This volume shows that organised emancipatory politics, in part or mainly reinforced by arms, is ... more This volume shows that organised emancipatory politics, in part or mainly reinforced by arms, is still very much alive in a range of postcolonial states. By 'emancipatory politics' we mean political activities that aim to end exploitation and enhance participatory democracy through which leadership can be held to account on a daily as well as periodic basis, in the workplace and beyond. Whether it be India, Nepal, the Philippines, Peru or Columbia, long-standing armed movements aiming to seize and transform state power are still burning and working for a different future. In Euro-American debate it is easy to forget those movements – some of which have a more than forty-year history – of the Maoists in India or Nepal, FARC in Columbia, or the Communist Party of the Philippines. We focus here on movements that are still very much active as well as on movements of Marxist emancipatory change that achieved state power – the Mozambican case of Frelimo and the Sandinistas of Nicaragua – whose experiences shed an important critical light on those that are still in active struggle.
These cases have been chosen to illustrate a range of reasons for embarking on and sustaining armed struggle. We show that questions of ideological, political and economic organization strongly influence the specifically military aspects of these movements. Most are adaptations of Mao's Chinese revolutionary movement and its tenets, but some refer to other revolutionary traditions. The selection is not meant to be comprehensive, but to focus on the reasons for and history of movements of this kind, highlighting the limitations that this mobilisation and its ties to Maoist teachings have placed on their emancipatory politics.
Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I (2017)
Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon War... more Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I (2017) Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon Wardle
Foreword by Keith Hart 1“Introduction: Cosmopolitics as a Way of Thinking,” by Huon Wardle and Justin Shaffner 2 "Cosmopolitics and Common Sense," by Huon Wardle 3 "What Did Kant Mean by and Why Did He Adopt a Cosmopolitan Point of View in History?," by Thomas Sturm 4 "Can the Thing Speak?," by Martin Holbraad 5 "Devouring Objects of Study Food and Fieldwork," by Sidney W. Mintz 6 "Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation," by Philip Swift 7 "Why do the gods look like that? Material Embodiments of Shifting Meanings," by John McCreery 8 "How Knowledge Grows An Anthropological Anamorphosis," by Alberto Corsín Jiménez 9 “An Amazonian Question of Ironies and the Grotesque,” by Joanna Overing 10 "Lance Armstrong: The Reality Show (A Cultural Analysis)," by Lee Drummond 11 "Ritual Murder?," by Jean La Fontaine 12 "An Extreme Reading of Facebook," by Daniel Miller 13 "Friendship, Anthropology," by Liria de la Cruz and Paloma Gay y Blasco
Setups and punchlines are the basic elements of stand-up comedy bits. Generally speaking, the set... more Setups and punchlines are the basic elements of stand-up comedy bits. Generally speaking, the setup puts forth a situation or an idea, on which the punchline provides a new, sometimes radically altered, perspective. Ideally, this twist or reversal creates a dialectical relation of tension between the two that cannot be resolved by appeal to either setup or punchline, but traps thought between them in an 'epistemological problem' as comedian Louis CK put it. For comedians, setups and punchlines are basic tools, practical and concrete ways to create and organize material. They are also familiar to humor theorists. One of the main theories of humor focuses on incongruity: jokes involve bringing together elements that don't seem to belong together. However, incongruity by itself is not enough to make something funny; the elements need to be related in a more precise way so as to open up a range of imaginative possibilities between them, enabling reflexive digressions. In this paper, I offer an analysis of how a setup and punchline relate to each other as a reversible figure-ground pair (in the sense of Roy Wagner). Through exploring the semiotic relations in specific examples of comedy bits I will show how incongruities can be evoked and calibrated, and discuss how the bit may be related further through figure-ground relations to other elements, such as the persona of the comedian, current events, or cultural conventions. The research is based on 20 months of ethnographic field work in Finland, including becoming an amateur comedian myself.
Let me start by describing a scene I witnessed in 2006. I was doing my fieldwork in Ilhéus, a cit... more Let me start by describing a scene I witnessed in 2006. I was doing my fieldwork in Ilhéus, a city located in the Brazilian State of Bahia. The members of the Terreiro – or temple — Matamba Tombenci Neto were attending a feast of candomblé — one of the many religions of African matrix in Brazil.
Looking back, what impresses me is my difficulty to deal with what went on. Why did I think I could bring the meeting to an end just because I could not stand it? Why did I imagine it was about to end at various points? And finally, what was the source of my unease and my inability to really understand what was happening?
