Suomen Antropologi Volume 35, 3/2010
Articles
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Editor's note
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 35(3) 2010: 3-4.
Abstract
This issue of Suomen Antropologi begins with an article by Emile Tsékénis (University of the Aegean) titled ‘Kinship Values and the Production of “Locality” in Pre-colonial Cameroon Grassfields (West Cameroon)’ in which the author outlines a synthesis of Kopytoff ’s notion of an ‘African frontier’ and Appadurai’s concepts of ‘locality’, ‘ethnoscape’ and ‘neighbourhood’ in the context of the Cameroon Grassfields prior to the colonial era. Illustrated with foundational narratives collected by the author in the region, Tsékénis suggests that discourses concerning globalization and indigenous peoples, usually thought to be characteristic of the post-colonial period, have analogies with discourses that precede the advent of European colonialism and industrial capitalism; he concludes that pre-colonial African worlds can be described using concepts usually found in ethnographies of contemporary settings to describe the contemporary world.
This is followed by an article by Eija Ranta-Owusu (University of Helsinki): ‘Governing Pluralities in the Making: Indigenous knowledge and the question of sovereignty in contemporary Bolivia’. Here the author examines the ideological role of indigenous knowledge in the construction of plurinationalism, thereby shedding light on the changing nature of the Bolivian nation-state in a political situation of indigenous resurgence. In the course of her discussion Ranta-Owusu analyses interview data collected in Bolivia that highlight the ‘contested battlefield between multiple notions of sovereignty’, meanwhile calling for a review of accepted understanding of the state as both object and instrument of change in the establishment of governing pluralities.
John Liep (Emeritus Lecturer, University of Copenhagen) continues the discussion of ranked exchange on Rossel Island which was published in Suomen Antropologi 34 (4). In his contribution to the current issue, ‘Conflicting Values: Reciprocity and its defiance in Melanesia’, Liep responds to Joel Robbins’ argument that a number of exchange institutions discussed in A Papuan Plutocracy: Ranked Exchange on Rossel Island (Liep 2009) ‘indicate a society where people value and aim to maintain relations of symmetry and equality’. Liep confronts this conundrum while continuing to assert that ‘there is at the same time a dominance of senior big men through their control of the exchange of high-ranking wealth and through their manipulation of a complex finance system’.
Both research reports included in this issue are the outcome of research into contemporary Indian phenomena presented as papers at anthropology conferences this year. The first—‘Acting Out Class: On mimicking, mocking, Bollywood stars and the urban Indian male’ by Tereza Kuldova (University of Oslo)—was first aired at the Finnish Anthropology Conference 2010, while the second is a report on a double session titled ‘Indiascapes: Reflections on contemporary India’ at the 11th EASA conference held in Maynooth 2010 and written by Mari Korpela (University of Tampere) and Jonathan Miles-Watson (University of Tallinn).
We conclude with our usual Forum, this time on the subject of ‘New Technologies in Finland’ which discusses the role and effects of new technologies in a variety of situations, meanwhile illustrating how anthropology is finding a place in Finnish debates on technological innovation. Introduced by Eeva Berglund (Forum Editor), contributors are Tiina Suopajärvi (University of Oulu), Taina Kinnunen (University of Oulu), Anna Haverinen (University of Turku) and Vuokko Härmä (University of Sussex).
MARIE-LOUISE KARTTUNEN
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF -
Kinship Values and the Production of 'Locality' in Pre-Colonial Cameroon Grassfields
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 35(3) 2010: 5-27.
Abstract
Igor Kopytoff introduced the concept of the ‘African frontier’ in the mid 80s, providing scholars of Africa with a powerful tool which helped to overcome scientific and political objections posed by concepts such as ‘tribe’ or ‘ethnic group’, though in subsequent decades the paradigm has been subjected to critical scrutiny by major scholars of sub-Saharan Africa. The article begins with a brief outline of Kopytoff ’s paradigm, summarizing critical assessment of the model and arguing for a shift in conceptual terminology while preserving Kopytoff ’s most useful insights. This is followed by discussion of the sense in which Appadurai’s concepts of ‘locality’, ‘ethnoscape’ and ‘neighbourhood’ fit into the study of the Cameroon Grassfields. Finally, theoretical discussion is augmented by data collected in the region, illustrating how kinship values worked through official discourse (foundational narratives) in order to produce ‘locality’ in pre-colonial Grassfields. As a result, it is suggested that Appadurai’s concepts, initially forged for ethnographies of and in contemporary settings to describe modern societies, also apply to pre-colonial Africa.
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Governing Pluralities in the Making: Indigenous knowledge and the question of sovereignty in contemporary Bolivia
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 35(3) 2010: 28-48.
Abstract
It is a common argument that indigenous movements are not organized to seize state power but rather sovereignty through autonomous arrangements. In Bolivia, however, they evolved rapidly into a governing political instrument. The process of state transformation that followed emphasizes indigenous knowledge as the ideological basis for the construction of a plurinational state, a conglomeration of indigenous autonomies. The article examines dynamics and contestations around the definition of indigenous knowledge in respect to sovereignty claims, as an articulation between local cosmologies, global development encounters, and the power of capital. At the center of analysis is the changing role of the nation-state. It is argued that in Bolivia, the state is a crucial reference point for indigenous peoples; yet the politics of indigenous sovereignty implies a radically altered understanding of the state both as an object and an instrumentof change for the sovereignty of governing pluralities.
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DEBATE: Conflict in Values
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 35(3) 2010: 49-59.
Abstract
A reply to the discussion of John Liep's book A Papuan Plutocracy: Ranked Exchange on Rossel Island (2009) by Joel Robbins, Chris Gregory and Ton Otto in Suomen Antropologi 4/2009.
