Social and Cultural Anthropology

The purpose of this article is to share part of our collective work as a consolidated research group. This paper is included within the group’s ongoing researches all grouped in the collective project “Transformations of the Cultural Field and social middle classes”, which is subsidized by the University of Buenos Aires through the Program of Scientific subsidies 2011- 2014. In this paper we analyze some dimensions related to a certain aspect of the Cultural Consumption Survey from Buenos Aires City, which was done on 2012. The issues and topics displayed in this document refer to the following matters surrounding the cultural consumptions: the state of the art and the theoretical debates regarding the usages of the cultural consumptions, as well as the ones related to leisure, free time and public and private spaces and the commoditisation of social and cultural practices. Furthermore, the publication refers to the particular significance that the City supposes to cultural consumption and the impact of both new and old technologies in those consumptions and in daily life. Last but not least, the publication includes a section of the emerging significant in terms of consumption in cinema, books and music, taking into account new ways for the appropriation of the urban space and new life styles. Summing up, all the individual reflexions lead a consistent analysis of significant social contemporary issues, both affecting social structures and practices, in the context on an emblematic city as Buenos Aires.

Death destroys both the social being in which the collective conscience attributed importance as well as the relationship of the individual member with the group. For this reason, the social body warns the death of a member as well as a threat to their own cohesion (Hertz 1978: 12) and as a laceration whose dimensions depend on the role and from the social importance of the deceased. The funeral rituals have the purpose to restore the balance that the disappearance of an individual has caused. These rites vary according to the status and prestige of the dead

Para o estudo que segue, entendamos por Espiritismo o conjunto de expressões culturais que têm um direto vínculo filosófico, religioso e/ou moral com a codificação de uma doutrina empreendida pelo pedagogo Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail, mais conhecido como Allan Kardec, na França, em meados do século XIX. No Brasil, a cultura espírita foi implantada ainda nesse mesmo século, e desde então vem sendo influenciada por uma cultura nacional sincrética. Com sua institucionalização capitaneada pela Federação Espírita Brasileira – FEB, o Espiritismo desenvolveu-se e chegou ao Estado de Alagoas, inicialmente destacando-se na capital, Maceió. O Principal objetivo deste trabalho, foi esboçar uma identidade cultural do Espiritismo na cidade de Santana do Ipanema, no interior do Estado; para isso,  realizamos pesquisa bibliográfica e nos balizamos no método Tipológico/Weberiano para construção do referencial teórico. Passando à etapa seguinte, realizamos pesquisa de campo em uma instituição espírita naquela cidade, onde, em pesquisa participante, nos inserimos no grupo e coletamos dados de natureza qualitativa. O capítulo dissertativo final foi organizado com base nesses dados e em categorias que centralizam o ethos e a visão de mundo dos espíritas, quais sejam: “Estudo”, “Mediunidade” e “Caridade”.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Cultura Espírita; França; Brasil; Estudo de Caso; Santana do Ipanema-AL.

In this essay, I highlight the danger of cultural hegemony through unchecked globalization and the need for voice from the non-Western world in South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Globalization must incorporate local context, and global policies must take an inclusive approach that constructs dialogue from a stance of hearing.

The essay is a product of one year or work of the Ethics Fellows For The Future of Carnegie Council For Ethics In International Affairs.

Culture Matters: Constructing Real Dialogues through Local Context. In Essays by Carnegie Council's Ethics Fellows for the Future 2015. P. 16-22

In this article the author explores two strategic approaches to everyday life: objective and phenomenological. It would be easy to say that objective approach is a bad and phenomenological one is good or vice versa. Therefore the author considers the possibility to synthesize the objective and the phenomenological approaches. In the light of contemporary discussion about naturalization of phenomenology such integration could be considered as the kind of phenomenology’s naturalization. The phenomenological approach to everyday life can not be idealistic or transcendental. It needs the integration into the immediate process of everyday life. The process of objectification as the result of everyday life becomes an object. But from other side non-objectified everyday life is a phenomenon, which astonishes us. In everydayness objects and phenomena co-exist. The author comes to conclusion after synthesizing of those approaches that on the basis of it we can formulate higher level theory of everydayness, which is non-reductible. Such theory could be considered as realization of the early Husserl’s appeal: «Back to the things themselves!»

Keywords: everydayness-object, everydayness-phenomenon, higher level theory of everydayness, process of objectivation, synthesized approach

Esta dissertação aborda a constituição do camelódromo de Porto Alegre e de suas práticas de comércio popular, em sua relação com as tecnologias de (i)legibilidade produzidas na sua relação com o Estado. Este trabalho parte de uma etnografia realizada entre os anos de 2013 e 2014, que se focou tanto nas práticas e sentidos elaborados pelos comerciantes do camelódromo, quanto nas visões dos atores representantes dos órgãos de controle e vigilância estatal. A partir da perspectiva teórica de Veena Das & Deborah Poole, destaco que o Estado e suas margens interagem de forma coprodutiva. Inspirada nesta abordagem, percebendo o camelódromo como uma “margem”, objetivo demonstrar como o Estado e a margem em questão estabelecem uma relação de produção mútua a partir de suas práticas. Utilizo-me dos conceitos de (i)legibilidade e pluralismo jurídico para compreender os limites e as mobilidades de tal interação. A partir da análise dos dados coletados, pode-se depreender que o Estado é reforçado, ao mesmo passo que redefinido, pelas atividades informais do camelódromo. Por sua vez, tal fortalecimento também acontece, na relação com o Estado no comércio popular em questão, onde as tecnologias de controle estatais estimulam redes de solidariedade a se organizarem e produzirem práticas diversas, que relacionam códigos legais e condutas locais.

