Suomen Antropologi Volume 34, 2/2009
Articles
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Editorial Note
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 34(2) 2009:3-5
Abstract
This summer issue of Suomen Antropologi commences, appropriately, with an article entitled “Tourism as a ‘Moment of Being’” by Hazel Andrews (Liverpool John Moores University), which discusses the nature of tourist experience in the British summer destinations of Magaluf and Palmanova within a theoretical framework drawn from wider anthropological discourse on the subject. Thus, via her examination of the effervescent form of ‘Britishness’ generated by resort practices, Andrews explores the perspectives of anthropologists who have contributed to discussions regarding the nature of experience more generally—Michael Jackson, Victor Turner, Edward Bruner inter alia—to illuminate how the practice of charter tourism might be understood as an opportunity for increased reflexivity and heightened awareness of individual and collective identity among participant holiday-makers. Following this is a contribution by Toomas Gross (University of Helsinki)—“Is Protestant Growth Inevitable? Assessing Religious Change in Twenty-First Century Mexico”—which draws on fieldwork the author has conducted in southern Mexico since the late 1990s. Mapping and analysing changes in the religious composition of one particular Zapotec community in Oaxaca over the ten-year period, the article demonstrates that local-level religious dynamics are considerably less predictable than aggregate statistics indicating continued Protestant expansion would suggest. A fairly swift rise in Protestantism in the area during the nineties appeared to have stabilised by Gross’s latest period of fieldwork in 2008—a result, he suggests, of a combination of factors including the internal dynamics of the various Protestant congregations, national legislation such as a law on freedom of religious association in 1992, as well as changes and revitalisation in approaches and practices of the Catholic Church at local levels. From Protestantism (including Pentecostal strains) in Mexico to the world-view that is characteristic of a great many of the Pentecostal Churches currently flourishing in Africa: guided by Professor Paul Gifford (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) we are offered a glimpse into “The Primal Pentecostal Imagination: Variants, Origins and Importance”—a paper he presented at a public seminar in Helsinki in February 2009 entitled “Spirits and African Christianity”. In his presentation Gifford explores the ‘primal’ or ‘enchanted’ world view of African Pentecostalism which sees spiritual forces such as demons, spells or witchcraft as operative in physical events; he suggests that this orientation links local preoccupations to certain Western thinking and is the greatest single reason for the success of Pentecostal Christianity in Africa. He gives the last word to Ghana’s Abraham Akrong who sees charismatic Christianity as “nothing but the repackaging of traditional witchcraft mentality in Christian categories”. Continuing with the oral format, Suomen Antropologi is pleased to offer two articles which were first presented at a seminar held at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim in October 2008 entitled “Experimenting the Visual in Art and Anthropology: The Ethics of Research and Collaborations”. It is always rewarding to forge links with researchers working in neighbouring countries and we hope to welcomeas many as possible of you to the annual Finnish “Anthropology Days” successfully held this year in Tampere in May—next year in Helsinki (report follows in the subsequent issue). The Trondheim papers are introduced by one of the organisers, Giedre Jarulaitiene, who notes that the seminar gathered together professionals working with art and anthropology, who purposely or unintentionally combine the objectives and methods connecting the two fields; central themes at the seminar were the various orientations of subject to object in visual representation, ethics, aesthetics and methodologies. One of the resulting articles, “Complementarity between Art and Anthropology: Experiences among Kolam Makers in South India”, is written by anthropologist and artist Anna Laine (University of Gothenburg) who conducted fieldwork in Tamilnadu in 2005 and 2006. In it she explores both the performative process of kolam-making and its material result—the ornate daily designs the women of southern India draw at their doorways. In the course of this examination she discusses the visual as a source of knowledge, the ethical questions raised by collaboration with her informants and their reflections on the photographic representations which are a large part of her research methodology. The second work—“A Nice Dandelion: Visual Experiences at a Shopping Centre in Trondheim”— by Ruth Woods (NTNU), explores the role that art plays in public places via extensive observation of ‘interactions’ between shoppers and the ‘Dandelion’, a nine-meter tall, naturalistic sculpture painted with bright green and yellow car paint installed on a traffic island outside the City Syd Shopping Centre on the outskirts of Trondheim. Woods suggests that the towering reproduction of the ubiquitous weed provides visitors to the shopping centre with an aesthetic standard with which to consider and measure other elements in the area. We conclude with our regular forum which, in this issue, presents viewpoints raised at the annual symposium of the Finnish Oral History Network in December 2008 which focused on the role of ethics in oral history research and dissemination. Themes of the parallel sessions included the silencing of memories in intergenerational research contexts, building confidentiality and trust and other ethical issues which are of perennial concern to all ethnographers. Discussants to this forum are Ekaterina Melnikova (European University at St. Petersburg), Leena Rossi (University of Turku) and Ulla Savolainen (University of Helsinki). MARIE-LOUISE KARTTUNEN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Tourism as a ‘Moment of Being’
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 34(2) 2009:5-21
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to gather together a number of conceptual or theoretical points drawn from the wider social anthropological discourse on the nature of experience. It advances understandings of the anthropology of experience through the medium of tourism. In turn it also illuminates understandings of the nature of tourism experiences. The article is largely a theoretical piece that is illustrated with details drawn from an ethnographic study of two charter tourism resorts—Palmanova and Magaluf—in Mallorca. Therefore, in an attempt to elucidate more carefully what experience means, it draws on the discussions of ‘experience’ in the wider anthropological literature, most notably the existential anthropology of Michael Jackson (2005) and The Anthropology of Experience (Turner and Bruner 1986), and makes links to the writings of Pierre Bourdieu on the concepts of ‘habitus’ and ‘field’, bringing them to bear on the subject of tourism.
