Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe最新文献

This article is an analysis of the role played by literary and historical discourse in the formation of the Minho region of Portugal as emblematic of Portuguese national specificity in the 19^th century. Drawing theoretical inspiration from the interpretive anthropology of such writers as James Clifford and James Fernandez, and from the historical analyses of invented traditions initiated by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (1985), a key goal of the article is to make clear how deeply Portuguese ethnology, emerging at the turn of the 20^th century, depended on the prior literary problematic of national definition and destiny, which in turn was based in surprising ways on the specification of regional differences within national borders.

Altered States: Ethnographies of Transition in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Daphne Berdahl. Matti Bunzl. and Martha Lampland. Editors. Ann Arbor. University ofMichigan PTess. 2000 252 pp. 0-472-08617

Fieldwork Dilemmas: Anthropologists in Post-Socialist States. Hermine G. De Soto and Nora Dudwick. Editors. Madison. University of Wisconsin Press.2000. 250 pp. 0-299-16374-1

Brown, Keith. The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003. 301 pages. ISBN: 0-691-09994-4(cloth), 0-691-09995-2 (paper)

In recent yean, there has been a growing interest in analyzing the political and economic changes that have occurred under late capitalism Anthropologists and sociologists alike have suggested that one of the key changes that has taken place in the international organization of capitalism has been the shift from a mass "Fordut" system of industrial organization to globalized or "Post-Fordist" regimes of flexible accumulation. It has been argued that shift has not only reshaped the material realities of peoples' everyday lives but they have also altered the ways in which people constitute themselves as collective subjects. Universalist forms of identification such as class, so it is argued have given way to a series of new forms of affiliation involving national ties, regionalism, ties of ethnic affinity and detemtorialized forms of solidarity While the appearance of new forms of affiliation have undoubtedly surfaced along with the large scale transformations of late capitalism, the extent to which they have overridden old forms of identity is the subject of much debate. In this paper. I will argue it may be premature to jettison the notion of class in any attempt to understand the dynamics of contemporary social world. Rather what is needed are attempts to problematize class identity and, indeed class relations in their complex relationship to emergent particularistic forms of affiliation. Drawing on research amongst the family farmers in rural Languedoc, who often engaged in militant forms of regional activism. Otis paper then argues, that class, especially in its complex relations to region, remains core in structuring collective identities in the context of late capitalism

The museum as an institution has had a historically incomparable career in Europe (and elsewhere), a fact this article attempts to explain. Its basic assumption is that the success of the museum does not rest on a promise of experiences of familiarity, on the contrary, its success is due to the increase in experiences of alterity in modern society. The museum is intrinsically a place of foreignness: the objects are delocated, they originate from a foreign place (in the geographic and/or historical sense), and they are (didactically) presented in contexts that “estrange” them. As a place of “heterodoxy” (in Baudrillard's sense of the term), the museum has been described by the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk as a “xenological institution,” meaning that it encourages an “intelligent border traffic with foreignness” by presenting, framing, and explaining the Other. In this sense, the museum is an institution which responds to specific needs of modern society.

The author discusses the ways in which popular tradition can be used as a political instrument to present ethnic identity, which is especially true of the epic poetry starting from the 19^th century. A number of German, Soviet and Serbian examples from the past are used to illustrate the point. Serbian 19^th epic poetry and the glorification of allegedly heroic mountain-dwellers' mentality is discussed as instrumental in instigating the recent military aggression in the Balkans. In Croatia, some basically myth-making traditions lacking actual historical foundations are cultivated as a means of creating images of former glory, which was especially prominent during the recent war. The author discusses cruelties characterising the epic poetry of both nations (Serbian and Croatian), as well as the immanent political features inherent in the epic genre, pointing out that they are not a result of centurieslong “Balkan hatred”, but should rather be seen as phenomena which, mutatis mutandis, can be observed everywhere, even in countries where the past seems to have been overcome once and for all.

This paper suggests that the ubiquitous cultural act of parading in Northern Ireland, frequently employed by ethnonational organizations as a means of symbolically marking sectarian political and religious control of and authority over territory, is also employed by charismatic Protestants seeking to create a sacred economy in which all Christians citizens participate in movement towards the universal "End Times" of evangelical and charismatic salvation history. In Belfast, this is accomplished in charismatic events (such as parading and "home-group" meetings) where locally important ideas about urban mobility as cultural and political performance are resituated and transformed within a global network of institutions and beliefs (Charismatic Renewal) that incorporate a alternate logic of ritual movement in which the city is itself the object of sanctification. This sanctification is not contemplated by charismatic Protestants, but is reflexively indexed and "proved" by their practices. The local or regional acts of parading and urban movement are thereby shown to be semantically porous and open to reinterpretation through contact with global cultural phenomena, such as Charismatic Renewal.

Recent studies on performance theory have turned their attention to the process of constructing social identities. This article proposes to examine the case of Gitano and non-Gitano relationships under this light. The field research in Jerez de la Frontera of Andalusia, has shown that 'objective' differences between the two groups seem to be minimal, although the members of the two groups recognize and present themselves as different. Relevant literature on Gitanos and their relationship to flamenco argues for a biological affinity of Gitano 'race' with flamenco singing and dancing. In a similar vein the indigenous discourse among Gitanos and among non-Gitanos justifies one group or the other as cultural owners and natural heirs of flamenco. Thus flamenco becomes a contested measure of social identity. This research attempts to reveal the power of the emic discourse on flamenco debate and to understand it under a constructivistic point of view. Based on the modern turn of Gypsy studies the present article re-examines the Gitanos/non-Gitanos relationship by focusing on the ways people negotiate their differences from the other group. Moreover, it attempts to observe and understand how these negotiated identities are performed on the social stage either on everyday life occasions or festivities.