oac

Frederico Delgado Rosa replied to Frederico Delgado Rosa's discussion 'MAIN FIGURES OF THE HISTORY OF ANTHROPOLOGY' in the group History of Anthropology

Anthropology of the Mind – the rise of a new Homo

 

Anthropology is the study of Humankind and Cultures and Anthropology of the Mind is a new field of research in Anthropology which dedicates itself to the study of consciousness. It subscribes to Universalism: all peoples are fully and equally human. "Trebuchet MS""">For me consciousness is the capacity that allows me to connect with myself, others and the universe. For Prof Chris Knight it is awareness. Human consciousness is distinctively social. Buddhists will tell you it has eight stages and it is a sort of record of everything. But the truth is that no one knows for certain. Despite the fact that every day thousands of scientists and monks alike all over the world work towards either understanding it or attaining it. Consciousness is one of Humankind’s holy grails still.

Certainly in our circles consciousness has become a buzz word. Shift of consciousness this, awareness that, conscious partying, and the list goes on.  Since the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle who studied the relationship between mind and soul, humans have wondered about consciousness. Consciousness is the ultimate lotus flower for the spiritual being. In consciousness we have deposited all our hope of redemption and salvation. And we don’t even know what it is or how it works! Isn’t it ironic?

But let’s return to anthropology for a moment. How has this science that claims to study Man, not have looked at consciousness before? The study of consciousness per se within anthropology sprung up in the second half of the twentieth century. One could say anthropology has looked into the evolution of consciousness before, but from the vantage point of human evolution. A good example of this is the work of Richard Leaky in ‘The origin of Humankind’ where he dedicates a whole chapter to the origin of the mind and says ‘the origin of human consciousness, some time within the last 2.5 million years, was the third event’ that ‘marks the history of life on earth’. I would argue the study of shamanism and native mythology in particular can also be considered an early study of consciousness in anthropology. ‘The Raw & the Cooked’ by color:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"">Lévi-Strauss is the perfect example of such an attempt.

However, Anthropology of the Mind was purposely created in order to look at consciousness in a completely different manner from which anthropology has conducted its research and engaged with the public so far. Traditionally an anthropologist goes to the ‘field’ (or chosen culture), lives there for a couple of years and then comes back and writes a mammoth piece about it. Only a few hundred people will ever read it if (s)he’s lucky largely because only academics or really curious people will ever go to the trouble of reading such accounts. Anthropology of the Mind however, collects its data through specially devised installations located in places such as art exhibitions and festivals. The idea behind this is to create the field as opposed to going to it. Like this the data is collected and transmitted simultaneously. One leaves their own definition of consciousness on the wall and can immediately see others definitions. At the end all the data is collated and the word pattern that emerges is analysed and compared with previously discovered patterns. In time a map of all the data is created making it possible to examine the overall word pattern evolution through time and space. The first of such installations was placed at The Brain Unravelled exhibition in London in September 2009. Expect to see it at some of the UK festivals this coming summer.

For much anthropology is still an intellectual project. Meaning, it’s great to exercise your grey matter but when it comes to real engagement with the public it’s outside its remit. Anthropologists are mere observers.  Anthropology of the Mind represents a new phase in Anthropology. It’s rather like a metaphor for the stage which human consciousness evolution is at. So look out for this new Homo who will be asking you what you think consciousness is. This person is not really after an answer. This person is out there to make you think. The new Homo sapiens are ones who are in touch with nature and apply centuries of knowledge accumulation to create a sustainable future. There is only one way this world will change: through action. And action is geared by thoughts.

Antropologia da Mente/ Antropologia da Consciencia 

Maria Lopes added a discussion to the group Antropolis

Vi Vien Baldauf commented on Dan O'Maley's group 'Digital Anthropology'

Norman Schräpel replied to Norman Schräpel's discussion 'Wanted: Group Administrators' in the group Visual Anthropology

Benjamin Allen Zalasky replied to Norman Schräpel's discussion 'Wanted: Group Administrators' in the group Visual Anthropology

Michael Alexeevich Popov commented on Michael Alexeevich Popov's group 'Mathematics of Man Observatory'

Huon Wardle replied to Huon Wardle's discussion 'Understanding the Haitian Revolution.' in the group Historical Anthropology

Stacy A A Hope added a discussion to the group The Anthropology of Hair

Dear all,
the group is growing daily, which is exciting since it shows the interest in Visual Anthropology. To use the potential of this group more extensively I think it is time to find more people that are willed to function as an administrator for the group. Anybody who is interested can just contact me or leave a comment here and I will re-rank you.

Best,Norman.

Martin Hoyem replied to Susan Falls's discussion 'CFP aaa on art /aesthetics/pol economy' in the group Call for Papers

I am putting together a panel for 2010 AAA in New Orleans on contemporary art: aesthetics, markets, artists. I'd like to cant the entire panel towards a discussion of value, broadly theorized. If you are working in this area and would like to submit an abstract for the panel, please let me know asap.
Sfalls@scad.edu

Susan Falls added a discussion to the group Art and Anthropology

Susan Falls added a discussion to the group Call for Papers

I am putting together a panel for AAA on contemporary art: aesthetics, markets, artists. If you are working in this area and would like to submit an abstract for the panel, please let me know asap.

Sfalls@scad.edu

Please find below a CFP for TOURISM AND SEDUCTIONS OF DIFFERENCE, an international conference jointly organised by the Tourism-Contact-Culture Research Network (TOCOCU), the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change (CTCC) at Leeds Metropolitan University, and the Centre for Anthropological Research in Portugal (CRIA).

