Berlin has seen a growing influx of Chinese artists in recent years. This ethnographic study, based on one-and-a-half years of fieldwork in Berlin, examines the centralized structure of the global art world through the lens of Chinese migrant artists in Berlin. General theories of international migration are insufficient to explain the migration patterns of these artists; instead, an understanding of their embeddedness in the art world and Berlin's status as a global art center is necessary. While Chinese artists struggle with marginalization in Berlin's art scene and rely heavily on the Chinese art market for economic sustenance, they find "based in Berlin" an advantageous choice for the career. The centralization of resources, networks, and consecration and symbolic power in the art world motivates many to reside in Berlin. The increasing international mobility of artists does not signify the decentralization of the global art world. Chinese artists' migration to Berlin, and the challenges they encounter, manifest the persistent Euro-American dominance in contemporary art. This research contributes to the anthropology of contemporary art by intersecting migration studies and the global art world.
Fredrik Barth, the editor of Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (1969), was a descendant of a Saxon. This means that the act of crossing the ethnic boundary and the change of ethnic membership-structurally the same as in an iconic case described by Haaland when Fur became Baggara-happened in his own ancestral family, amidst Norwegian society. Barth's own ancestry thus contained potentially all that was necessary for analyses of the kind that form the core of the paradigm-shifting work of Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. Barth and other authors of the volume, however, based their theoretical model of ethnic groups and relations on materials from faraway, typically non-Western societies, and thus confirmed anthropology as a science of exotic groups and peoples. By placing the venues of trans/formation of ethnic identities into exotic locales, the volume also conduced to "exoticization" of these processes. As a consequence, the volume contributed to dismissing of Europe as a proper place for anthropological fieldwork and discriminating against the anthropology Europe as a relevant discourse. The author tries to decolonize social anthropology and promote the anthropology of Europe, by pointing out to the fact that the same phenomena may have been observed in Europe, in the very societies and strata, of which anthropologist are a part.
This article is based on an analysis of a traditional pottery craft in a village on the fringes of Tibet, and investigates the fundamental role it plays on the local economy, society and family structure. The reconstruction of the craft's operational chain, from raw materials procurement to commercialization of the finished products, is closely related to Nixi village's relative prosperity and it is a manifestation of the specific ecological niche in which the settlement is nestled. Economic, social and cultural elements, in summary, merge within the socio-technical study of the ware, in which the master potter, as the bearer of the tradition and the main economic figure, both of the community and the individual household, plays a pivotal role. Last but not least, the article also focuses on the social change that is particularly noticeable in the contrast of lifestyles and religious and economic motivations between Master Chen Deyong and his urbanized offspring.
In the field of forensics, one of the most crucial tasks for a criminal investigator is suspect identification. Among various anthropometric features, the dimensions of the foot, particularly its length and width, hold significant value in establishing a person's identity. This paper aims to introduce a methodology designed for identifying individuals based on shoeprints left at crime scenes. The methodology is exemplified through a real case study involving bloody shoeprints, which served as a pivotal clue in a homicide investigation. The methods and findings of this study can serve as a framework to be used in similar cases.
The Purulia district of West Bengal, India, is a rural region consistently recording high crime rates against women. Consequently, the women in this area are subjected to extreme forms of subjugation and repression. They are even restricted from actively participating in most cultural expressions and rituals, an embargo upheld for generations. Purulia Chhau, the district's century-old traditional masked dance theater expression, had thus never permitted women performers within its fold. However, with the dawn of urbanization and education, as life in Purulia gradually transformed over the past decade, some women started questioning and challenging their social suppression, using innovative means. Utilizing Purulia Chhau as an evocative conduit to disseminate their egalitarian contention, Mitali Chhau Maldih Mahila Dal is a first-of-its-kind women's performance troupe that has defied the archaic community norms that forbade women from participating in cultural events. Triangulating inductive-iterative methods of ethnography with social semiotics, this study traces the rebellious/ confrontational stance of these women performers, against the social conventions that forbid their involvement-as a statement of their non-conformity and protest not just against cultural exclusion, but in the larger context challenging their overall subjugation in various facets of everyday life. Furthermore, the study also identifies how, apart from defying the restrictions imposed on them, these women have also ensured utilizing the anecdotes of women's empowerment from within the mythological narratives of Goddess Durga and Kali to justify their desires. An innovative pitch ensuring religious logic is resourcefully framed to sensitize the devout male audiences otherwise engaged in devi worship. Moreover, apart from unearthing the struggles of these women performers in negotiating the coercion, threats, and other gender-based impediments, the role of Purulia Chhau as a potent communication medium empowering their dissent is also revealed through this study.
