anth 1616: african intersections
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ANTH 1616: African Intersections. Contemporary Problems in the Anthropology of Africa Spring, 2010. Difference: Myths & Realities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66pTPWg_wUw Happy Africa Sad Africa Africa as a construct Africa as an imaginary Africa as a real place, with real people. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Contemporary Problems in the Anthropology of AfricaSpring, 2010
ANTH 1616: African Intersections
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Difference: Myths & Realities
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66pTPWg_wUw
Happy Africa
Sad Africa
Africa as a construct
Africa as an imaginary
Africa as a real place, with real people
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What is Africa?
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Basic Facts
More than 1,000 languages
53 Sovereign Countries
More than 50% of population under 25 years
of age
Major exports: diamonds, coltan, bauxite, petroleum,
gold, timber, uranium
Africa as a source of inspiratino for global
culture, music, dance, and religion
Damned Lies and Statistics
Official and Unofficial Languages
Overwhelming mortality rates
Urbanization
Gender Inequity
Global Ghettoization
Massive Corruption
Violence
HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases
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Africa’s Charted Borders before World War 1
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Isolation and Extraction
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Culture & DifferenceEarly American Anthropology: Franz BoasI often ask myself what advantages our 'good
society possesses over that of the 'savages' and find, the more I see of their customs, that we have no right to look down upon them. . . We have no right to blame them for their forms and superstitions which may seem ridiculous to us. We 'highly educated people' are much worse, relatively speaking. . . Franz Boas to Marie Krackowizer, December 23, 1883. Franz Boas’ Baffin Island Letter-Diary, 1883-1884, edited by Herbert Cole (1983:33).
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“Anthropology” – F. Boas
We do not discuss the anatomical, physiological, and mental characteristics of man considered as an individual; but we are interested in the diversity of these traits in groups of men found in different geographical areas and in different social classes. It is our task to inquire into the causes that have brought about the observed differentiation, and to investigate the sequence of events that have led to the establishment of the multifarious forms of human life. In other words, we are interested in the anatomical and mental characteristics of men living under the same biological, geographical, and social environment, and as determined by their past.
E.E. Evans-Pritchard Among the Zande
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Culture and Difference 2Symbolic Anthropology: Search for universal cultural processes – i.e. Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger
What culture does with “ambiguity” or difference:
• Relabel it something familiar• Physically control it• Avoid it• Call it dangerous • Turn it into a symbol for ritual
transformation
How much is anthropology in Africa an effort to manage, relabel, control, avoid, or transform Difference?
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Culture and Difference 3The Chicago School: Clifford Geertz
Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun…”
“I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of a law, but an interpretive one in search of meaning.”
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Cultural Relativism
It’s all good, we’re just different!
I’m ok, you’re ok, we’re all ok!
I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darnit, people like me… And you, too!
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Post-Colonial CritiquesEdward Said"Neither imperialism nor colonialism is a simple act of accumulation and acquisition… Out of imperialism, notions about culture were classified, reinforced, criticised or rejected.” Culture and Imperialism
Engaged Anthropology• Boasian Activism• Cultural Relativism• Indigenous Rights• Human Rights• “Giving Back”