Bernard Magubane’s critique of anthropology in southern Africa: an introductory essay

ABSTRACT

This essay is an attempt to piece together the fundamentals of Bernard Magubane’s critique of anthropology in southern Africa. The point is not to berate the discipline of anthropology, but to discuss Magubane’s work in relation to it. The essay comprises three main parts. First, it examines Magubane’s critique of southern African anthropology in a colonial situation – particularly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Second, it assesses the usefulness of anthropological notions of pluralism and ‘tribalism’ in explaining conflicts in Africa. The remainder of the essay contends with anthropological themes such as social change and ‘modernisation’ in southern Africa. Generally, anthropology had problems at two levels: political and epistemological. Politically, anthropology was a handmaiden of colonialism and imperialism; and its main flaw was to study southern African societies outside of history and context. Epistemologically, anthropology is a discipline founded on alterity, that is, on studying the cultural Other.     

泰南四府民族分裂主义的由来、演变与出路

在当今世界上,民族与宗教问题往往是引发地区骚乱或局部战争的导火线,而且往往与政治、经济问题交织在一起.泰南四府马来族穆斯林民族分裂主义的性质也基本如此.近百年来它始终困扰着泰国政府,尤其是二战以后,泰南穆斯林地区由于宗教、民族矛盾的发展,政治上的不平等和经济上落后等因素,导致要求独立自决的运动一直延绵不断,并由政治斗争发展到武装斗争.特别是在2001年"9·11"事件发生后,泰南四府原来积存的矛盾被重新激活,民族分裂主义分子公开采取了暴力恐怖手段与政治对抗,企图谋求独立,且愈演愈烈,引起了世人的广泛关注. 综观泰国历届政府的政策,笔者认为,为了打击南部民族分裂主义势力,仅靠法律手段和政治措施是远远不够的,武装镇压或同化政策也是难以奏效的.为了实现民族团结,社会和谐,国家稳定,首先要承认民族文化、宗教信仰等社会发展的多元性,尊重和保护宗教信仰自由,用政治对话代替武力对抗,用改革政策取代同化政策,加快经济发展,缩小贫富差距,增加人民收入,提高生活水平,做到社会公平、分配公正.青年是国家的未来,要重视和加强对青少年的教育和培养.政府要通过诚意来逐步取得绝大多数穆斯林的理解与支持,不给少数顽固的穆斯林分裂主义者以可乘之机.只有这样,才能逐步铲除南部的民族分裂主义势力,真正实现民族和睦、社会和谐和国家的稳定.     

Repression,co-optation and insurgency: Pakistan’s FATA,Southern Thailand and Papua,Indonesia

Scholars have long identified state repression as playing a key role in the onset of insurgency. Violence by security forces increases anger against the state and assists with rebel recruitment. Yet scholars have also recognised that repression does not always lead to rebellion: in some cases it successfully quashes movements before they have begun. This study advances an argument for when and why repression leads to insurgency and sometimes does not. We contend that violence by state security forces can fail to trigger rebellion if local elites within the repressed community are simultaneously co-opted with political and economic opportunities. When elites are satisfied with local autonomy and patronage they deprive the dissident movement of local leadership and coordination. When the state uses repression against a community and at the same time abandons this mutually beneficial relationship, the insurgency has both the leadership and grassroots support it requires. We illustrate our argument by examining three cases of state violence in Asia. In two of our cases, Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Southern Thailand, repression led directly to insurgency. In the third, Papua in Indonesia, ongoing co-optation of local elites has left the movement factionalised and weak.     

Opposition dynamism under authoritarianism: the case of Yemen, 1994–2011

In contrast to the empirical conditions in large parts of the authoritarian world, the systematic literature on political opposition under authoritarianism either treats the opposition as a static entity or fails to comprehensively address its dynamic character. On the basis of a critical literature review and an ensuing analysis of the Joint Meeting Parties, a cross-ideological opposition alliance that gradually evolved to become the main competitor of the Salih regime in Yemen, we suggest that political opposition in electoral authoritarian regimes is an intrinsically dynamic institution in terms of its organizational shape, its goals and its modes of contestation. We also show that, while authoritarian structures do set the basic conditions defining opposition action, much of what motivates this action and contributes to opposition dynamism emerges from within the opposition. In addition, our findings on the Yemeni case suggest that opposition dynamism peaks when the strength of the opposition is nearly on par with that of the regime.     