This paper analyses perceptions of the climate crisis by newsworkers of Slovenian (online) media and their news coverage of this topic. Through qualitative analysis of the in-depth interviews, the paper offers insights into the attitudes, perceptions, and motivations of selected Slovenian journalists and editors about climate change reporting and new insights into journalism practice and environmental journalism in Slovenia in terms of the peculiarities and contextual factors that can influence coverage of extreme weather events and climate change. The results show that the environmental and climate topics are underrepresented in Slovenian media, and these topics are covered in accordance with newsworthiness and public liking factors, and marketing neoliberal pressures to sell the news and make a profit. Such a commercialization and popularization of environmental journalism might lead to the passiveness of the audiences since it does not mobilize public awareness but rather represents the environmental topic as just another story in the media. The lack of analytical depth, critical problematization, wider contextualization of climate change, and the exaltation of journalistic norms of dramatization, eventization, noveltyization, and personalization prevent grasping the problem holistically.
This article presents an ethnographic account of the Universidad Ind & iacute;gena de Venezuela (UIV), a pioneering initiative that allows us to apply and connect theories on ethnicity and development. We expound the historical processes and space-time structures of this organization: the UIV is analyzed as a country-wide social network, as a specific place (Cano Tauca), and as a set of rituals, symbols and discourses that build a particular institutional "culture". The ironies of development as a global industry and discourse are shown, but also the paradoxes and unavoidable tensions of a well-intended local project. The complexities of ethnicity are unfolded in order to evidence the pressure of European-rooted political molds. But Indigenous Universities - among other indigenous movements - are more than an adaptation to those globalized models: They provide a chance to open Western epistemology (and politics) to other worldviews.
Lateralization manifests as a sensory or muscular preference. These preferences are often crucial for (1) handedness calculation (determined by the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory - EHI) and determination of self-reported handedness, (2) description of the relationship between handedness and different side preferences, specifically footedness, eyedness and chewing side preference. Our sample consisted of 133 laterality and EHI questionnaires filled in by healthy adults (self-reported 72 right-handed, 2 ambidextrous and 59 left-handed). Results showed that self-reported and calculated handedness were in a 100 % agreement for right-handers. There was an approximately 80 % agreement for left-handers, as only 8 individuals were classified as ambidextrous, and 2 individuals were classified as right-handers. There was a strong correlation between EHI activities and handedness. Footedness and chewing side preference showed a moderate correlation with handedness. Eyedness showed only a weak correlation. No significant sex differences were found. In conclusion, a significant relationship between self-reported and calculated handedness was found. Accuracy in categorizing handedness was 100 % for right-handers and 80 % for left-handers. Writing and drawing showed the strongest correlation with handedness, while eye preference had the weakest correlation. A crossed laterality was found more in left-handed individuals.
In the latter half of the 1990s, a former member of the Polish national artistic gymnastics team, Hanna Fidusiewicz, took steps to transform sports aerobics into a national sports discipline. She ultimately failed in her endeavours. To date, Poland still has no national team in sports aerobics. The present article works through the failure ethnographically. Based on the analysis of ethnographic interviews with Hanna Fidusiewicz conducted over twenty years after the events to which they refer, this article aims to demonstrate the complexity of the relations and understandings that contributed to the constitution of failure in the specific context.
This text aims to contribute to Romani studies by exploring the practices and strategies of American Gitano migrants in Argentina who have circulated in local, regional, national, and transnational spaces. Ethnohistory and social memory allow us to trace the origin of the dynamics that opened new horizons for the Gitanos in their transatlantic migration and circulation in American territory. The current principles of circulation in America express the very life of the Gitanos, their love of their time, and their space, which is connected with the construction of their sense of self and the establishment of the Gitano presence in the world. This shows, on the one hand, how this migration to Argentina created an open space for social inclusion and modernization and, on the other, how mobility regimes, past and present, are intertwined with family and economic reproduction as key dimensions of the Gitano historical and anthropological system.
This paper analyses perceptions of the climate crisis by newsworkers of Slovenian (online) media and their news coverage of this topic. Through qualitative analysis of the in-depth interviews, the paper offers insights into the attitudes, perceptions, and motivations of selected Slovenian journalists and editors about climate change reporting and new insights into journalism practice and environmental journalism in Slovenia in terms of the peculiarities and contextual factors that can influence coverage of extreme weather events and climate change. The results show that the environmental and climate topics are underrepresented in Slovenian media, and these topics are covered in accordance with newsworthiness and public liking factors, and marketing neoliberal pressures to sell the news and make a profit. Such a commercialization and popularization of environmental journalism might lead to the passiveness of the audiences since it does not mobilize public awareness but rather represents the environmental topic as just another story in the media. The lack of analytical depth, critical problematization, wider contextualization of climate change, and the exaltation of journalistic norms of dramatization, eventization, noveltyization, and personalization prevent grasping the problem holistically.
