****************************************************** * http://www.anthropologymatters.com * * A postgraduate project comprising online journal, * * online discussions, teaching and research resources * * and international contacts directory. * ****************************************************** Please excuse cross-postings. Please find below an abstract for a proposed panel at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in San Francisco, California (19-23 November 2008). We are soliciting abstracts for 15 minute papers to be included in this panel. If you are interested, please forward an abstract of 250 words or less by Monday, 24 March 2008 to: Leah Niederstadt ([log in to unmask]) or Tobias Sperlich ([log in to unmask]). Ethnographic collecting – the stories continue The collecting of ethnographic materials played a significant role in the development of anthropology as an academic discipline. It has long been recognized that in early anthropological studies, material culture was considered important data that could be used to understand and classify cultures on a global scale. While it is generally acknowledged that anthropologists and others collected ethnographic objects throughout the entire 20th century and that they continue to do so today, collecting as an integral anthropological activity arguably came to an end with the onset of functionalism. It appears that this move to the fringe of anthropological inquiry has also meant that recent collecting practices have tended to escape the scrutiny of anthropological investigation. Nevertheless, the collecting of ethnographic material culture still represents a key arena in which members of different cultures engage with one another. Today, many Westerners continue to live for extended periods of time in the non-Western world. Like their colonial-era predecessors, Peace Corps volunteers, development workers, diplomats and military personnel, among others, continue to create social networks with locals and arrive at personal understandings of their host cultures. Many of these individuals develop collections of ethnographica, which can be regarded as material manifestations of cross-cultural negotiations and as representations of perceptions of other cultures. These collections thus provide anthropologists with a unique access point to investigate a type of cross-cultural encounter that continues to take place in an increasingly globalized world but that has not yet been the focus of extensive anthropological inquiry. This panel seeks papers that present anthropological examinations of ethnographic collecting in the present and recent past, particularly those that focus on types of collectors, e.g., Peace Corps volunteers, military personnel, etc., that have rarely been the focus of academic study. Some of the questions to be considered include: How are cultures represented through these individual collections? How do collectors understand the objects in their collections? How does the individual collector develop his/her collection? What kind of collaborations develop between the collector and the individuals from whom objects are obtained? What significance does the act of collecting have for the collector? How might these collections impact our understanding of human cultural diversity? __________________________________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. The World's Favourite Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html ************************************************************* * Anthropology-Matters Mailing List * * To join this list or to look at the archived previous * * messages visit: * * http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/Anthropology-Matters.HTML * * If you have ALREADY subscribed: to send a message to all * * those currently subscribed to the list,just send mail to: * * [log in to unmask] * * * * Enjoyed the mailing list? Why not join the new * * CONTACTS SECTION @ www.anthropologymatters.com * * an international directory of anthropology researchers * ***************************************************************