Archive for april, 2009
Article in Gaudemus- on english
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology, India, Popular culture on april 11th, 2009
Google translate made this nearly correct translation possible; The title is “travel in the country of contrasts- a reciprocal study” a link to an English version of the article Gaudeamus
Article in Gaudeamus
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology, India, Popular culture on april 10th, 2009
Gaudeamus is the Stockholm University student Unions’s magazine. In the latest issue I wrote an article about my fieldwork in Delhi. Im sorry all you English speaking, Gaudeamus is in Swedish;
My article; Travelling in the country of contrasts
Desi Girls throgh a theoretical frame
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology on april 7th, 2009
Since I am at the final month of my Master thesis work I decided to share a theoretical framework today; The reality that we all experience are multilayered, we use all our senses when interpreting a situation, a conversation or an experience, to be able to grasp the complexity of my field and field data I use a ‘multi perspective frame’ (Winther Jørgensen and Philips 2000:141-2). To grasp different angles I combine different approaches with a base in Cultural studies, social constructionism and discourse analysis. The empirical data collected in the field constitutes the backbone of my thesis.
To be able to frame the vast amount of voices, actions and stories I collected during my time spent with the Delhi Girls, my main method of analysis is discourse analysis. This method enables me to identify the prevailing discourses of gender in the informants’ speech, actions and accounts. As an anthropologist I seek to interpret the meaning in the local context and therefore I appreciate the cultural studies standpoint in regards to anthropology. Pertti Alasuutari Proffessor at the Tempere University and founding and current editor of the European Journal of Cultural Studies and the first chair of the international Association for Cultural Studies. In his publication ‘Researching Culture- Qualitative method and cultural studies’, Alasuutari defines the essence of cultural studies;
” [A] key aspect of the theoretical perspective presented by cultural studies is the view that ‘meaning’ is not just a quality of certain specific beings; it is not a stamp that is used for labelling certain objects. Reality is socially constructed through and through; it is composed of interpretations of meanings and rules of interpretation on the basis of which people orientate themselves in everyday life.” (Alasuutari 1995:27 cursive in original).
Thanks Mead & Benedict
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology on april 5th, 2009
The two first acknowledged female anthropologists, Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict both criticized their own society through their ethnographies in their genderpositions and by presenting their work for a public audience as well as for the academic audience. They both considered cultural relativism as a necessary approach and had common theories based on culture, personality, patterns of culture and models human behaviour.
Mead’s Coming of age in Samoa was published in 1928 and Patterns of Culture by Benedict in 1934. Up to date the anthropologists where men studying men, the so called elderly men approach that resulted in descriptive anthropology presenting the lives lived by the eldest and wisest men in society. The changes in the younger generations behaviour where dismissed i the elderly men approach and the societies being studied where freezed in time and not even in the present but in the past represented by memories from the elderly men. This was challenged by Mead who used adolescents as informants, she gave the double subjugated voice- adolescent girls.
Benedict also has an agenda concerning inequality in the American society, but her main theme is discrimination on the foundation of sexuality. Benedict is widely respected in gay and lesbian communities up to date since she was a pioneer even in this area to challenge standardised norms of western society in making a be pro-gay standpoint. Taking a pro-gay stand in the 1920ies was of course controversial!
These two female anthropologists made way for many more female anthropologists to come, and I admire their courage to enter the field and new approaches and topics in the male dominated discipline of anthropology. In my master thesis I am aiming at approaching a wider audience like Mead and Benedict and I am also, like Mead studying adolescent girls. Nowadays my deadline is getting closer, so lots of knowledge production is taking place at the moment. MA knowledge!
Dawit Isaak
Dawit Isaak is a Swedish journalist who has been captivated in Eritrea without trial or charges for 8 years! It is high time to sign for the Campaign Free Dawit!
He is not only a man, a journalist but also a symbol for all prisoners being kept without a fair trial, there are hundreds of fellow journalists sharing the same faith as Dawit. So please please sign, because if Dawit is free, so many others can also attain justice.
The joke of the day
Posted by Johanna in Popular culture on april 1st, 2009
First of April, a brilliant joke accompanied the morning coffee. The Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter published an article that informed us that we can start buying a VIP travel card for the metro and buses in Stockholm. The VIP card holders are privileged to enter the bus first, they never need to queue and they are always guaranteed a seat in the bus as well as in the separate VIP carriages on the Stockholm tube! Further the article presents the comments from as socialist politician who is, of course, upset about the class implications that the VIP card brings. Class divisions to me is a typically funny Swedish joke, concerning our socialist heritage it is just so OBVIOUS that a VIP travel card would never be for real in Sweden, and that is why it is a brilliant, brilliant joke!
