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Instituttseminar vår 2008
Instituttseminaret er en møteplass for stab, stipendiater og masterstudenter ved ISA.
Tidspunkt for seminaret er endret til fredager 13.15-15.00, rom 5.402
I tillegg til innlegg fra ISAs stab skal seminaret gi rom for inviterte forelesere fra andre institusjoner og nærtstående fag, med vekt på presentasjon av pågående eller planlagte forskningsprosjekter.
Ansvarlig for Instituttseminaret våren 2008 er førsteamanuensis Jon Schackt.
Program Friday, June 6, 1:15 P.M - 3:00 P.M. (13:15-15:00), Room 5.402
Yulian Konstantinov, Professor II (ISA)
presents:
Roadlessness and Social Relations in the Tundra:
sharing the experience of the NOMAD field-study of 2007-08
This talk is about the transformation of the reindeer herding character of the Kola Peninsula tundra and how this constructs non-ascriptive and flexible "tundra-related" personhood. It is contended that, in the particular case, merit from skills in moving over inaccessible terrains, effectively contests ascriptive identity master-tropes (i.e. indigeneity).
The issue has accentuated relevance in the context of Murmansk Region in which a tiny indigenous minority negotiates living space with an increasingly dominating numbers of recently enskilled (and mechanized) tundra-related holders, often supported by powerful outside agencies.
The author shall use the occasion for sharing experience from a year-long field study in the tundra part of the Kola Peninsula, as well as the role of Regional Lore Studies (Kraevedenie) in the local political context. It is suggested that possibilities for cross-border cooperation in the humanities have to consider the high relevance of kraevedenie in the Russian northern periphery. A collaborative discussion of this specific academic development with the goal of helping to bridge gaps between neighbouring academic traditions is very much in need.
Yulian Konstantinov is a Lecturer in Sociocultural Anthropology at the New Bulgarian University, and currently Adjunct Professor at the Department of Social Anthropology. He is known for his long-term and ongoing work with reindeer herders of the Kola Peninsula, leading to numerous publications on the problematic of postsoviet transformation of the formerly collectivized reindeer herding in the Soviet Union/Russia.
The field diary of the NOMAD Field Study of 2007-08, together with accompanying visual material, can be accessed at NOMAD Field Study
Welcome!
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Previous presentations on the seminar:
Fredag 16. mai kl 13.15-15.00, rom 5.402.
Innledet:
Per Mathiesen, Bror Olsen, Sidsel Saugestad og Margrethe Haug
Tema: Kontroversiell kunnskap?
Instituttseminaret rettet seg mot bruk av antropologisk kunnskap i og av det militære.
Fredsbevarende aksjoner er ikke lenger (om de noensinne var), fredelige. Det involverer væpnede konfrontasjoner, og krever militær kompetanse. Samtidig må det arbeides nært til en sivilbefolkning som skal beskyttes. Det krever kulturell kompetanse.
Betyr bruk av antropologisk kunnskap/kulturkunnskap at fredsbevarende operasjoner blir mer effektive, eller betyr det at antropologer blir part i krigshandlinger?
Disse spørsmålene ble diskutert i en diskusjon som tok utgangspunkt i det undervisningstilbudet som per i dag gis av ISA (og andre institutter) på Forsvarets studiesenter, Bardufoss, hvor mange av deltagerne er aktive i Afghanistan, og tidligere i Kosovo.
1. Professor emeritus Per Mathiesen og førsteamanuensis Bror Olsen innledet om bakgrunn og intensjoner for SOA-6003 og KOSIFF under overskriften "Transformasjon fra opplevelse til kunnskap".
2. Debatten om bruk av antropologisk kunnskap har fått et stort omfang og intensitet i USA, av rimelige grunner. Interesserte kan f.eks lese Anrthropology Today vil. 23, nr .3, 2007 (artikler av Gonzáles, Kilcullen og
McFate) anmeldelse av US Armys' Counterinsurgence Field Manual på http://www.counterpunch.org/price10302007.html , og videre debatter og kommentarer på http://www.concerned.anthropologists.googlepages.com.
Professor Sidsel Saugestad oppsummerete noen punkter i disse innleggene.
3. Margrethe Haug, analytiker ved taktisk analyseenhet i Etterretningsbataljonen, og master i sosialantropologi, reflekterte over faglig bakgrunn og nåværende jobb.
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Fredag, 25. april: Stipendiat OLE-BJØRN FOSSBAKK, innledet om:
Anerkjennelse og konflikt
- en (retts)antropologisk undersøkelse av begrepet anerkjennelse som grunnlag for rettsdannelse etter innføringen av Finnmarksloven
Ideen anerkjennelse står sentralt hos liberale politiske teoretikere som Will Kymlicka og Charles Taylor. Hos både Kymlicka og Taylor er anerkjennelse sentralt for at en multikulturell stat skal virke demokratisk inkluderende for minoriteter. I Finnmarksloven er selve prinsippet om anerkjennelse av urbefolkningens og andres allerede eksisterende rettigheter innbakt. Dette bryter med en annen liberal politisk ide som er "hardprogrammert" i det norske politiske demokratiet; Alle skal ha de samme rettigheter uavhengig av etnisitet, politisk syn og livssyn og annet.
Ved å sammenligne empiriske eksempler fra feltarbeid i Finnmark, ønsket Fossbakk å synliggjøre at diskursen og konfliktene som har dominert media etter innføringen av Finnmarksloven, reflekterer noen av de dilemma og muligheter som oppstår knyttet til anerkjennelse av minoriteters og urbefolkningers rettigheter i det liberale politiske demokrati.
