scholarly journals Interconnections between theory, history and imagination in anthropology

Sociologija ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-350
Author(s):  
Nada Sekulic
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
History Of Anthropology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Imaginative Thinking

The article examines the interconnections between theory, history and imagination in anthropology. Anthropology as academic discipline was established on the scholars? endeavors to raise the history above simple historiography descriptions to the level of theoretical knowledge and nomotetic science, based on the principles of rationality. Therefore, in a way, the contribution of imaginative thinking to the emergence of anthropology and its influence on the formative processes of multi-cultural exchange has been underestimated. An revised analysis of the importance of imagination in these processes makes possible revision of the history of anthropology asking for new anthropological "literacy" focused on understanding the formative aspects of imagination in constitution of knowledge.

scholarly journals James Clifford's Influence on Bronislaw Malinowski: The Moral Implications of Intertemporal Heterarchy

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-29
Author(s):  
Miloš Milenković
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
History Of Anthropology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Holistic Interpretation ◽  
To Come ◽  
Science Methodology ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Social Science Methodology

Drawing on the explanation already offered for the confusion of positivism with realism in the epistemological imagination of the author and founder of postmodern anthropology, the paper analyzes the moral implications of dealing with problems characteristic of the philosophy of science by literary-theoretical means. The transdisciplinary migration of "realism" from literary theory to social science methodology has produced a whole new history of anthropology. The history of pre-postmodern anthropology constructed in this manner can be said to fit the register of some sort of comparative-cultural theory of retroactive moral judgement, complementing postmodern anthropology as a general theory of writing by political subjects, so that the theoretical-methodological dilemmas of postmodern anthropology do not constitute proof of the legitimacy of a holistic interpretation of the discipline’s founders’ intentions, but rather lead to neo-pyrrhonic, formalistic endeavours to uphold, by respecting academic trappings, the academic authority of the discipline whose subject, method and purpose, as a rule, even colleagues from adjacent departments for various reasons fail to understand. In the paper, evidence for this is derived from Clifford's writing of Malinowski, and the moral implications of the unfortunate analogy between the writing of political subjects and the writing of disciplinary founders are followed through. The paper then goes on to explain that the critique of the possibilities of misuse, particularly through political instrumentalization, of anthropological fictions as evidence of Others did not have to come at the cost of sacrificing the semblance of continuity in the establishment of anthropology as a proper academic discipline.

A Watershed in Mexican Rural History: Some Thoughts on the Reconciliation of Conflicting Interpretations

1971 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Coy
Keyword(s):  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
History Of Anthropology ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Short History ◽  
American Anthropologist ◽  
Rural History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Constant Feature

In the short history of anthropology as an academic discipline, polemics tinged with personal recrimination have been a constant feature. One might even be led to suspect that controversy has become a firm technique, in line with conflict theory, so that in the middle ground between opposing interpretations of social behaviour may be found a more acceptable aspect of the truth. ‘Penetrating analyses’, so the aphorism might run, ‘are tempered in the fire of animosity.’ Some protagonists had a positive genius for attracting thinly-veiled contumely and for polarizing opinion, even after they had ceased to be practising anthropologists. Perhaps the best example of this was Radcliffe-Brown, as a perusal of the journalsOceaniain 1955 and theAmerican Anthropologistfrom 1951 to 1956 will readily disclose. This method of advancing knowledge, if we may call it such, did not die with Radcliffe-Brown; it has been used many times since—and the discipline is the richer, one hastens to add.

Culture

Anthropology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hai Ren
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Cultural Imperialism ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
History Of Anthropology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History

Culture is a term that describes and characterizes various ways in which human differences and similarities are recognized and marked. It is inseparable from many important ideas such as cultural tradition, cultural relativism, cultural imperialism, popular culture, mass culture, etc. Moreover, culture is often used as a recognizable genre that marks a division of labor among anthropologists (and other scholars). Cultural anthropology itself is built on the conceptualization of culture’s meanings, its changes, and its problems, all of which are interdisciplinary. The questions of culture, its conceptualization, and its embedded meanings of civilization, the nation-state, aesthetics, economy, and everyday life are tied to the entire history of anthropology as an academic discipline, not just in Western countries such as the United States, Britain, France, and Germany but also in many other countries. As a foundational concept of anthropology, culture has been continuously shaped to adapt to changes both inside and outside the discipline.

A ABORDAGEM SOBRE O TERRITÓRIO EM AUTORES DA GEOGRAFIA BRASILEIRA: MUTAÇÕES DE UM CONCEITO

GEOgraphia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (42) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Lucas Labigalini Fuini
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
History Of Thought ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
History Of ◽  
Territorial Approach ◽  
Selection Of

