Anthropology Commons^™

Anthropology, Human Rights, And Legal Knowledge: Culture In The Iron Cage, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

In this article, I draw on ethnography in the particular zone of engagement between anthropologists, on the one hand, and human rights lawyers who are skeptical of the human rights regime, on the other hand. I argue that many of the problems anthropologists encounter with the appropriation and marginalization of anthropology's analytical tools can be understood in terms of the legal character of human rights. In particular, discursive engagement between anthropology and human rights is animated by the pervasive instrumentalism of legal knowledge. I contend that both anthropologists who seek to describe the culture of human rights and lawyers who …

Division Within The Boundaries, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

In the Part-European settlement of Kasavu, Fiji, land is divided in each generation into parallel plots of ever-decreasing width but identical form. Kinship as division, I argue, is knowledge which is not representative of social relations and which therefore does not effectuate 'change'. This is contrasted to an additive logic of of kinship relations among urban Part-Europeans, a logic in which information is potentially infinite and thus always incomplete, and in which knowledge attaches to persons and changes through techniques of collective discovery.

Property As Legal Knowledge: Means And Ends, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

This article takes anthropologists’ renewed interest in property theory as an opportunity to consider legal theory-making as an ethnographic subject in its own right. My focus is on one particular construct – the instrument, or relation of means to ends, that animates both legal and anthropological theories about property. An analysis of the workings of this construct leads to the conclusion that rather than critique the ends of legal knowledge, the anthropology of property should devote itself to articulating its own means.

A New Agenda For The Cultural Study Of Law: Taking On The Technicalities, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

This article urges humanistic legal studies to take the technical dimensions of law as a central focus of inquiry. Using archival and ethnographic investigations into developments in American Conflict of Laws doctrines as an example, and building on insights in the anthropology of knowledge and in science and technology studies that focus on technical practices in scientific and engineering domains, it aims to show that the technologies of law - an ideology that law is a tool and an accompanying technical aesthetic of legal knowledge - are far more central and far more interesting dimensions of legal practice than humanists …

Introducing Discipline: Anthropology And Human Rights Administrations, Iris Jean-Klein, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

Anthropologists engage human rights administrations with an implicit promise that our discipline has something unique to offer. The articles in this special issue turn questions about relevance and care so often heard in the context of debates about human rights outside in. They focus not on how anthropology can contribute to human rights activities, but on what anthropological encounters with human rights contribute to the development of our discipline. They ask, how exactly do we render the subject relevant to anthropology? Reflecting on some ways anthropologists in this field have dispensed care for their subjects, the authors highlight two modalities …

Infinity Within The Brackets, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

The ethnographic subjects of this article are UN-sponsored international conferences and their legal documents. Drawing upon fieldwork among Fiji delegates at these conferences, in this article I demonstrate the centrality of matters of form, as distinct from questions of “meaning,” in the negotiation of international agreements. A parallel usage of documents and of mats among Fijian negotiators provides a heuristic device for exploring questions of pattern and scale in the aesthetics of negotiation.

Real Time: Unwinding Technocratic And Anthropological Knowledge, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

“The Bank of Japan is our mother,” bankers in Tokyo sometimes said of Japan's central bank. Drawing on this metaphor as an ethnographic resource, and on the example of central bankers who sought to unwind their own technocratic knowledge by replacing it with a real-time machine, I retrace the ethnographic task of unwinding technocratic knowledge from those anthropological knowledge practices that critique technocracy. In so doing, I draw attention to special methodological problems—involving the relationship between ethnography, analysis, and reception—in the representation and critique of contemporary knowledge practices.

An Ethnography Of Abstractions?, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

No abstract provided.

Foreword: Transdisciplinary Conflicts Of Law, Ralf Michaels, Karen Knop, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

This introduction to our co-edited special issue of Law and Contemporary Problems addresses how interdisciplinary studies might contribute to the revitalization of the field of Conflict of Laws. The introduction surveys existing approaches to interdisciplinarity in conflict of laws - drawn primarily from economics, political science, anthropology and sociology. It argues that most of these interdisciplinary efforts have remained internal to the law, relating conflicts to other legal spheres and issue areas. It summarizes some of the contributions of these projects but also outlines the ways they fall short of the full promise of interdisciplinary work in Conflicts scholarship, and …

Opting For Elsewhere: Lifestyle Migration In The American Middle Class, Brian A. Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

Junior Scholars Panel Discussion, Morag Kersel

Morag M. Kersel

No abstract provided.

Assessing International (Post)Graduate Education: A Research Agenda. Australian Universities' Review: 54 (1): 72-82, Tami Blumenfield, Maresi Nerad

Tami Blumenfield

No abstract provided.

Theories And Practices Of Islamic Finance And Exchange Laws: Poverty Of Interest, Ahmed E. Souaiaia

Ahmed E SOUAIAIA

Looters Raid Jordanian Crypts In Search Of Gold, Jewels And Artifacts, Morag Kersel

Morag M. Kersel

No abstract provided.

River Road Through Laos: Reflections Of The Mekong, James A. Hafner, Joel M. Halpern, Barbara Kerewsky-Halpern

James A Hafner

No abstract provided.