Can the Welfare State as We Know It Survive? A View from the Crisis-Ridden South European Periphery

South European countries have been hit hardest and longest by the post-2008 economic crisis. This has brought their welfare states under acute strain. Unmet need has sharply increased while significant welfare reforms and (more or less) deep cuts and changes in social spending have been prominent in the repertoire of the crisis management solutions implemented by the governments (under European Union constraints and the strict rescue-deal requirements for Greece and Portugal). This introduction briefly reviews reform trends prior to and during the crisis in order to highlight convergent and divergent paths among the four countries and outline the major questions addressed by the contributions to this volume.     

两宋时期巴蜀医学繁盛原因

两宋时期巴蜀地区名医辈出,医药著述丰富。兴盛的巴蜀文化、稳定的政治环境、繁荣的经济、发达的地方医学教育、丰富的药材资源等都为巴蜀地区医学的繁盛提供了条件。     

乡村文化建设与社会主义新农村建设——兼谈苏南地区乡村文化建设

社会主义新农村建设的最终目标不仅要求实现农村经济的快速、健康发展,更是要求实现乡村主体——农民的现代转型。在乡村主体的现代转型过程中,文化的作用至关重要。当下乡村文化存在制度、功能、内容危机等问题,而文化认同危机是其根本问题。乡村文化危机表明了乡村文化现代重建的必要性与紧迫性,也为乡村文化的现代重建指明了努力的方向。苏南乡村文化建设也可以将此分析作为制定建设规划的理论参考。     

The ‘African gangs’ narrative: associating Blackness with criminality and other anti-Black racist tropes in Australia

ABSTRACT

This article explores and theorizes anti-Black racist discourses that shape the ways in which the Australian media and other mainstream Australian institutions talk about and view Black Africans. It argues that the long-standing racist trope of synonymizing Blackness with criminality is widespread in Australia. Thus, among other things, this paper theorizes the Australian media narrative of ‘African gangs’ who are supposedly causing havoc in the State of Victoria, Australia. It argues that the January 2018 media reporting about the so-called ‘African gangs’ is a good example that illustrates how the long-standing racist trope of conflating Blackness with criminality is employed in Australia. The discussion is framed within a Black/African Diaspora theoretical framework that allows this study to conceptualize and connect the lived experiences of Black people globally.     

Economic crisis and the variety of populist response: evidence from Greece,Portugal and Spain

Abstract

Greece, Portugal and Spain are among the countries worst hit by the 2008 Great Recession, followed by significant electoral and political turmoil. However, one of the dimensions in which they differ is the presence and varieties of populism in parties’ political proposals. Drawing on holistic coding of party manifestos, we assess the varying presence of populist rhetoric in mainstream and challenger parties before and after the 2008 economic downturn. Our empirical findings show that populism is much higher in Greece compared to Spain and Portugal. We do not find a significant impact of the crisis as the degree of populism remains rather stable in Greece and Portugal, while it increases in Spain, mainly due to the rise of new populist forces. The study confirms that populist rhetoric is a strategy adopted mainly by challenger and ideologically radical parties. In addition, inclusionary populism is the predominant flavour of populist parties in new Southern Europe, although exclusionary populism is present to a lesser extent in the Greek case. We contend that the interaction between the national context – namely the ideological legacy of parties and the main dimensions of competition – and the strategic options of party leadership is crucial for explaining cross-country variation in the intensity of populism and the specific issues that characterise populist discourse.     

The integration hypothesis: How the European Union shapes economic voting

Whereas economic perceptions influence the national vote in Western European countries, globalization, or international openness, conditions the influence of economic perceptions on that national vote. But how do attitudes toward the EU itself influence the economic vote? After establishing the presence of a national economic vote in Southern Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal) we test the hypothesis that heightened perception of European Union economic responsibility reduces the magnitude of the national economic vote coefficient. These tests are carried out on current (2009) survey data, via logistic regression analysis of fully specified voting behavior models, estimated country-by-country and in a data pool. Clearly, the national economic vote diminishes, to the extent the EU is held responsible for the economy.