened alongside a much needed Tarde revival in sociology. However, Tarde was only one of Durkheim's opponents. For a long period, following Tarde's death in 1904, Arnold van Gennep represented the strongest critique of Durkheim's project. This ‘debate’ is little known among anthropologists and social scientists. The aim of this article is to situate Durkheim and the birth of the social sciences in France between both of these two figures. The aim is therefore also to bring together two disciplinary debates that for too long have been kept artificially separate in our understanding of Durkheim as ‘founding father’ of both anthropology and sociology. Arnold van Gennep and Gabriel Tarde opposed Durkheim independently from the perspectives of anthropology and sociology, but also from what can be reconstructed as a shared ‘philosophy’ of relevance still today. The article will discuss how so, and will highlight the convergences between the critiques of Durkheim offered by Tarde and van Gennep.
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