Southeast Asian Refugees In Western Massachusetts: Seen But Not Heard, James A. Hafner, Jeannine Muldoon, Elizabeth Brewer

James A Hafner

The United States has a long and valued tradition of receiving people from other lands as a result of social and political turmoil. This policy has been reaffirmed frequently in the last quarter century with the arrival of refugees from such geographically diverse locations as Eastern Europe, Cuba, Southeast Asia, and Central America. Perhaps, Southeast Asians have experienced greater national and personal tragedy than any other group of refugees arriving in this country in recent memory. It is specifically this population and their resettlement and adjustment to life in Western Massachusetts which is the subject of this report. These issues …

Salt, Seasons And Sampans: Riverine Trade And Trqansport In Central Thailand, James Hafner

James A Hafner

Introduction Since Sir John Bowring first recorded these impressions of the central plain of Thailand in the middle of the last, century, time has unalterably changed the context of his account, though not entirely its accuracy. The ‘feracious jungle’ which covered much of the lower central plain in Bowring's time began to disappear under the plow of the Thai peasant farmer in the latter decades of the last century. By 1900 the landscape had been almost entirely converted to an intensive system of irrigated wet-padi production for export. The establishrnent and growth of this commercial agricultural economy has resulted in …

Por Una Antropología Del Derecho Más Allá De Los Márgenes., Daniel Quiñonez

Daniel Quiñonez Oré

El presente artículo tiene por finalidad plantear un estudio antropológico del Derecho más allá de los márgenes; esto es, más allá de los temas tradicionales que se han venido desarrollando en la Antropología del Derecho Peruana, a efectos de que mediante la antropología y su método se cuestionen las instituciones jurídicas que se presentan como cotidianas y normalizadas en nuestro contexto.

Early Life Environment, Fertility And Age Of Menarche: A Test Of Life History Predictions Using A Longitudinal Assessment Of Adversity Perception And Economic Status, Dorsa Amir, Matthew R. Jordan, Richard G. Bribiescas

Richard G. Bribiescas

Perceptions of early life environmental adversity can affect the timing of life history transitions and investment in reproductive effort. These effects are well documented in non-human organisms, but have been challenging to test in humans. Here we present evidence of the effects of variables associated with extrinsic mortality and morbidity on reproductive effort in a contemporary American population. Using a longitudinal database that sampled participants (N ≥ 1,579) at four points during adolescence and early adulthood, variables reflective of perceptions of adversity and risk were significantly associated with age of menarche and early adult fertility. While other factors related to …

Annotated Bibliography: Interaction With Animals (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

Erich Yahner, MSLIS

No abstract provided.

Annotated Bibliography: Cruelty To Animals And Violence To Humans (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

Erich Yahner

No abstract provided.

Hsisp Annotated Bibliography: Interaction With Animals (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

Erich Yahner

No abstract provided.

Animals & Society Courses: A Growing Trend In Post-Secondary Education, Jonathan Balcombe

Jonathan Balcombe, PhD

A survey of college courses addressing nonhuman animal ethics and welfare issues indicates that the presence of such courses has increased greatly since a prior survey was done in 1983. This paper provides titles and affiliations of 67 of 89 courses from the current Survey. These courses represent 15 academic fields, and a majority are entirely devoted to animal issues. The fields of animal science and philosophy are proportionally well represented compared with biology and wildlife-related fields. An estimated 5000 or more North American students are now receiving instruction in these issues each year. While the availability of courses in …

Peruvian Trajectories Of Sociocultural Transformation, Daniel Paracka, Ernesto Silva

Daniel Paracka

The story of Peru presents a continuous trajectory of sociocultural transformation where one civilization appropriates, borrows, and builds on the accomplishments of the previous often creating something new and unique. During the Year of Peru program KSU's faculty and students had the opportunity to learn in depth about Peru's rich history, culture, and modern society. They learned about a country rich in archeological discovery and human history, a story that does not simply begin with the Inca Empire, as the Inca were just one in a long line of powerful ancient civilizations (Chavin, Wari, Nazca, Moche, etc.) that previously ruled …

Re-Writing Culture In Taiwan Edited By Fang-Long Shih, Stuart Thompson And Paul-François Tremlett, Marc L. Moskowitz

Marc L. Moskowitz

No abstract provided.

Message In A Bottle: Lyrical Laments And Emotional Expression In Mandopop, Marc Moskowitz

Marc L. Moskowitz

This article explores the ubiquitous themes of loneliness, isolation and anomie in Mandopop (Mandarin Chinese language pop music). This is not to imply that people in the PRC and Taiwan are lonelier than people from other countries but, rather, that being human they experience these emotions. What is distinctive here is that Mandopop becomes a primary conduit to express feelings that are sanctioned in daily speech. The article addresses these concerns and uses in-depth interviews in Shanghai and Taipei to find out why Mandopop's themes ofloneliness and isolation are so resonant to its fans.

Behind The Silence: Chinese Voices On Abortion By Nie Jing-Bao, Marc Moskowitz

Marc L. Moskowitz

No abstract provided.

Framing The Bride: Globalizing Beauty And Romance In Taiwan’S Bridal Industry By Bonnie Adrian, Marc L. Moskowitz

Marc L. Moskowitz

No abstract provided.

A Test Of The Intergenerational Conflict Model In Indonesia Shows No Evidence Of Earlier Menopause In Female-Dispersing Groups, Kristin Snopkowski, Cristina Moya, Rebecca Sear

Kristin Snopkowski

Menopause remains an evolutionary puzzle, as humans are unique among primates in having a long post-fertile lifespan. One model proposes that intergenerational conflict in patrilocal populations favours female reproductive cessation. This model predicts that women should experience menopause earlier in groups with an evolutionary history of patrilocality compared with matrilocal groups. Using data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey, we test this model at multiple timescales: deep historical time, comparing age at menopause in ancestrally patrilocal Chinese Indonesians with ancestrally matrilocal Austronesian Indonesians; more recent historical time, comparing age at menopause in ethnic groups with differing postmarital residence within Indonesia …

Examination Of Observed Differences By Ethnicity In Pregnancy Outcome For A Geographically Determined Cohort Of Teenagers, Carolyn Behrman

Carolyn Behrman

No abstract provided.