De skatevriendelijke stad heeft de toekomst. Wereldwijd nemen gemeenten urban sports steeds concreter op in hun stadsontwikkeling. Andersom vindt die toenadering ook plaats. In plaats van een... Show moreDe skatevriendelijke stad heeft de toekomst. Wereldwijd nemen gemeenten urban sports steeds concreter op in hun stadsontwikkeling. Andersom vindt die toenadering ook plaats. In plaats van een strijd om ruimte of een tegendraadse houding, doet een groeiende groep skaters voorstellen om de openbare ruimte te verbeteren. Eigenlijk heel logisch: onder skaters bevinden zich ook architecten, beleidsmakers, docenten en onderzoekers. In dit artikel belicht ik drie steden waarin deze nieuwe samenwerking leidt tot skateplekken die positief bijdragen aan de openbare ruimte. Show less
The dissertation is focused on three interrelated aspects: 1) the development of a decolonial theoretical framework and collaborative research methodology with the Kamëntšá people centred on the... Show moreThe dissertation is focused on three interrelated aspects: 1) the development of a decolonial theoretical framework and collaborative research methodology with the Kamëntšá people centred on the respect for Kamëntšá ethics, principles and social norms, and the consequent reconstruction, revitalization and dignification of Kamëntšá knowledge, arts, spirituality and notions of time and space; 2) the history and colonization processes of the Kamëntšá people and Uaman Tabanok, its ancestral lands, with a specific emphasis on the work of the Capuchin missionaries, particularly their concept of enculturation and how it transformed and resignified Kamëntšá culture and religion using its own arts, narratives and rituals which were in harmony with Christianity; and 3) the concept of “cultural heritage” and the role of academic disciplines, research practices, government institutions and cultural policies in the perpetuation of colonialism through the appropriation, interpretation, control and resignification of the objects, monuments and cultures of Indigenous peoples, and their consequent contribution to maintaining inequality, racism and historical social injustices. Show less
Skaters horen bij de stad, als gangmakers, als creatievelingen én als steeds belangrijkere doelgroep voor planologen. Maar het is niet al goud wat er blinkt. Skatestoppers - van die uitstulpingen... Show moreSkaters horen bij de stad, als gangmakers, als creatievelingen én als steeds belangrijkere doelgroep voor planologen. Maar het is niet al goud wat er blinkt. Skatestoppers - van die uitstulpingen op straatmeubilair om skaters en andere ongewenste mensen te weren - maken vooral zichtbaar dat moderne steden en structurele uitsluiting hand in hand gaan. Show less
A coalition of educators believes that ChatGPT will kill the essay. But should we really fear the algorithms used in large language models? Anthropology has the generative potential to re-evaluate... Show moreA coalition of educators believes that ChatGPT will kill the essay. But should we really fear the algorithms used in large language models? Anthropology has the generative potential to re-evaluate teaching practices that attend to the use of emergent technologies in the classroom. Show less
Through a correspondence between two scholars, this paper explores and critiques various ways in which scholars working in ethnography and cultural analysis frame and construct their methodology... Show moreThrough a correspondence between two scholars, this paper explores and critiques various ways in which scholars working in ethnography and cultural analysis frame and construct their methodology and object of study. Through the close reading of theoretical accounts of methodology in ethnography and cultural analysis, we examine how these accounts construct the relationship between the scholar and her object of study. We read these scholarly practices as protocols, referring to the ways in which accounts of methodology may be understood as rules/guidelines by which scholars in these fields conduct research. Protocol etymologically refers to protos (first) and kolla (glue). Through the figure of the protocol, we delineate how scholars in ethnography and cultural analysis themselves become implicated in giving accounts of their research methodologies. Show less
