Erkan's field diary

HTS Researcher Killed in Afghanistan

By Maximilian Forte

Despite my repeated criticisms of the Human Terrain Systems work that involves social scientists, anthropologists included, in counterinsurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am linking to this news merely for the record. Some of my criticisms were also posted in the AAA news blog. I neither wish to cheer this death, nor to indulge in the kind of pious sanctimony I have encountered in readers’ comments on some of the sites below, with their unscrupulous and quick little promotional plugs for the “good” of HTS. As far as I am aware, this is the first HTS researcher to have been killed as a result of combat, and for as long as the program continues one can expect that there will be additional fatalities, both for HTS members and even more so for the subject populations they are monitoring.

Guardian reports on HTS

There is a short piece today in the Guardian about HTS, Minerva, global counterinsurgency, etc., tied to the Michael Bhatia story.  The story also reports on the recent conference hosted by the department of anthropology at the University of Chicago that Oneman attended.  While the story mentions a host of characters we have seen quoted in the press before on this issue, including Fosher, Sahlins, McFate, et al, it also quotes John Kelly, who I haven’t yet seen discussing this issue in the press.

Not Radical Enough: Disengaged Anthropology

By Maximilian Forte

“The choice to rely … on cultural anthropologists in the rebuilding of a defeated enemy has particular resonance now as the United States struggles to rebuild a stable and viable Iraq. … As the occupation of Iraq appears more complex by the day, where are the new Ruth Benedicts, authoritative voices who will carry weight with both Iraqis and Americans?”
—–Alexander Stille, “Experts can help rebuild a country,” The New York Times, 19 July, 2003.

(Notes and comments on:

Anthropology is Dead, Long Live Anthropology! (Who Wants to Leave those Golden Rule Days in the Jungle?) - 1.3

By Maximilian Forte

Teaching with Twitter

By Prof Wesch

The World Simulation was an amazing success this year, thanks in part to the use of Twitter and Jott, which allowed students to send live updates of major events through their mobile phones. You can check out the tweets here. Below is a video of the tweet-stream roughly synchronized with the events

Audience ethnography bibliography

By John Postill

Francisco Osorio and I are putting together an audience ethnography annotated bibliography. New entries always welcome.

Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist

By John Postill

An interesting looking blog by Gabriele Marranci.

Postill, J. (2008) From action groups to smart mobs

By John Postill

I gave this presentation last month but have only just now put it online. I revisit the history of political anthropology, particularly the 1950s to 1960s ‘action theory’ phase, to undertake some lexical mining in search of concepts that can help us to make sense of recent political events such as People Power II in Manila or the electoral upheaval following the Madrid bombings in 2004, in which mass demonstrations were swiftly organised using mobile and Internet technologies.

Fields and networks

By John Postill on network

I’m marking student assignments all day today and tomorrow, dear readers. Hope to pick up some blogging early next week before the next batch of scripts.

When I’m not marking I’m trying to finish an article for the anthropology journal Ethnos in which I track the activities and uses of digital technologies of three grassroots leaders in Subang Jaya-USJ (a suburb of Kuala Lumpur).

The resurgence of African anthropology

By Lorenz

What is the state of anthropology at African universities? African anthropology is interdisciplinary and focuses on solving problems like poverty, diseases and violence, Paul Nchoji Nkwi writes in the book World Anthropologies (download the book):

Anthropologists in the public sphere

By llwynn

I just received my March 08 copy of American Anthropologist (and it’s only May!! — that’s what you get when you live in Australia) and was reading Matti Bunzl’s article, “The Quest for Anthropological Relevance.” Bunzl’s article is a call for greater public engagement by anthropologists, and an attempt to explain “the persistent failure of contemporary anthropologists…to play a more prominent role in the public sphere.”  His key argument is that the lack of public intellectuals amongst this generation of anthropologists boils down to the dominant epistemology of our discipline. In short, he argues that anthropologists from the 1990s on are so busy complexifying the world that they can’t take enough of a powerful stand on any position to have any traction in popular culture..........

RECLAIM THE ANTHROPOLOGIX

By Maximilian Forte

Another treasure accidentally found on YouTube — “Anthem of Freelance Anthropology” shown on MTV.

Freedom sounds mix of Ehtnographic Public Domain Footage:

Useful Anthropology (and “Political Gonorrhoea”)

By Maximilian Forte

A variety of thoughts on the “uses” and “usefulness” of anthropology were provoked by Lorenz Khazaleh’s synopsis on African anthropology, which also contains links to online papers of the World Anthropologies Network, a source of especial importance to some of the issues I wish to cover in this blog.

Within the North American context it is not difficult to encounter opinions that academics in general, especially in the social sciences and humanities, should “get out there” and “do something useful.” In fact it is this very same type of overt anti-intellectualism that is used by so many online commentators in justifying the work of anthropologists in counterinsurgency intelligence gathering in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least two assumptions are at work in this “get out there and make yourself useful” notion.

Seattle Woman Studies Anthropology of Homelessness
KUOW NPR - Seattle,WA,USA
One woman in Seattle does the opposite: she studies the anthropology of street people. Ann Dornfeld has this profile. IT'S A SPRING MORNING IN DOWNTOWN ...

Thussu, D.K. (2008) News as Entertainment

By John Postill

 

Ursula Rao (University of New South Wales) wrote:

 

“I read the book “news as entertainment” by Thussu very carefully and think it provides a very good review of a lot of literature on the theme. In fact it is extremely helpful when trying to get a grip on the social science literature on infotainment.

Anthroblogology – Commercialisation in the Malaysian Blogosphere

Hi and thanks for dropping by – this sticky post is to explain (a bit) the anthropological research I’m doing on Malaysian blogs and bloggers for a PhD in Social Anthropology at Monash University.

If you’re a Malaysian blogger, or a blogger living in Malaysia, my research is about YOU!

Lila Abu Lughod: "In Israel and Palestine we have an amazing opportunity"

By Lorenz

(via CultureMatters) While Israelis celebrate the 60th anniversary of their state’s founding, Palestinians around the world are mourning the “Nakba” - or “catastrophe” - that drove so many into exile. SPIEGEL ONLINE interviewed anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod on the Nakba and today’s Palestine.

Burma, biofuels and public anthropology

By Jovan

Seeing as we have been talking about Burma and the cyclone, biofuels, and the role of anthropologists as public intellectuals, here is a short news piece from the ABC by Monique Skidmore, anthropologist at the ANU, which combines all three.

Nikolas Rose, Neurosociology, and Neurochemical Selves

By dlende on general

Nikolas Rose, a well-established sociologist at the London School of Economics, has become increasingly interested in how the brain sciences and sociology can constructively interact. Like many of us, his own intellectual history reflects this; originally trained as a biologist, he then switched to psychology before finally ending up in sociology. His older research centered on “social and political history of the human sciences, on the genealogy of subjectivity, on the history of empirical thought in sociology, and on changing rationalities and techniques of political power.”