{"title":"Amis Indigeneity in Taiwan","authors":"Niki J Alsford","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12895","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8322.12895","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This comment explores the cultural heritage and challenges of the Amis, Taiwan's largest recognized Indigenous group. Drawing on Povinelli's ‘The Cunning of Recognition,’ it argues that state recognition perpetuates power imbalances and commodifies Amis culture. It examines the Amis age-set system, its role in preserving traditional knowledge, and its challenges due to modernization. It highlights the importance of community-led initiatives like ’Etolan Style in fostering cultural expression, economic empowerment, and the revitalization of Amis heritage in a post-colonial world.</p>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141245813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Anthropology in times of escalating conflicts","authors":"Emanuel Schaeublin","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12889","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8322.12889","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Escalating conflicts often lead to the proliferation of oversimplified narratives and intense pressure to conform to them. Anthropology can play a crucial role in such situations by (1) analysing the origins and mechanisms of enforcement of these narratives across various contexts, providing a more nuanced understanding of the conflict's dynamics; (2) challenging dominant framings of specific aspects of the conflict by producing contextualized knowledge, thereby offering alternative perspectives and insights; and (3) highlighting narratives that acknowledge the responsibility of the involved actors and explore new possibilities for political co-existence. To illustrate these points, this guest editorial applies narrative conflict theory to the violence between Israelis and Palestinians since 7 October 2023 and invites readers to reflect on the discipline's responsibilities and methods in the face of the normalization of war and annihilation.</p>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 3","pages":"1-2"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141245611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Compensation for cultural loss in Indigenous Australia","authors":"Richard J. Martin","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12890","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8322.12890","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The issue of compensation for harm to Indigenous culture is increasingly prominent in Australian society, given the High Court's landmark decision in <i>Northern Territory v Griffiths</i> (2019). The High Court sought to assess the meaning of cultural loss from Indigenous testimony and ‘translate the spiritual hurt from the compensable acts into compensation’. The destruction of Juukan Gorge in Western Australia's Pilbara region in 2020 also prompted efforts to assess, evaluate and remedy the harm Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples suffered. Parallel debates about treaties have also raised the possibility of reparations for colonization. This article considers the challenges these legal and political developments pose for anthropology in Australia, where scholars have avoided discussing the concept of cultural loss for a generation.</p>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 3","pages":"3-6"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8322.12890","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141245612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pity the rich man","authors":"Ståle Wig","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12892","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8322.12892","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Across the world, economically marginalized people employ inventive strategies to encourage pedestrians to part with small sums of money by offering goods or services rather than directly requesting cash. People who use drugs wander urban streets selling magazines that some will buy but few will read. The homeless clean car windows that need no cleaning or provide token items instead of requesting donations because asking for money is contentious to the extent that selling stuff is not. Surveying existing ethnographic research, this article explores why. I analyse how informal income-generating practices adapt to the cultural assumptions of majority populations, including the notion that adults should become valuable through gainful employment and the idea that the unreturned gift humiliates givers and receivers.</p>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 3","pages":"10-12"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8322.12892","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141245614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The bureaucratization of ethical integrity: Research ethics committees and imaginaries of risk","authors":"Cris Shore","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12872","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8322.12872","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article critiques the expanding influence of research ethics committees (RECs) on social research, emphasizing their adverse effects on ethnographic methodologies. It argues that the bureaucratization of ethics, emphasizing compliance over contextual understanding, fundamentally misunderstands and impedes the nuanced nature of ethnographic work. Drawing on personal experiences and broader critiques, the article proposes the need for an alternative system that better accommodates the ethical complexities of social research, advocating for a more tailored approach that respects disciplinary methodologies and fosters genuine ethical engagement.</p>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 2","pages":"8-10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8322.12872","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140333248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Far from neutral: Research ethics committees, interdisciplinarity and fieldwork","authors":"Alexandra Halkias","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12876","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8322.12876","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article critiques research ethics committees (RECs) for stifling social sciences research through rigid, one-size-fits-all ethics protocols. It highlights how these protocols, rooted in medical science perspectives, ignore the complexities of fieldwork, and prioritize institutional protection over knowledge advancement. The article illustrates the bureaucratic barriers to sociological and gender studies research through a case study involving fieldwork in a Greek hospital, showing how intersecting hierarchies in the field can render REC instruments invasive or moot. This article aims to enrich academic enquiry by acknowledging the diverse realities of research subjects and methodologies.</p>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 2","pages":"21-24"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8322.12876","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140333260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Data mining, research ethics and practice: A view from Italy","authors":"Pietro Vereni","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12874","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8322.12874","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article explores the intersection of ethics and methodology in anthropological research, focusing on squats in Rome. It juxtaposes traditional ethnographic practices with contemporary ethical regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to examine the nuanced relationship between researchers and their subjects in socially vulnerable and legally sensitive environments. The article critiques the reductionist view of ethnographic data as mere information to be extracted, arguing for a more engaged and reciprocal approach to anthropology that respects the agency of research subjects and emphasizes the co-production of knowledge. The document challenges conventional ethical frameworks and advocates for anthropology's commitment to listening and giving voice to marginalized communities through examining interactions with squatters and the Roma population. This enquiry scrutinizes the bureaucratic imposition on ethnographic research and reaffirms the discipline's role in contributing to a broader understanding of ethics in anthropological practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 2","pages":"14-17"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140333258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Claiming breathing space for anthropology: Ethnographic responsibility in changing times","authors":"Evthymios Papataxiarchis","doi":"10.1111/1467-8322.12877","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-8322.12877","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article explores the challenges of maintaining ethical ethnographic practices amid the evolving bureaucratic regulations of research ethics. Drawing on the author's fieldwork experiences in Lesvos, Greece, during different periods, including the recent European ‘refugee crisis’, it reflects on the deep ethics inherent in the ethnographic encounter, shaped by long-term commitments and mutual exposure between the researcher and interlocutors. It critiques the bureaucratization of research ethics, arguing that legalistic guarantees, such as consent forms, undermine the nuanced, context-dependent nature of ethnographic work. By contrasting engagements with locals, activists and professional humanitarians, the author highlights the tensions between bureaucratic regulation and the need for a flexible, situated approach to ethics, calling for a critical assessment of ethical frameworks to preserve the ‘breathing space’ essential for responsible and insightful ethnography. The article advocates for resistance against one-size-fits-all ethical regulations constraining the rich potential of ethnographic research.</p>","PeriodicalId":46293,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology Today","volume":"40 2","pages":"25-30"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8322.12877","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140333029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}