Resumo: O objetivo deste artigo é reconhecer, através de uma seleção de autores e obras, as características principais da abordagem territorial na Geografia brasileira desenvolvida desde fins dos anos 1970, quando se reconhece um verdadeiro interesse na sistematização e no conhecimento teórico sobre o conceito em nossa ciência. No perpassar por autores, objetiva-se identificar a crescente multidimensionalidade e transescalaridade que o conceito adquire nos seus conteúdos e aplicações e a mudança de sentido explicativo que assume no avançar dos anos 2000.Palavras-chave: Território. Territorialidade. História do pensamento. Político. Geografia brasileira. THE APPROACH TO THE TERRITORY IN AUTHORS OF THE BRAZILIAN GEOGRAPHY: MUTATIONS OF A CONCEPTAbstract: The purpose of this article is to recognize, through a selection of authors and works, the main features of the territorial approach in the Brazilian Geography developed since the late 1970s, when it recognizes a real interest in the systematization and theoretical knowledge about the concept in our science. In pervade by authors, aims to identify the increasing multidimensionality and transescalarity that the concept gets in their content and applications and the change in explanatory sense that assumes in advance the years 2000.Keywords: Territory. Territoriality. History of thought. Political. Brazilian geography. EL ENFOQUE SOBRE EL TERRITORIO EN AUTORES DE GEOGRAFÍA BRASILEÑA: MUTACIONES DE UN CONCEPTOResumen: El objetivo de este artículo es reconocer, a través de una selección de autores y obras, las características principales del abordaje territorial en la Geografía brasileña desarrollada desde fines de los años 1970, cuando se reconoce un verdadero interés en la sistematización y en el conocimiento teórico sobre el concepto en nuestra ciencia . En el traspaso por autores, se objetiva identificar la creciente multidimensionalidad y transescalaridad que el concepto adquiere en sus contenidos y aplicaciones y el cambio de sentido explicativo que asume a lo largo de los años 2000.Palabras-clave: Territorio. Territorialidad. Historia del pensamiento. Político. Geografía brasileña.

Ballet in the Cold War

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Searcy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
The United States ◽  
Performing Artists ◽  
Exchange Programs ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

During the Cold War, the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union developed cultural exchange programs, in which they sent performing artists abroad in order to generate goodwill for their countries. Ballet companies were frequently called on to serve in these programs, particularly in the direct Soviet-American exchange. This book analyzes four of the early ballet exchange tours, demonstrating how this series of encounters changed both geopolitical relations and the history of dance. The ballet tours were enormously popular. Performances functioned as an important symbolic meeting point for Soviet and American officials, creating goodwill and normalizing relations between the two countries in an era when nuclear conflict was a real threat. At the same time, Soviet and American audiences did not understand ballet in the same way. As American companies toured in the Soviet Union and vice versa, audiences saw the performances through the lens of their own local aesthetics. Ballet in the Cold War introduces the concept of transliteration to understand this process, showing how much power viewers wielded in the exchange and explaining how the dynamics of the Cold War continue to shape ballet today.

AI Narratives

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Intelligent Machines ◽  
Narrative History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Imaginative Thinking ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

This book is the first to examine the history of imaginative thinking about intelligent machines. As real artificial intelligence (AI) begins to touch on all aspects of our lives, this long narrative history shapes how the technology is developed, deployed, and regulated. It is therefore a crucial social and ethical issue. Part I of this book provides a historical overview from ancient Greece to the start of modernity. These chapters explore the revealing prehistory of key concerns of contemporary AI discourse, from the nature of mind and creativity to issues of power and rights, from the tension between fascination and ambivalence to investigations into artificial voices and technophobia. Part II focuses on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in which a greater density of narratives emerged alongside rapid developments in AI technology. These chapters reveal not only how AI narratives have consistently been entangled with the emergence of real robotics and AI, but also how they offer a rich source of insight into how we might live with these revolutionary machines. Through their close textual engagements, these chapters explore the relationship between imaginative narratives and contemporary debates about AI’s social, ethical, and philosophical consequences, including questions of dehumanization, automation, anthropomorphization, cybernetics, cyberpunk, immortality, slavery, and governance. The contributions, from leading humanities and social science scholars, show that narratives about AI offer a crucial epistemic site for exploring contemporary debates about these powerful new technologies.

The early story: A brief history of the creation of entrepreneurship at Babson College and the discovery of innovation’s missing imperative

2020 ◽  
pp. 095042222097856
Author(s):  
Robert Ronstadt ◽  
Jeffrey Shuman ◽  
Karl Vesper
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Early History ◽  
Academic Programs ◽  
Institutional Commitment ◽  
Undergraduate Major ◽  
Outreach Programs ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Core Part ◽  
Complete Story

The authors document in detail how the entrepreneurship program was created at Babson College in the 1970s. They recount the early history of Babson’s program because the school was one of the first, if not the first, to make a huge institutional commitment that led to entrepreneurship becoming a core part of its academic programs. At the time, other schools had an entrepreneurship course or two, but Babson’s commitment involved the creation of an undergraduate major, an MBA concentration, an annual research conference, a Distinguished Academy of Entrepreneurs, an Entrepreneurship Chair, and numerous outreach programs. These efforts influenced other universities to increase their entrepreneurship offerings to the extent that a new academic discipline—entrepreneurship studies—was born. A second reason for this article is the belief by those directly involved in the creation of Babson’s program that the complete story has not been told and is in danger of being misunderstood. Like most innovations, the creation of Babson’s entrepreneurship program was not a neat and tidy affair, but one more consistent with the turbulent notions put forth by Joseph Schumpeter and Clayton Christenson. Understanding Babson’s early history with entrepreneurship can help others pursuing or facilitating their own academic innovations.

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