Himalayan environments have changed, and are changing, due to the ways in which people have interpreted, sourced, and utilised them. Scholarly analysis of the transformations induced, be it in... Show moreHimalayan environments have changed, and are changing, due to the ways in which people have interpreted, sourced, and utilised them. Scholarly analysis of the transformations induced, be it in deforestation, dam building or glacial melt, foreground how man is shaping the world in the Anthropocene. Alternatively, multispecies studies have shown how people invariably depend on, and are being shaped, by the dedicated environments in which they find themselves. Rather than people existing independent of these, their lives are the product of ‘co-becoming’ (Country et al 2016: 1) or ‘becoming-with’ (Haraway 2008: 12) a variety of spaces and species. In relation to the Himalayas, the two angles of enquiry outlined above have so far seldom been combined. In an attempt to engage with this lacuna, the contributions to this special issue scrutinise the changing framing and interpretation of human and non-human relationships, and the way these find expression in everyday life. At the same time, the contributions explore how large-scale interventions instigated by state making, development initiatives and the expansion of commercial ventures have transformed, and continue to transform, mountain spaces and species, generating new societal contexts in which these acquire new meanings. Show less
The Khoisan of the Cape are widely considered virtually extinct as a distinct collective following their decimation, dispossession and assimilation into the mixed-race group ‘coloured’ during... Show moreThe Khoisan of the Cape are widely considered virtually extinct as a distinct collective following their decimation, dispossession and assimilation into the mixed-race group ‘coloured’ during colonialism and apartheid. However, since the democratic transition of 1994, increasing numbers of ‘Khoisan revivalists’ are rejecting their coloured identity and engaging in activism as indigenous people. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Cape Town, this book takes an unprecedented bottom-up approach. Centring emic perspectives, it scrutinizes Khoisan revivalism’s origins and explores the diverse ways Khoisan revivalists engage with the past to articulate a sense of indigeneity and stake political claims. Show less
Products and Producers of Social and Political Change. Activism and Politicking in the Mentawai Archipelago is about a generation of young, formally educated and politically engaged Mentawaians.... Show moreProducts and Producers of Social and Political Change. Activism and Politicking in the Mentawai Archipelago is about a generation of young, formally educated and politically engaged Mentawaians. From the late 1990s onwards these people, whom I have called the Mentawaian elite, have been involved in a quest for more access to the resources of the local state. The introduction of decentralisation and regional autonomy has formed an important window of opportunity for the Mentawaian elite. Due to their intense lobby the Mentawai Archipelago became an independent district in 1999. Freed from decades of cultural, economic and political hegemony of the mainland oriented Minangkabau, the Mentawaians now saw themselves placed for the laborious task to built a new district from scratch. Divided over seven chapters, this thesis describes and discusses developments in anticipation of the new district as well as the intense politicking that characterised the first years of Reformation. This thesis offers an in-depth portrait of a generation of Mentawaians that is as much a product as well as a producer of social and political change. Show less
Africa is at the lower end of internet use, but Facebook connectivity is rapidly increasing, linking diaspora and local people in mainly urban regions in Africa. A survey conducted in N’Djaména... Show moreAfrica is at the lower end of internet use, but Facebook connectivity is rapidly increasing, linking diaspora and local people in mainly urban regions in Africa. A survey conducted in N’Djaména revealed that 1 in 10 people uses Facebook, which is an important platform for these connected Chadians to express feelings, write thoughts, and create networks (i.e., to create a social life). In countries where daily conflict, oppression, insecurity, and mistrust pervade social life, posts and messages engage with these circumstances in a certain dialogue, which can be understood as an expression of duress. This article follows three Facebook users from both the diaspora and N’Djaména, and I position their Facebook expressions and actions in the context of their personal lives in contemporary Chadian political and connectivity history. Facebook appears to be an escape route from the reality of duress, and a form of practical action coupled with political agency. Show less