One world, or many? Cosmopolitics has two current meanings. The first is Kant's: we all live in t... more One world, or many? Cosmopolitics has two current meanings. The first is Kant's: we all live in the same world and the aim of anthropology is to explore the politics of that fact starting with each human being’s particular knowledge of the world and their judgements about it. The second is newer, but echoes Leibniz: human worldviews are not detachable from the network of perspectives and agencies that help sustain them: humanity has no universal register: human lives exist as elements of ethnologically and ontologically diverse cosmoses-in-the-making: there can be no clear translation between these; only a politics of approximation and negotiation. The Open Anthropology Cooperative's first volume of collected papers sets about exploring this fundamental antinomy in contemporary anthropology drawing on a series of individual works originally published and discussed at its online site.
Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon Wardle
1“Introduction: Cosmopolitics as a Way of Thinking,” by Huon Wardle and Justin Shaffner 2 "Cosmopolitics and Common Sense," by Huon Wardle 3 "What Did Kant Mean by and Why Did He Adopt a Cosmopolitan Point of View in History?," by Thomas Sturm 4 "Can the Thing Speak?," by Martin Holbraad 5 "Devouring Objects of Study Food and Fieldwork," by Sidney W. Mintz 6 "Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation," by Philip Swift 7 "Why do the gods look like that? Material Embodiments of Shifting Meanings," by John McCreery 8 "How Knowledge Grows An Anthropological Anamorphosis," by Alberto Corsín Jiménez 9 “An Amazonian Question of Ironies and the Grotesque,” by Joanna Overing 10 "Lance Armstrong: The Reality Show (A Cultural Analysis)," by Lee Drummond 11 "Ritual Murder?," by Jean La Fontaine 12 "An Extreme Reading of Facebook," by Daniel Miller 13 "Friendship, Anthropology," by Liria de la Cruz and Paloma Gay y Blasco
This volume shows that organised emancipatory politics, in part or mainly reinforced by arms, is ... more This volume shows that organised emancipatory politics, in part or mainly reinforced by arms, is still very much alive in a range of postcolonial states. By 'emancipatory politics' we mean political activities that aim to end exploitation and enhance participatory democracy through which leadership can be held to account on a daily as well as periodic basis, in the workplace and beyond. Whether it be India, Nepal, the Philippines, Peru or Columbia, long-standing armed movements aiming to seize and transform state power are still burning and working for a different future. In Euro-American debate it is easy to forget those movements – some of which have a more than forty-year history – of the Maoists in India or Nepal, FARC in Columbia, or the Communist Party of the Philippines. We focus here on movements that are still very much active as well as on movements of Marxist emancipatory change that achieved state power – the Mozambican case of Frelimo and the Sandinistas of Nicaragua – whose experiences shed an important critical light on those that are still in active struggle.
These cases have been chosen to illustrate a range of reasons for embarking on and sustaining armed struggle. We show that questions of ideological, political and economic organization strongly influence the specifically military aspects of these movements. Most are adaptations of Mao's Chinese revolutionary movement and its tenets, but some refer to other revolutionary traditions. The selection is not meant to be comprehensive, but to focus on the reasons for and history of movements of this kind, highlighting the limitations that this mobilisation and its ties to Maoist teachings have placed on their emancipatory politics.
Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I (2017)
Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon War... more Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I (2017) Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon Wardle
Foreword by Keith Hart 1“Introduction: Cosmopolitics as a Way of Thinking,” by Huon Wardle and Justin Shaffner 2 "Cosmopolitics and Common Sense," by Huon Wardle 3 "What Did Kant Mean by and Why Did He Adopt a Cosmopolitan Point of View in History?," by Thomas Sturm 4 "Can the Thing Speak?," by Martin Holbraad 5 "Devouring Objects of Study Food and Fieldwork," by Sidney W. Mintz 6 "Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation," by Philip Swift 7 "Why do the gods look like that? Material Embodiments of Shifting Meanings," by John McCreery 8 "How Knowledge Grows An Anthropological Anamorphosis," by Alberto Corsín Jiménez 9 “An Amazonian Question of Ironies and the Grotesque,” by Joanna Overing 10 "Lance Armstrong: The Reality Show (A Cultural Analysis)," by Lee Drummond 11 "Ritual Murder?," by Jean La Fontaine 12 "An Extreme Reading of Facebook," by Daniel Miller 13 "Friendship, Anthropology," by Liria de la Cruz and Paloma Gay y Blasco
Setups and punchlines are the basic elements of stand-up comedy bits. Generally speaking, the set... more Setups and punchlines are the basic elements of stand-up comedy bits. Generally speaking, the setup puts forth a situation or an idea, on which the punchline provides a new, sometimes radically altered, perspective. Ideally, this twist or reversal creates a dialectical relation of tension between the two that cannot be resolved by appeal to either setup or punchline, but traps thought between them in an 'epistemological problem' as comedian Louis CK put it. For comedians, setups and punchlines are basic tools, practical and concrete ways to create and organize material. They are also familiar to humor theorists. One of the main theories of humor focuses on incongruity: jokes involve bringing together elements that don't seem to belong together. However, incongruity by itself is not enough to make something funny; the elements need to be related in a more precise way so as to open up a range of imaginative possibilities between them, enabling reflexive digressions. In this paper, I offer an analysis of how a setup and punchline relate to each other as a reversible figure-ground pair (in the sense of Roy Wagner). Through exploring the semiotic relations in specific examples of comedy bits I will show how incongruities can be evoked and calibrated, and discuss how the bit may be related further through figure-ground relations to other elements, such as the persona of the comedian, current events, or cultural conventions. The research is based on 20 months of ethnographic field work in Finland, including becoming an amateur comedian myself.