Research Reports
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Acting Out Class: On mimicking, mocking, Bollywood stars and the urban Indian male
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 35(3) 2010: 60-70.
Abstract
This research report, based on a fieldwork in Lucknow, North India, is an inquiry into the lives of young urban men and their concerns with status and class. The report approaches the topics of status and class through a focus on consumption, mimicking and mocking of ideas, commodities, mediated celebrities and lifestyles. By following five urban men and the processes of creation and re-creation of their self-definitions, it points to the ways in which they continually negotiate and renegotiate their status through simultaneous consumption and rejection of both tangible and intangible objects and ideas and through relating to and talking about their families. The case studies of these urban men reveal how they position themselves in opposition and in relation to each other and to mass-mediated celebrity lifestyles and fashions. The report touches on the topics of simultaneous mimicking and mocking of the imagined ‘West’ and the imagined ‘ancient and traditional’ vs. ‘modern’ India, and the ways in which ‘classness’ is acted out in relation to these ideas.
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Reflecting on India at the 11th EASA Conference
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 35(3) 2010: 71-79.
Abstract
The recent Commonwealth Games opening ceremony aimed to showcase the places and people of India to the world. The image it sought to project (of a united yet diverse place, where the past and the present sat comfortably together) was at odds with the image that Western-based media companies had projected in the weeks building up to the games. This latter vision was of India as a chaotic and wild place, where hygiene was questionable and planning imprecise. This is no surprise, for these elements of the modern Indian landscape often attract the Western gaze. This summer a group of academics came together at the annual meeting of European social anthropologists in an attempt to somewhat rectify the selective nature of this gaze through a presentation of different reflections on (and of ) landscapes of contemporary India. The group, which consisted of both Indian and Western academics, gathered together for two panels, connected by the workshop title ‘Indiascapes: reflections of contemporary India’.1 It was part of a larger academic conference, the 11th biennial conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), which attracted over 1,100 academics. Most participants came from Europe but there were also delegates from Asia, Africa, Latin America and North America. The theme of the conference was ‘Crisis and Imagination’ and Professor Talal Asad gave the keynote speech. The conference was hosted by the National University of Ireland, Maynooth; the organising team included the local department of anthropology, EASA and NomadIT (a professional event organising team).
Other Material
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FORUM: New Technologies in Finland
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 35(3) 2010: 80-93.
Abstract
Eeva Berglund: Introduction (80)
Tiina Suopajärvi: In the Field of the Ubiquitous City (81)
Taina Kinnunen: Designing Finnish Men: Taking Foucault a little further? (84)
Anna Haverinen: Digitized Mourning: Virtual memorials and services in the Internet (87)
Vuokko Härmä: Experiencing Pervasive Computer Mediated Art Exhibitions (90) -
BOOK REVIEWS
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 35(3) 2010: 94-100.
Abstract
Heidi Härkönen: Francio Guadeloupe. Chanting Down the New Jerusalem: Calypso, Christianity and Capitalism in the Caribbean (94)
Freek van der Vet: Mark Goodale. Surrendering to Utopia: An Anthropology of Human Rights (96)
Juha Matti Varvikko: Deborahh Kapchan. Traveling Spirit Masters: Moroccan Gnawa Trance and Music in the Global Marketplace (98) -
Interesting New Publications
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society Volume 35(3) 2010: 101-102.
Abstract
Anderson, Jane 2009. Law, Knowledge, Culture: The Production of Indigenous Knowledge in Intellectual Property Law. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishers.
Benavides, O. Hugo 2008. Drugs, Thugs, and Divas: Telenovelas and Narco-Dramas in Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Boivin, Nicole 2009. Material Cultures, Material Minds: The Impact of Things on Human Thought, Society, and Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bompani, Barbara and Maria Frahm-Arp 2010. Development and Politics from Below: Exploring Religious Spaces in the African State. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bradby, Hannah and Gillian Lewando Hundt (eds) 2010. Global Perspectives on War, Gender and Health: The Sociology and Anthropology of Suffering. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Carter, Donald Martin 2010. Navigating the African Diaspora: The Anthropology of Invisibility. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
French, Jan Hoffman 2009. Legalizing Identities: Becoming Black or Indian in Brazil’s Northeast. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Gray, Mel, John Coates and Michael Yellow Bird (eds) 2010. Indigenous Social Work around the World: Towards Culturally Relevant Education and Practice. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Hairong, Yan 2009. New Masters, New Servants: Migration, Development, and Women Workers in China. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Kagan, Jerome 2009. The Three Cultures: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Humanities in the 21st Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kapoor, Dip and Edward Shizha (eds) 2010. Indigenous Knowledge and Learning in Asia/Pacific and Africa: Perspectives on Development, Education, and Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Knuuttila Tarja and Aki Petteri Lehtinen (eds) 2010. Representaatio: Tiedon kivijalasta tieteiden työkaluksi. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.
Linjakumpu, Aini, and Sandra Wallenius-Korkalo (eds) 2010. Progress or Perish: Northern Perspectives on Social Change. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Lucas, George R., Jr. 2009. Anthropologists in Arms: The Ethics of Military Anthropology. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press.
Pierotti, Raymond 2010. Indigenous Knowledge, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology. London: Routledge.
Schmidt, Johanna 2010. Migrating Genders: Westernisation, Migration, and Samoan Fa’afafine. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Vuola, Elina 2010. Jumalainen nainen—Neitsyt Mariaa etsimässä. Helsinki: Otava.
Wunder, John R. & Kurt E. Kinbacher (eds) 2009. Reconfigurations of Native North America: An Anthology of New Perspectives. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press.