The enduring experience of hardship, in the form of layers of various crises, can become deeply ingrained in a society, and people can come to act and react under these conditions as if they lead a... Show moreThe enduring experience of hardship, in the form of layers of various crises, can become deeply ingrained in a society, and people can come to act and react under these conditions as if they lead a normal life. This process is explored through the analytical concept of duress, which contains three elements: enduring and accumulating layers of hardship over time, the normalization of this hardship, and a form of deeply constrained agency. We argue that decisions made in duress have a significant impact on the social and political structures of society. This concept of duress is used as a lens to understand the lives of individual people and societies in Central and West Africa that have a long history of ecological, political, and social conflicts and crises. Show less
The Third Avant-garde investigates radical art manifestations in Southeast Asia, which took place around the mid-1980s, when postmodernism started to gain force in the region. It proposes that... Show moreThe Third Avant-garde investigates radical art manifestations in Southeast Asia, which took place around the mid-1980s, when postmodernism started to gain force in the region. It proposes that the advent of postmodernism in Southeast Asia is anchored in the materiality of traditional arts, an aspect that renders it different from its Western equivalent. The dissertation distinguishes two sets of postmodern manifestations: first, practices that use traditions in a celebratory way, and second, a set of works which use traditional arts radically. This study proposes that the second possibility manifests a double dismantle—first, against local patronizing forces that were enforcing artists to practice academic art and Western media (such as painting and sculpture), and second, a distancing attitude from Western art intelligentsia, who acted as ‘owners of the discourse’, and regarded ‘non-Western’ practitioners as followers rather than as trendsetters. For this investigation, the discipline of anthropology was called in, as was the art historical category of the avant-garde. The two approaches combined reveal how contemporary art from Southeast Asia that reprocesses traditional arts can be regarded as avant-garde. These gestures are novel, and result from practicing art in a certain location, and which is bound to a specific socio-political context. Show less
This article contributes to the need for imagining forms of sociological thinking and doing beyond the univocity of disciplinary knowledge. In order to do so, we demonstrate how connections... Show moreThis article contributes to the need for imagining forms of sociological thinking and doing beyond the univocity of disciplinary knowledge. In order to do so, we demonstrate how connections between different ‘sensory worlds’ involve equivocal understandings about what the ‘social’ entails. We begin by considering current anthropological reflections on the equivocal character of social relations as well as the equivocal ways in which western sociology has conceptualized the ‘social’. In order to visualize how ‘equivocal connections’ between different sensory worlds emerge, we build on Mapuche indigenous understandings about how different practices open up different sensory worlds. Through the examination of one of the hunger strikes that has taken place in the conflict between Mapuche people and the Chilean state, we show how such equivocal connections entail ontological, rather than epistemological, differences. Both as ethical and epistemological imperative, these differences must be actively demonstrated in order to reinvigorate the sociological imagination. Show less
A lamak is a long narrow hanging that is an essential requirement at most rituals in Bali. Made usually of palm leaves, it is by nature ephemeral. Although permanent forms of lamak, made of... Show more A lamak is a long narrow hanging that is an essential requirement at most rituals in Bali. Made usually of palm leaves, it is by nature ephemeral. Although permanent forms of lamak, made of cloth or coins, exist, the ephemeral palm leaf form must be present. Hung from altars and shrines, a lamak serves as base for offerings and attracts deities and deified ancestors to them. Decorative motifs representing sources of life are ordered according to Balinese concepts of the vertical structure of the cosmos. Through offerings and the active role of the lamak, worshippers offer thanks to their deities and request prosperity and protection. Despite decades of change and modernization in Bali, the role of the lamak has survived intact. This is the first study to examine in detail this unique form of ephemeral material culture which is a prominent aspect of Balinese creativity. The study answers the question: why do Balinese make lamak and why do they continue to make them time and again? It examines the use and function of the lamak in ritual, the motifs that decorate them, the materials and techniques to make them, regional and individual styles, and processes of change and commercialization. Show less