College campuses imbibe the empirical trends of social life: network societies, social divisions, and fantasies of opulence where the forces of global capital interact within the campuses. This paper understands the "market logic" as in Aug & eacute;an Non-Places, an archetype of frontier-less ontology that has evolved like a rhizome within the college campuses. Auge's Non-Places are ephemeral, sans frontiers, governed by audio-visual technology, and find their existence on the campuses in its commodified capacity of brand logos, internet connectivity, hypermediated consumption, caf & eacute;s, commerce, cash machines, and transitory relationships. The theoretical framework speculates campuses as ontological spaces bereft of conventional demarcations, intricately bourgeoning institutionally akin to the rhizomatic presence. The present analysis scrutinizes the pivotal role played by the imperatives of global capital and market dynamics with the aim of furnishing educational campuses and making them Augean non-places. Employing literary-discourse analysis, this idea has been interrogated through the study of three Indian Campus Fictions (elite institutes) to explore the campuses of Indian Institutes of Technology as Aug & eacute;an Non-Places through the lens of brand, US life, and relationships that attest further to the porosity, fragility, and the customized nature; all-encompassing the campuses as places of commerce, true to Aug & eacute;an Non-Places.
Ghosting has mostly been associated with app -dating. However, our research addresses "ghosting" as a broader field of face-to-face avoidance practices. The article highlights the role of avoidance in emotional practices to maintain ongoing relationships. In the case of contemporary Spain, the structural uncertainty that permeates intimate relationships - related to neoliberalism's emphasis on individualism in the shaping of subjectivities - is reinforced by the tension in the coexistence of romantic and confluent models of love, which translates into a lack of scripts when it comes to dealing with intimacy. Drawing on the results of an ethnographic research project based on interviews with adults in the city of Madrid, we examine the ways in which social actors adapt their behavior to the context through what we have called "ghosting emotions." This analytical tool accounts for those individual strategies, which, as a result of an exercise of emotional reflexivity, limit relationality by avoiding certain social practices in the shaping of intimacy. Thus, this article shows the concrete processes through which actors develop patterns shaping structural dimensions in contemporary intimacies when facing uncertainties. To safeguard individuality within relationships, these practices function as a means of enhancing a sense of control by leaving "an open door".
This article illuminates a nuanced interaction between the ethnic minorities in Southwest China and the state, centering on tourism development. Through an ethnographic case study of Upper Langde Miao village, this article documents the transformation from the village's self -governed to county -government -directed tourism and explores under what conditions it loses out to the statecraft. It explains the seemingly radical changes from the villagers' avoidance of the state to their recent desire, despite distrust, for a just state to deliver economic benefits. This is more a situational adoption of a development paradigm of the state than a subjective identification with the state -nation.
The colonial difference within academic institutions and their researchers affects not only the way in which Romani people are analyzed as an object of study but also the legitimacy accorded to Romani researchers working on their own community. Historical research on the recent past through oral sources during the context of the Covid-19 global health crisis has brought to the table the value of Roma historians in examining the Roma themselves. This article aims to establish a relationship between the internal coloniality that affects the academy and the methodological possibilities that the Roma researcher has in relation to the rest. The result is a colonial critique of the narratives of power reflected in the procedures placing and signifying the Roma historian at the core of the issue.
This paper sets out the findings of an interdisciplinary anthropological investigation. I consider the phenomenon of sainthood by reference to urban anthropology. In addition, analyzing the visual aspects in the case of sainthood cannot be separated from visual studies. Finally, I appeal to borderland (region) studies, while simultaneously analyzing clashes between different confessions in such border cities as Vilnius. In taking an anthropological and phenomenological approach, I assert that the phenomena are real if they fall within the range of human experience, whether individual or social. In the paper, the theses are developed as follows. 1) As with phenomenology, anthropology deals with the emergence of visual phenomena instead of rejecting miracles as unscientific. For anthropology, every visual phenomenon is real if it takes place in one's life. 2) The saints also represent the symbolic walls or religious borders inside a city, inside a state, and a region. 3) The life of a saint should be extraordinary and should provoke changes in the social order or even misunderstandings. 4) Canonization is like a narrow gate, although not as much for the people as for the nations that have more or less political -religious weight. 5) The public cult of the saints is inseparable from the identity of a particular city or state. 6) An anthropological approach means the way through heteronomous phenomena, instead of the way from generalization and unification. 7) Anthropological analysis of the saints in a city integrates different theoretical approaches.
Statistics from all over the world show that agriculture is one of the riskiest work en-vironments in terms of occupational health and safety. In Slovenia, the health sta-tistics on people who farm are of poor quality; only data on occupational accidents are available, and even these are underestimated. This article discusses the need for solid farmer and farm worker health statistics in Slovenia, as well as the obstacles and pitfalls faced by potential data owners and their users. As part of the anthropo-logical research project Changes in Agriculture Through the Farmers' Eyes and Bod-ies, this study reflects on material obtained in three focus groups with the owners of health and health-related national databases and other representatives of various governmental and nongovernmental agricultural organizations. The results show that research participants are interested in health statistics about people who farm. However, they expand on several factors and circumstances that need to be consid-ered to ensure the quality of data collection, as well as the benefits of such data to farmers and farm workers themselves.