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Friday April 18 Professor Trond Thuen presented:
Some reflections on comparison
"Thuen discussed comparison both as a process of human cognition basic to the interpretation of information, and as a procedure (or procedures) in order to establish statements of scientific character. He started with a brief review of yesterday's fascination with typologies and classification as the basic purpose of ethnographic sampling (cf. Leach's criticism of typological sampling as butterfly collection), and then proceed to the generative model approach and its affinity to the natural sciences, with some examples. Finally, he took up Gingrich and Fox's challenge that anthropology needs a reevaluation of comparison "by exploring new methodologies that are less rooted in the past".
Link to a copy of the Introduction in Anthropology, by Comparison of Richard G. Fox and Andre Gingrich Introduction
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Friday, April 11
Associate professor Jorun Bræck Ramstad:
presented:
Maori Television - dreams and dramas beyond nationhood?
Often the relationship between the media and ethnic minorities, for example, the indigenous Maori of Aotearoa New Zealand, is characterised by conflict and antagonism of sorts. Consequently, Benedict Anderson's popular formulation of the nation as an "imagined community" is criticised for disregarding the various forces of which the nation is composed. With these remarks in mind, how are we to make sense of the fact that Aotearoa New Zealand has presently two Maori TV channels, mostly financed by government and administered by Maori persons? What can we make of the fact that the popularity of Maori Television extends far beyond the Maori population that makes up about 15 % of the total Aotearoa New Zealand population of about 4 millions? I hope the presentation and the discussion will explore the role of media (TV) in shaping socio-cultural contexts of (post)coloniality and indigeneity - for example - in the Pacific.
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Friday April 4
Research fellow BENTE SUNDSVOLD
presented:
Enskillment of vision?
In anthropology there are ongoing discussions and concerns about the visual bias of western scientific thought, treating vision as the noblest of our senses (Fabian, Stoller, Ingold, Grimshaw, Grasseni, Okely). The critique strikes at the fundamental bias of Western philosophy of science, as well as at the observational aspects of the key method of anthropology, participant observation.
In the presentation Sundsvold looked into possible ways to approach these discussions with a video camera at hand. She builded on Grasseni’s work ‘Skilled visions’(2007) and Okely ‘Visualism and landscape’ (2001) and linked it to her fieldwork material from the eider down harvesting practices.
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Friday March 7 GARY KILDEA presented:
Koriam's Law - and the dead who govern
Gary Kildea showed and discussed his most recent film, Koriam's Law. The film is presented on the cover of the DVD version as follows: "In Koriam's Law, Australian anthropologist Andrew Lattas meets his match in philosopher-informant Peter Avarea of Matong village, Pomio, Papua New Guinea. Driven by their feisty dialogue and with access to sacred ceremonies the film patiently goes about making sense of that mysterious Pacific phenomenon: the "cargo-cult"." The film is 110 minutes long.
Gary Kildea is a well-known documentary filmmaker, and film officer of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. He is a visiting fellow of ISA/VCS in the spring term of 2008, mainly involved in the supervision of the VCS master students' final films.
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Fredag 22. februar:
NIGEL CRAWHALL presented:
Race, language and identity in South Africa
The talk had three parts a) a description of the peopling of South Africa - what we know about aboriginal occupation, migration and conquest b) the emergence of the State and the impact of colonialism and apartheid on ideas of ethnicity, race and identity c) the legacy of the racist past and how it impacts on the contemporary democratic state.
Emphasis is placed on tracing the situation of the San of South Africa in relation to incoming populations and their challenges to survive in the current era.
The talk included a discussion of paradigms about language and cultural diversity can influence the way a State acts. Three paradigms
- Language as a Problem, Language as a Right, and Language as a Resource are considered.
Nigel Crawhall, Ph. D., is Director of the Secretariat of the Indigenous Peoples of South Africa Co-ordinating Committee. He is presently a visiting scholar at the Department of Social Anthropology
Fredag 15. februar:
Universitetslektor/Dr.gradsstudent SIV ØVERNES, ISA
holdt innlegg med tittelen:
On cultural assimilation and muted identities: Khoe belonging and big city life
A 30 minutes work-in-progress film called "!Nau: the Story of a Baptism" will be screened. The material for the film has been collected among street-people in Cape Town, and the storyline follows the preparation of two children as they get ready to be signed into a church community. Through the action, as well as the reflections on Khoe San identities by their mother 'Scilla, complex questions are raised on cultural heritage, assimilation, indigenous urban identities as well as hegemonic relationships and methods to resist them.
Friday February 1:
Post Doctoral Research Fellow JENNIFER HAYS, ISA
presented:
Educational Strategies of the San: matching local needs with global initiatives
Jennifer Hays presented her PhD dissertation research, which examines the challenges faced by the Nyae Nyae Ju/’hoansi—an indigenous people living in northwest Namibia—and describes how global discourses of education for all and educational rights play out on this local stage.
As a post-doctorate scholar at the University of Tromsø, Jennifer did also expand upon her dissertation research, and upon her applied research in Botswana.
Fredag 25. januar
Stipendiat SUSANNE FOMSGAARD MADSEN:
holdt innlegg om sitt PhD-prosjekt:
Rettigheder og pligter som menneske i forhold til omgivelserne. - Et studie i affaldshåndtering og bæredygtig ressources-udnyttelse med fokus på opfattelser om livskvalitet i forhold til natur og miljø
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