Palavras-chave: Estado. Camelódromo. Legibilidade. Pluralismo jurídico. Margens.

Over the past 40-some years, ‘Nature’ has entered global politics. In contentious treaty negotiations on climate change and biodiversity, governments are pressed to take action in response to planetary ecological crisis. In conservationist discourse more broadly, this upper-cased construct is represented as singular Nature under siege by Society. Nature, we are told, is damaged and becoming dangerously scarce: witness overflowing carbon sinks and imminent climate catastrophe, disappearing species and vanishing ecosystems, and insufficient land, water, and food for a burgeoning Humanity. But for whom, and why, has this Nature become scarce?

В статье рассмотрены основные черты образа тэнгу в японской мифологии и народных сказках. Рассмотрен процесс формирования образа тэнгу под воздействием древних традиций и культов, содержащих в своей основе тотемные, шаманские и анимистические элементы. Впервые рассмотрено влияние культа ворона Ятагарасу на формирование образа тэнгу. Выделены основные черты и характеристики архетипа древне-японского воина в шаманской традиции воинской культуры Японии.

Building on established anthropological approaches to art such as those of Alfred Gell or Pierre Bourdieu, this workshop seeks to map out contemporary anthropological approaches to art. Furthermore, by asking what distinct views on artistic practices are offered by such new theoretical perspectives as ethnographic conceptualism (Ssorin-Chaikov 2013) or relational aesthetics (Sansi 2014), we hope to propose new pathways of anthropological inquiry. A key proposition behind this workshop is the idea that contemporary art theory and practice are increasingly in dialogue with theories of sociality – how we relate to other people to create meaning – and therefore connected to core anthropological interests. The objective of this workshop is therefore not just to apply existing anthropological theory to potentially new ethnographic situations characterized by the production of art, but to develop anthropological theory through an engagement with the conceptual approaches that underpin the contemporary production of art today.

As an Anthropologies of Art [A/A] Network research event, the conference also seeks to map out a range of contemporary approaches to the study of art. Contributors from Oslo, Berlin, Moscow, Barcelona, and the UK will discuss case studies that impact on the production of contemporary anthropological theory.

Convenors and contact
Alex Flynn (alex.flynn@durham.ac.uk) and Jonas Tinius (jlt46@cam.ac.uk)

More information
http://www.anthropologies-of-art.net/aa-research/workshop | @Anth_Art

Funded by the Department of Anthropology, Durham University, and the Department of Anthropology's Social Anthropology research group

There are four main social characters depicted in ballads and romances: the lady, the nobleman, the poor, and the servant. Usually, the mechanism by which the lady becomes socially prominent are her clothes, described as much richer and prettier than those of her companions. A similar mechanism is the use of a uniformed retinue, among which she will surely be the center of attention. On the other hand, she is almost always described as showing rich ornaments: hair accessories, golden pins, rings, ...
Those symbols of status are commonly associated with the beauty of the person wearing them. The nobleman is also described through his clothes, which leads us to believe that the concept of “conspicuous consumption” plays a very important role in the oral traditions at hand. At the same time, we may propose the psychological function of clothing. Thus, the uniformed retinue are forced, because of their clothes, to conform to the role they are given, losing their own individuality.
The poor, due to their appearance, are generally mistrusted.
As for the servants, the way they dress is entirely influenced by the social status of their master.
All in all, we may safely conclude that clothing has a symbolic value through which the individual asserts his or her power.

Keywords: Social Definition, Identity, Clothing, Oral Tradition, Ballads

Germany’s so-called ‘Freies Theater’ (free theatre) exists as a plethora of diverse theatre groups and forms of organizations (collectives, networks, groups) that work outside of institutions and already fixed structures: ‘the conditions of productions are designed by themselves — insofar as the economic constraints allow’ (Annemarie Matzke, 2012). Such a free theatre scene, she continues, thus always works on two levels: on their productions and on the reflection of their own institutionalization: unlike public theatres nominated by municipal politicians, ‘how, with whom and where to produce are among those questions that every project in the free scene has to ask itself again and again’ (Matzke, ibidem).

This article offers reflections on an artistic network of German freelance performing artists, the cobratheater.cobra network, founded at the University of Hildesheim in 2008. Its organizing ideology is one of radical aesthetic autonomy and mobile flexibility: there is no central organizing committee and productions can be realized autonomously by members of the network, thus allowing for a plethora of productions spread across Germany with different institutional affiliations.

This article describes and discusses some of the strategies elaborated by the network in order to continue working and living as mobile, autonomous, free performing artists in contemporary Germany.