民族志与现代性故事--以罗香凝《另类现代性--后社会主义中国的性别渴望》为例

西方人类学向来关注的是非西方的"非现代性"故事,在20世纪七八十年代以来的人类学学科反思中,西方和非西方不平等的权力关系的知识建构方式受到批评.民族志<另类现代性>在展示某国营丝织厂三代女工如何在所谓现代性的语境中栖居的同时,质疑了关于现代性的人类学所包含的普遍、同质的现代性的预设.该民族志充分表达了对知识建构的自觉和反思,其中女性主义的洞识及其女性主义国际主义的政治议程也为后现代民族志写作实验增加了新的维度,并挑战了西方人类学最顽固的预设西方(男性)自我和非西方(男性)他者的二元对立.     

Solidarity and Social Networks: The Invisible Backbone That Ethiopians and Eritreans in Washington D.C. used to Transform Adams Morgan and U Street

Abstract

This research depicts the social networks that the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities use to establish and support ethnic and non-cultural businesses in Washington D.C. It also showcases the solidarity expressions that, behind-the-scenes, sustain and help strengthen these migrant-led businesses in the area. Furthermore, it describes the opportunity structure found in Washington D.C. that has allowed Ethiopians and Eritreans to open businesses and progress in neighborhoods such as Adams Morgan and U Street. The study uses ethnographic research comprised of participant observation and in-depth interviews to analyze 20 case studies of successful Ethiopian and Eritrean entrepreneurs in D.C. This paper describes the characteristics of an immigrant community that is underrepresented in the literature, especially regarding its entrepreneurship; it underscores the special role that family and kin play in supporting their entrepreneurship; and it makes visible the impact that Ethiopians and Eritreans have had in some areas of Washington D.C.     

Mobile pastoralism a century apart: continuity and change in south-eastern Kazakhstan, 1910 and 2012

ABSTRACT

This article challenges the ahistorical figure of the ‘steppe nomad’ by presenting some of the main characteristics of Kazakh nomadic pastoralism, which vary widely in time and space. It compares two ethnographic studies conducted a century apart in the same place in south-eastern Kazakhstan: a statistical survey from 1910 and an account of a transhumance in which the author took part in June 2012. Sedentary pastoralism now prevails in Kazakhstan, but a system of seasonal pastures endures in some areas. In Ra?ymbek District (Almaty Province), vertical nomadism takes advantage of the altitudinal variations of vegetation and climate. This article demonstrates both the continuity of nomadic routes despite successive crises during the twentieth century, and considers the overall change from quasi-nomadism to quasi-sedentarism. This comparison a century apart also fosters dialogue between history and social anthropology through a dual synchronic approach, seeking to restore historicity to our understanding of pastoral nomadism.     

Description of the peasants’ sexual behavior in August Wilhelm Hupel’s Topographical Messages in the context of the history of the Estonian family

The aim of this article is to introduce the work of August Wilhem Hupel, a Baltic German author of the 18th century. The article focuses on the sections in his most voluminous work Topographische Nachrichten von Lief- und Ehstland (1774–1782) that describe Estonian peasants’ sexuality. Hupel’s writings belong to the sources of the history of the Estonian family, a field that has been rediscovered at the beginning of the 21st century. Thanks to the work of Marika Mägi and Nils Blomkvist, a new paradigm for research in this field has been opened up. This article adheres to that paradigm.     

‘There were ethical dilemmas all day long!’: harrowing tales of ethnographic researchers in criminology and criminal justice

While there have been many ethnographies published within the disciplines of criminology and criminal justice, very few studies have examined actual field researchers who have successfully employed this qualitative technique. In this exploratory study, we identified and conducted phone interviews with a sample of eight scholars who have used variations of the ethnographic method to study aspects of life which relate to crime, deviant behavior, and social control. Respondents revealed to us their colorful stories, as well as the risks, rewards, and ethical dilemmas they experienced while attempting to balance the delicate roles of being insiders, outsiders, researchers, and participants. They specifically discussed how they negotiated the personal and professional obstacles of being thrust into criminal worlds (as well as criminal justice worlds) and ultimately managed to thrive while conducting fieldwork in perilous places.     

Psychic investment in cruelty: three parables on race and imprisoning the mentally ill

Drawing on ethnographic and activist work in New York, I analyze three contemporary cases of mentally ill people charged violent crimes. State violence against them can be characterized as a differential and differentiated set of racial and gendered practices. The case studies offer something between a parable, a field report, and a cautionary tale of the dystopian tendencies already embedded within the criminal justice system in the United States. Based on these cases, I will argue that despite recent liberal reform, scant evidence suggests any deep shift in the web of agencies that pipe people, especially the mentally ill, into prison and jail, or a shift in the cruel and humiliating practices these agencies embody. For the society to achieve what Du Bois called an abolition democracy, the affective infrastructure and psychic investment in debasing subordinated others would have to be abolished.     

Russia and Caspian Oil: Moscow Loses Control

A senior specialist on the Soviet and Russian economies examines issues surrounding the prominence of Caspian Sea oil in Russian policy. Attention is devoted to the evolution of Russian policy toward ownership of seabed resources, participation in international development consortia, and the routes, construction, and ownership of pipelines connecting the Caspian to world markets. Each issue is treated as one that engages the economics, politics, and security dimensions of international relations. Alternative scenarios for the future are outlined.     

How the detection of insurance fraud succeeds and fails

Abstract

Insurance fraud is a serious and growing problem, and there is widespread recognition that traditional approaches to tackling fraud are inadequate. Studies of insurance fraud have typically focused upon identifying characteristics of fraudulent claims and claimants, and this focus is apparent in the current wave of forensic and data-mining technologies for fraud detection. An alternative approach is to understand and then optimize existing practices in the detection of fraud. We report an ethnographic study that explored the nature of motor insurance fraud-detection practices in two leading insurance companies. The results of the study suggest that an occupational focus on the practices of fraud detection can complement and enhance forensic and data-mining approaches to the detection of potentially fraudulent claims.     

Diamond signs: generic stones and particular gems

Analysis of narratives from ethnographic research with diamond consumers representing the target market (largely middle-class white women between 20 and 50 years of age) reveals how symbolic associations promoted by industry are refracted through interpretations of both adverts and diamonds in general, but shows that local contingencies (basic attitudes and knowledge about diamonds and their production, circumstances of acquisition, and personal histories) are significant in determining meanings of people's own specific diamonds. Far from being batch absorbers of advert discourse, consumers are idiosyncratic, creative, and sometimes playful interpreters, and furthermore may distinguish between these strategies and those suggested by adverts or as performed by others. These findings are in part explicable on introducing for diamond consumption an important distinction between type and token, whereby a token is a specific instantiation of a generic type. This approach contributes to developing methods supple enough to capture consumers’ multi-dimensional interpretive strategies.     

Scarification and identity in the liberated Africans department register, 1814–1815

This research intersects with ongoing efforts to understand the identity of enslaved Africans entering the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Methods of reading scarification, along with its close analogue tattooing within the African context are a fundamental starting point for this study. Evidence for this approach may be found in the Registers of Liberated Africans, which are held at the Sierra Leone Public Archives at Fourah Bay College and at the National Archives in Kew. These documents, created between 1808–1862, provide data for nearly 100,000 Africans removed from vessels and holding pens which would have sent them to the Americas. Considered in light of anthropological theories of identity and the marked body, this data can be unpacked to find hidden meanings. This study employs a new approach to understanding origins, by translating body modification to understand the information conveyed through the skins of individuals.