This thesis traces and analyses the evolution of domestic space in Maltese vernacular and ‘polite’ houses from the medieval to contemporary times. The houses under study range from humble... Show more This thesis traces and analyses the evolution of domestic space in Maltese vernacular and ‘polite’ houses from the medieval to contemporary times. The houses under study range from humble buildings of modest size, materials and design, like farmhouses or those for the less affluent town-dwellers, to buildings of grand design, like townhouses and palazzi. Owing to the complex nature of the Maltese houses a combination of enquires and a variety of sources was necessary to achieve a holistic picture. This included fieldwork in different parts of the islands, extensive research work in local archives, libraries and museums, an analysis of a sample of literary sources, national censuses and works-of-art, as well as methods of spatial analysis (Space Syntax). Show less
Anthropologists have been studying the various phenomena associated with states and ‘state-like’ structures for a long time (cf. Fortes 1940, Leach 1954). It was only in the last decade of the 20th... Show moreAnthropologists have been studying the various phenomena associated with states and ‘state-like’ structures for a long time (cf. Fortes 1940, Leach 1954). It was only in the last decade of the 20th century, however, that ethnographers began to specifically define a new field for the study of the contemporary forms, functions, and actions of state apparatuses.Critical of both anthropological and political science approaches studying the state in African contexts, this volume’s stated objective is to shift focus from the “margins or interstices” of the state (cf. Das and Poole 2004) and towards the very core of bureaucratic processes and state actors. Show less
Dit boek gaat over de relatie tussen de Marokkaanse overheid en Marokkaanse Nederlanders. Het perspectief van Marokkaanse Nederlanders staat hierin centraal. Wat zijn hun percepties over,... Show moreDit boek gaat over de relatie tussen de Marokkaanse overheid en Marokkaanse Nederlanders. Het perspectief van Marokkaanse Nederlanders staat hierin centraal. Wat zijn hun percepties over, ervaringen met en reacties op de zogenaamde ‘lange arm’ van Marokko?De Marokkaanse overheid voert actief beleid om banden te onderhouden met Marokkaanse Nederlanders; er is een Marokkaans ministerie van Marokkanen in het Buitenland, Stichting Hassan II organiseert zomerreizen naar Marokko en de overheid heeft programma’s om investeerders met een Marokkaanse achtergrond te begeleiden bij ondernemingen in Marokko. Deze relatie is in Nederland onderwerp van discussie, omdat ze als problematisch wordt ervaren. Er bestaat maatschappelijke en politieke onrust over dubbele nationaliteiten en het contact tussen burgers en een vreemde overheid.De Nederlandse discussie richt zich voornamelijk op het optreden van de Marokkaanse overheid. Er is opvallend weinig aandacht voor wat de Marokkaanse Nederlanders hiervan merken en wat zij hiermee doen. Marokkaanse Nederlanders blijven uit beeld of worden voorgesteld als enigszins weerloze ontvangers van de boodschappen en belangen die de Marokkaanse overheid over ze uitspreidt. Dit boek laat zien dat dit beeld onvolledig is: voor de daadwerkelijke uitvoering van het Marokkaanse overheidsbeleid vervullen Marokkaanse Nederlanders zelf een cruciale rol Show less
This is a study of oral tradition focusing on family stories that relate to historical events and social issues of contemporary Mentawai kin groups. I give descriptive answers for the central... Show moreThis is a study of oral tradition focusing on family stories that relate to historical events and social issues of contemporary Mentawai kin groups. I give descriptive answers for the central research question of how and to what extent oral narratives are involved in dealing with current issues about place of origin, the notion of identity, and discourses about land and land rights in Mentawai society in Indonesia. The family stories are an important source of information with regard to identity, forming a verbal reflection of the kin groups__ identity and justifying certain claims with regard to ancestral land. A family story must be properly preserved by its owners by carefully transmitting the content and significance of the story to following generations. The power of human memory plays an important part in maintaining and transmitting the significance of past events. In the field of oral tradition, family stories can thus be regarded as a specific genre of oral narratives. When studying oral narratives it is, in my opinion, important to pay special attention to family stories. Not in the last place so, because the communities still using family stories frequently consider them indispensable. Show less
