ANTH326 Meeting 9 (Final)
-
Upload
alexandre-enkerli -
Category
Travel
-
view
367 -
download
0
Transcript of ANTH326 Meeting 9 (Final)
ANTH326 Peoples and Cultures of Sub-Saharan AfricaMeeting 9, November 5, 2007
Business
• Media Critique• Critical reviews• Journal• Blog entries• FIFEQ.ca (FFEM), November 15
Last stretch
• Reached important point• Making links• Bring everything together• Make sure understand• Dangling issues
Southall and Ranger
Team 1
• Self-definition based on outsider• False categories in anthro• Tribes don’t exist, isolated pre-colonial• Different terms• European imposition tradition on Africa• Problems caused• Applied by Africans the4mselves
Team 2
• Dangers of categorisation• Nationalism/tribalism• What can do? Should/shouldn’t categorise
Team 3
• Different definitions of tribe, can’t adhere• Identify own or outside name• Away from stereotypical of tribe, behaviour• Results of colonialism in history of tradition• Assimilation by colonials
Team 4
• Classification• Blurring boundaries, Features• Tribe in larger• Divide to rule, creating difference• “Real” Africa/Africans• Outdated concept in contemporary world
(state)• Gender bias in recording tradition
British Social Anthropology
• Emeriti– LSE (then Madison), Oxford
• Nationalism, ethnicity, tribalism• Southeastern Africa– Southall on Uganda– Ranger in Zimbabwe, Tanzania
• Ranger’s Invention of Tradition with Hobsbawm, 1983
Social Groups
Beyond Kinship
• Defining social groups– Support systems– Solidarity– Communitas
• Ethnicity as super-kinship• Kindreds (selected kins)• “Sodalities” (age sets)• Associations
Secret societies
• Initiation societies• Muslim brotherhoods (sufism)– Tijaniyya
• Freemasons
Voluntary Associations
• Social networks• Urban life• Local• "Ethnic“• Cosmopolitan networks• Political parties
Group Identity
• Identity as us/them• Constructed/created/invented• Negotiated/fluid/flexible• Leading to conflicts• Schisms and mergers
War and Peace
• War as “violent resolution to conflict”– Between groups (however defined)
• Peace as “normal state of system”• Pacifist tendency among anthropologists– Academic and personal– Pragmatic and principled
States
Defining States?
• Centralised control• Nation-state with trade• Infrastructure• Geography• Internationally recognised political entity• Sovereignty as legal rights, rule over citizens• Ethnically diverse
Characteristics of States
• Pre-/Post-Industrial• Centralisation• Boundaries• Administration• Currency• Hierarchy• Formality
Colonialism
• “Real” Africa/Africans• Assimilation by colonials• Gender bias in recording tradition• European imposition tradition on Africa• Results of colonialism in history of tradition• Problems caused• Divide to rule, creating difference• Nationalism/tribalism
Anthropological Categorisation
• Classification• Dangers of categorisation• False categories in anthro• Different terms• Different definitions of tribe, can’t adhere• What can do? Should/shouldn’t categorise
Define Self/Other (Esoteric/Exoteric)
• Self-definition based on outsider• Identify own or outside name• Applied by Africans themselves
Tribe in larger
• Tribes don’t exist, isolated pre-colonial• Outdated concept in contemporary world
(state)• Away from stereotypical of tribe, behaviour• Blurring boundaries, Features