Keywords Erfahrung, Erlebnis, experience, habitus, identity, Mallorca, tourists
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Is Protestant Growth Inevitable? Assessing religious change in twenty-first century Mexico
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 34(2) 2009: 22-43
Abstract
Recent decades have seen a rapid increase in membership of Protestant churches in most Latin American countries, including Mexico. The growth has been considered sustainable and linked to modernisation processes. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in southern Mexico since the late 1990s, most recently in 2008, this article seeks to challenge claims that Protestant growth in rural Latin America is inevitable, continuous and universal. Mapping and analysing changes in the religious composition of one particular Zapotec community in Oaxaca over the ten-year period, the article demonstrates that local level religious dynamics are multidirectional and considerably less predictable than aggregate statistics and general trends would suggest. Rather than presenting evidence of irrefutable Protestant growth, religious diversity in many Oaxacan communities has recently stabilised or actually decreased. Reasons for this can be sought in the internal dynamics of Protestant congregations, the high level of apostasy, national legislation, as well as in changes and revitalisation of Catholic practices.
Keywords Catholic Church, indigenous, Mexico, Oaxaca, Protestantism, religious change
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PUBLIC LECTURE - The Primal Pentecostal Imagination: Variants, origins and importance
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 34(2) 2009:44-51
Abstract
This paper addresses the religious world-view that is characteristic of a great many of the Pentecostal Churches currently flourishing in Africa. In the opinion of the author, this world-view, which sees spiritual forces active in everyday events, is the greatest single reason for their success. This world-view comes in different but related forms, and three different forms currently found in Kenya are outlined here. These forms have obvious links to local religious thinking, but are also dependent for their expression on certain Western thinking. Finally it is claimed that this world-view, though in most studies of Pentecostalism virtually ignored, has important socio-political effects and merits serious discussion.
Keywords Africa, Pentecostalism, socio-political effects, world-view
Research Reports
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Complementarity between Art and Anthropology: Experiences among kolam makers in South India
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 34(2) 2009: 58-69
Abstract
As their first daily task, women in South India draw geometrical images, kolams, in front of their homes to greet the deities. These images engender and reinforce moods in the community, they construct feminine gender and they define the landscape as social. The paper describes how the employment of an artistic practice—photography—can affect the understanding of the kolam, an artistic practice in itself. Photography has a key role in that it has been used as a tool during field work, as well as in the presentation of research in the form of photographic essays. The expressive aspects in particular of this media are considered as means to address visual and sensory experience and as complementary to analytical texts. It is suggested that the use of artistic practice, in dialogue with texts, productively engages the tension between the sensory and the discursive, between intimacy and distance. The aim is to contribute to anthropological understandings of, and approaches to, images, aesthetics and artistic practice. The aesthetic aspect of the kolam is presented as local social aesthetics; an appreciation founded in local morality, and continuously reproduced as well as contested in a social environment.
Keywords aesthetics, art, gender, kolam, photography, South India, visual anthropology
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A Nice Dandelion: Visual experiences at a shopping centre in Trondheim
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 34(2) 2009:70-83
Abstract
The Dandelion, a nine meters tall naturalistic sculpture painted in bright green and yellow car paint, was installed on a traffic island outside the City Syd Shopping Centre on August 9th 2007. The sculpture provides an example with which to study the role art plays within public places. Aesthetic qualities are a useful place to start when trying to understand the role of public art. The Dandelion’s form, colour and physical connection with elements within the same location, give the sculpture an opening to establish a relationship with its public. The Dandelion’s public is the focus of this paper. What the public sees may lead to talk of other things connected to the Dandelion, but it is the sculpture’s physical form and visual qualities which initiate the response. The judgement of form is a constant preoccupation; we make value judgements about many of the objects around us in day-to-day life. Taste is based on everyday experiences, and not on fixed standards. The dandelion provides visitors to the shopping centre with something with which to consider and measure other elements in the area with. It is likely that they would have done this anyway, but the Dandelion provides them with an aesthetic standard with which to do this. This paper is based on fieldwork experiences in 2007 and 2008 at the City Syd Shopping Centre, which is located in the Tiller neighbourhood on the outskirts of Trondheim, Norway.
Keywords aesthetics, agency, public art, shopping centres
Essays
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Emanuel A. Schegloff. Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis, Volume 1
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 34(2) 2009: 94-99
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Mahmood Mamdani. Scholars in the Market Place: The Dilemmas of Neo-Liberal Reform
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 34(2) 2009: 100-108
Other Material
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BOOK REVIEWS
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 34(2) 2009: 109-114
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FORUM: Focusing on oral history and ethics.
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 34(2) 2009:84-93
Abstract
Ulla Savolainen - Symposium Report: Focusing on oral history and ethics; Ekaterina Melnikova - “I’m writing about you. Please accept my apologies”; Leena Rossi - The Interviewer’s Dilemma