The early 20th century marked a transition away from the 19th century unilineal evolutionary ideas and belief of primitive static cultures that dominated anthropological theory at the time (Erickson and Murphy 2013, 63). New theoretical frameworks emerged that changed the way people perceived the world around them under the influence of American, French, and British schools of thought (Erickson and Murphy 2013, 69). At this time, American cultural anthropology was starting to form as an academic discipline under the direction of Franz Boas and his students, commonly known as the Boasians. Boas initiated salvage anthropology, the process of empirically documenting culture groups before they lost their identity, and became completely assimilated to the expanding euro-American cultures (Erickson and Murphy 2013, 65). This approached shaped a prominent theory of the time, historical particularism, that was interested in cultural groups fluid histories rather than cultures being subject to a general development with European civilization being the most developed.
We now know that that assumption is far from the truth. What we were witnessing was fragmented globality. It was an increased but selective form of capital, which also intensified the differences between labor markets across national borders and the uneven integration of global consumer markets. Frederick Cooper argued globalization was more of a discourse than a applicable reality; it may cause change over time but it lacks a perspective of history needed to differentiate between its mechanisms and limits of spatial
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES Name: Hema Ramrattan ID#: 813001958 SOCI 1006: Introduction to Anthropology Course work # 1: Essay Topic: As an Anthropologist, what is the difference between subjectivity and objectivity? Please discuss. Lecturer: Dr Dylan Kerrigan In anthropology or other social sciences , the common terms that are involved in research are referred to as subjectivity and objectivity. It must be mentioned that the basis of subjectivity and objectivity have been questioned by many. The concept of subjectivity can be referred to as the personal opinions and feelings of how someone’s judgment is shaped instead of outside influences, whereas objectivity is related to the concept of ‘truth’, meaning that there is a lack of bias, judgement or prejudice involved in the process.
In the inaugural issue of the journal Postcolonial Studies, Simon During drew a distinction between what he calls “reconciliatory postcolonialism” and “critical postcolonialism.” He remarks that through deploying “categories such as hybridity, mimicry, ambivalence…postcolonialism effectively became a reconciliatory rather than a critical, anti-colonialist category.” Both forms of postcolonialism, he claims, share the basic premise that “western cultural history since at least the sixteenth century is unanalysable without reference to colonialism” (1998: 31), and show how postcolonial societies as we know them today have been “built by both sides,” neither completely dominated by the West nor fully free of the legacy of imperialism. Beyond these commonalities, however, it is the differences between reconciliatory and critical postcolonialisms that have become increasingly significant and constitutive of the field. Whereas reconciliatory postcolonial thought finds its intellectual and political origins and allegiances within a broadly defined “postmodern Left,” critical postcolonialism maintains in various ways a commitment to materialist, realist and Marxist analyses. Likewise, Mishra and Bob Hodge have distinguished between “oppositional” postcolonialism and “complicit” postcolonialism and argue for what they call a “new postcolonialism.” Other critics also
In the wake of burgeoning globalization, a remarkable proliferation in the discourses of the past has been dutifully accompanied by an unprecedented expansion of memory studies in the global academy. The broader realm of memory studies has expanded its lens to include social practices that mediate collective identities (especially cultural, ethnic and national formations) and historical consciousness. Anthropological approaches which are capable of linking the affective textures of personal experience with the expansive domain of collective histories elucidate on the essentially social nature of memory. However, as a proper enumeration of the tenets of memory studies is beyond the scope of this paper, the intentional refashioning of the dynamics of memory (which, here, denotes a cognitive process of selection, interpretation and re – elaboration) will be enumerated upon. One can assert that the past has a robust and a significant future.
The defining factor of this multicultural re-orientation of discourse analysis is that it breaks out of the limits of the cultural imperialism on the other hand and maintains multicultural dynamics on the other. The Cultural nature of Discourse Studies Discourse analysis is verily influenced by culture in a number of ways. For research to be done certain aspects have an influence in the way research is done. Certain discursive characteristics and tendencies have been identified notably and proposed by (Xu, 2006): Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) - is modelled upon language as conceptualised in structural linguistics. Language is understood as unfolding and evolving because of many interactions across the world.
For Grossberg, the task is to "construct a vision for cultural studies out of its own intellectual and political history." (Cultural Studies vs Political economy. P. 3). His book is an attempt to set an agenda for cultural studies work in the present and into the future and to produce a cultural studies capable of responding to the contemporary worlds and the struggle constituting them. For Hartley, the task is to reform Cultural Studies; so that it takes into account digital media and the dialogic model of communication.
topic of this essay is based on my knowledge on multicultural approach to discourse analysis. The aim is to discuss the manner in which a researcher may utilise various strategies to ensure that research is culturally rich and well-rounded. According to Gee and Handford (2014, p. 643) multicultural ‘is the overarching principle that is integrated into the formation and use of research system, or paradigm of epistemology, theory, methods and question- which, beyond the ethnocentric monopoly of truths and values, places cultural diversity, co-existence and prosperity at the centre of research process’. The scope of this essay is to engage intensively with the content of a multicultural approach to discourse studies. 2.
Introduction The conjunction of late capitalism and the spread of new technologies have fostered the contemporary neoliberal globalisation, which is often perceived as a new period in world history, having – according to neoliberal proponents – brought about a very different international order. The essay will first explain the neoliberal narrative, presenting the reasons alluding to the perception that neoliberal globalisation is a new era, with the arguments that the world has been significantly reshaped, by being far more interconnected, ‘flattened’ and ‘decentred’ than ever before. The essay will then discuss globalisation and interconnection in the past, showing rather a continuation than a sharp contrast between past and modern times.
HS 325 ARCHAEOLOGY CONCEPT, CONTENT AND PRACTICE G. PAWAN KUMAR 11110064 ROLE OF ANTHROPOLOGY IN ARCHAEOLOGY: INTRODUCTION: Archaeology and Anthropology revolves around the study of human beings in the broadest sense of evolution, behaviour and adaptation. It also deals with their cultural and social life and the different theoretical & practical ways in which human variation and the conditions in which humans live can be understood. The unity and variety of humankind are zeroed using different, but overlapping ways. The interaction of society, culture, and biology in human experience may be viewed through the perspective of time: from the early ancestors of human beings (which is dealt with by Biological Anthropology), over the millennia