Let me start by describing a scene I witnessed in 2006. I was doing my fieldwork in Ilhéus, a cit... more Let me start by describing a scene I witnessed in 2006. I was doing my fieldwork in Ilhéus, a city located in the Brazilian State of Bahia. The members of the Terreiro – or temple — Matamba Tombenci Neto were attending a feast of candomblé — one of the many religions of African matrix in Brazil.
Looking back, what impresses me is my difficulty to deal with what went on. Why did I think I could bring the meeting to an end just because I could not stand it? Why did I imagine it was about to end at various points? And finally, what was the source of my unease and my inability to really understand what was happening?
One world, or many? Cosmopolitics has two current meanings. The first is Kant's: we all live in t... more One world, or many? Cosmopolitics has two current meanings. The first is Kant's: we all live in the same world and the aim of anthropology is to explore the politics of that fact starting with each human being’s particular knowledge of the world and their judgements about it. The second is newer, but echoes Leibniz: human worldviews are not detachable from the network of perspectives and agencies that help sustain them: humanity has no universal register: human lives exist as elements of ethnologically and ontologically diverse cosmoses-in-the-making: there can be no clear translation between these; only a politics of approximation and negotiation. The Open Anthropology Cooperative's first volume of collected papers sets about exploring this fundamental antinomy in contemporary anthropology drawing on a series of individual works originally published and discussed at its online site.
Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon Wardle
1“Introduction: Cosmopolitics as a Way of Thinking,” by Huon Wardle and Justin Shaffner 2 "Cosmopolitics and Common Sense," by Huon Wardle 3 "What Did Kant Mean by and Why Did He Adopt a Cosmopolitan Point of View in History?," by Thomas Sturm 4 "Can the Thing Speak?," by Martin Holbraad 5 "Devouring Objects of Study Food and Fieldwork," by Sidney W. Mintz 6 "Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation," by Philip Swift 7 "Why do the gods look like that? Material Embodiments of Shifting Meanings," by John McCreery 8 "How Knowledge Grows An Anthropological Anamorphosis," by Alberto Corsín Jiménez 9 “An Amazonian Question of Ironies and the Grotesque,” by Joanna Overing 10 "Lance Armstrong: The Reality Show (A Cultural Analysis)," by Lee Drummond 11 "Ritual Murder?," by Jean La Fontaine 12 "An Extreme Reading of Facebook," by Daniel Miller 13 "Friendship, Anthropology," by Liria de la Cruz and Paloma Gay y Blasco
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These cases have been chosen to illustrate a range of reasons for embarking on and sustaining armed struggle. We show that questions of ideological, political and economic organization strongly influence the specifically military aspects of these movements. Most are adaptations of Mao's Chinese revolutionary movement and its tenets, but some refer to other revolutionary traditions. The selection is not meant to be comprehensive, but to focus on the reasons for and history of movements of this kind, highlighting the limitations that this mobilisation and its ties to Maoist teachings have placed on their emancipatory politics.
Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon Wardle
Foreword by Keith Hart
1“Introduction: Cosmopolitics as a Way of Thinking,” by Huon Wardle and Justin Shaffner
2 "Cosmopolitics and Common Sense," by Huon Wardle
3 "What Did Kant Mean by and Why Did He Adopt a Cosmopolitan Point of View in History?," by Thomas Sturm
4 "Can the Thing Speak?," by Martin Holbraad
5 "Devouring Objects of Study Food and Fieldwork," by Sidney W. Mintz
6 "Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation," by Philip Swift
7 "Why do the gods look like that? Material Embodiments of Shifting Meanings," by John McCreery
8 "How Knowledge Grows An Anthropological Anamorphosis," by Alberto Corsín Jiménez
9 “An Amazonian Question of Ironies and the Grotesque,” by Joanna Overing
10 "Lance Armstrong: The Reality Show (A Cultural Analysis)," by Lee Drummond
11 "Ritual Murder?," by Jean La Fontaine
12 "An Extreme Reading of Facebook," by Daniel Miller
13 "Friendship, Anthropology," by Liria de la Cruz and Paloma Gay y Blasco
Drafts by OAC Press
Looking back, what impresses me is my difficulty to deal with what went on. Why did I think I could bring the meeting to an end just because I could not stand it? Why did I imagine it was about to end at various points? And finally, what was the source of my unease and my inability to really understand what was happening?
Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I
Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon Wardle
1“Introduction: Cosmopolitics as a Way of Thinking,” by Huon Wardle and Justin Shaffner
2 "Cosmopolitics and Common Sense," by Huon Wardle
3 "What Did Kant Mean by and Why Did He Adopt a Cosmopolitan Point of View in History?," by Thomas Sturm
4 "Can the Thing Speak?," by Martin Holbraad
5 "Devouring Objects of Study Food and Fieldwork," by Sidney W. Mintz
6 "Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation," by Philip Swift
7 "Why do the gods look like that? Material Embodiments of Shifting Meanings," by John McCreery
8 "How Knowledge Grows An Anthropological Anamorphosis," by Alberto Corsín Jiménez
9 “An Amazonian Question of Ironies and the Grotesque,” by Joanna Overing
10 "Lance Armstrong: The Reality Show (A Cultural Analysis)," by Lee Drummond
11 "Ritual Murder?," by Jean La Fontaine
12 "An Extreme Reading of Facebook," by Daniel Miller
13 "Friendship, Anthropology," by Liria de la Cruz and Paloma Gay y Blasco
These cases have been chosen to illustrate a range of reasons for embarking on and sustaining armed struggle. We show that questions of ideological, political and economic organization strongly influence the specifically military aspects of these movements. Most are adaptations of Mao's Chinese revolutionary movement and its tenets, but some refer to other revolutionary traditions. The selection is not meant to be comprehensive, but to focus on the reasons for and history of movements of this kind, highlighting the limitations that this mobilisation and its ties to Maoist teachings have placed on their emancipatory politics.
Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon Wardle
Foreword by Keith Hart
1“Introduction: Cosmopolitics as a Way of Thinking,” by Huon Wardle and Justin Shaffner
2 "Cosmopolitics and Common Sense," by Huon Wardle
3 "What Did Kant Mean by and Why Did He Adopt a Cosmopolitan Point of View in History?," by Thomas Sturm
4 "Can the Thing Speak?," by Martin Holbraad
5 "Devouring Objects of Study Food and Fieldwork," by Sidney W. Mintz
6 "Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation," by Philip Swift
7 "Why do the gods look like that? Material Embodiments of Shifting Meanings," by John McCreery
8 "How Knowledge Grows An Anthropological Anamorphosis," by Alberto Corsín Jiménez
9 “An Amazonian Question of Ironies and the Grotesque,” by Joanna Overing
10 "Lance Armstrong: The Reality Show (A Cultural Analysis)," by Lee Drummond
11 "Ritual Murder?," by Jean La Fontaine
12 "An Extreme Reading of Facebook," by Daniel Miller
13 "Friendship, Anthropology," by Liria de la Cruz and Paloma Gay y Blasco
Looking back, what impresses me is my difficulty to deal with what went on. Why did I think I could bring the meeting to an end just because I could not stand it? Why did I imagine it was about to end at various points? And finally, what was the source of my unease and my inability to really understand what was happening?
Cosmopolitics: Collected Papers of the OAC, Volume I
Editors, Justin Shaffner and Huon Wardle
1“Introduction: Cosmopolitics as a Way of Thinking,” by Huon Wardle and Justin Shaffner
2 "Cosmopolitics and Common Sense," by Huon Wardle
3 "What Did Kant Mean by and Why Did He Adopt a Cosmopolitan Point of View in History?," by Thomas Sturm
4 "Can the Thing Speak?," by Martin Holbraad
5 "Devouring Objects of Study Food and Fieldwork," by Sidney W. Mintz
6 "Cosmetic Cosmologies in Japan Notes Towards a Superficial Investigation," by Philip Swift
7 "Why do the gods look like that? Material Embodiments of Shifting Meanings," by John McCreery
8 "How Knowledge Grows An Anthropological Anamorphosis," by Alberto Corsín Jiménez
9 “An Amazonian Question of Ironies and the Grotesque,” by Joanna Overing
10 "Lance Armstrong: The Reality Show (A Cultural Analysis)," by Lee Drummond
11 "Ritual Murder?," by Jean La Fontaine
12 "An Extreme Reading of Facebook," by Daniel Miller
13 "Friendship, Anthropology," by Liria de la Cruz and Paloma Gay y Blasco