The conference will take place at the New University of Lisbon, in Lisbon, Portugal, 10-12 September 2010. The deadline to submit abstracts is 20 March 2010. In addition to the general CFP, a number of special interest panels are being proposed as part of the event (with a different deadline; see below). Please find updated information about the conference at www.tourismcontactculture.org.uk.

As tourism research spreads into the social sciences, the aim of this Conference is to bring together social scientists studying tourism and related social phenomena from different disciplinary perspectives. The focus on ‘seductions of difference’ tackles one of the central ontological premises of tourism, the relations to ‘Others’ – people, spaces, times, objects – and the way in which these enable the constitution and maintenance of Selves. Tourists travel to, and through, spaces ‘different’ from those they inhabit most of the time. They voluntarily expose their bodies to different environments, ingest different foods, live in a different temporality, and meet different people. Many authors have studied how such differences are socially construed, how people, temporalities and places are experienced and brought into being through the perceptive realms of the journey, but also through the political agendas of stakeholders acting within the field of tourism planning and cultural policy. The cultural history of tourism indicates that tourists are ‘drawn in’ by certain types of places – forests, mountains, rivers, churches and religious shrines, stately homes and palaces, ancient monuments, ruins, waterfalls, seashores, countrysides, islands, cities, etc. Some psychologists, for instance, have observed how some places – such as Florence, Jerusalem, or Paris – trigger quasi-Stendhalian epiphanies among certain tourists who often do not seem to share more than a common nationality. Who, or what are they seduced by? What constitutes this arousal? How do tourists learn what to be seduced by? How is the tourist experience and the temptation to travel culturally framed? What can these attractions tell us about the moral order of tourism and modern culture? How are forms of local, ethnic, gender and national self being worked and shaped in the contact zones of tourism? How are tourist attractions assembled to entice tourists? Seduction is no isolated act but always has some form of consequence and usually demands compensation. In the same vein, touristic consumption is not free, and in different senses implies forms of expected reciprocity. What are the moral obligations of those who lure tourists to a symbolic death by singing a siren song? How are tourists resuscitated, and how do they buy their freedom? What are the threats and consequences of seducing tourists? What happens when tourists seduce? How does tourism seduce all sorts of people and who rejects seduction? What kinds of society result from tourism?

CONFERENCE THEMES

Along with studies on methodological issues in tourism research, we welcome papers that address issues related to the theme of the conference. Indicative topics of interest include:

 - Seduction as ontological work: maintaining identity, socialising time and space, others

- Formations of seduction: social assemblages, contact cultures, attractions

- Fields of seduction: gender, houses, heritages, nations, territories, classes

- Mediums of seduction: texts, bodies, arts, architectures, foods and natures

- Techniques of seduction: performance, flirtation, enticement, friendship, magic, concealment

- Emotions of seduction: temptations, transgressions, ingestions, emancipations

- Threats of seduction: spoliation, contamination, exclusion, death, degradation

- Politics of seduction: hospitality, containment, kinship, power

- Moralities of seduction: values, reciprocity, obligations, co-habitation

- Consequences of seduction: mobilities, cosmopolitanisms, world society

 

GENERAL CALL FOR PAPERS
To propose a paper, please send a 250 word abstract including title and full contact details to tourismcontactculture@gmail.com. The Call for Papers for this event will initially be open until 20 March 2010. Late abstracts may be considered. All abstracts will be peer-reviewed by the academic committee. CFP FOR SPECIAL INTEREST PANELS There is also an option to submit papers to SPECIAL INTEREST PANELS organised as part of the conference. These panels work as double or triple sessions (6 or 9 papers) and are fully integrated to the general conference programme. While thematically connected to the overall conference theme, these panels aim to deepen a particular theoretical or thematic aspect, or explore new ideas or hypothesis. The organisation of these special interest panels is semi-autonomous; each has its own panel director(s) and most have launched their own call for papers. The deadline for submitting abstracts (150 words + full contact details of authors - directly sent to the panel directors) to these special interest panels may be after the deadline for the general call for papers.  More details and information at our website.

 

List of Special Interest Panels:

 

1. Slumming: Tourism and the Seductive Marginal (Panel directed by Fabian Frenzel, Bristol, and Ko Koens, LeedsMet, UK)

 

2. Seductions of History: Visitors’ Motives and Experiences in Historical Destinations (Panel directed by Luis Silva, CRIA / FCSH-Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

 

3. Seducing Bodies (Panel directed by Valerio Simoni, CRIA-ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal)

 

4. Rethinking Pilgrimage, Seduction and Difference (Panel directed By Michael A. Di Giovine, Dept of Anthropology, University of Chicago, discussant Regina Bendix, Univ Goettingen, Germany)

 

5. Borders, Unfamiliarity and (Im)mobilities  (Panel directed by Bas Spierings, Urban and Regional Research Centre Utrecht, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University)

 

6. Seducing Wilderness (Panel directed by Dennis Zuev, CIES-ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal)

 

7. Cartographies of Seduction: Tourism, Objects and Places (Panel directed by Filipa Fernandes, ISCSP - Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Portugal)

 

8. Seductions of Ugliness (Panel directed by Tamas Regi, CTCC, Leeds Met, UK and David Picard, CRIA-UNL, Lisbon, Portugal).

 

PROCEEDINGS
Fully revised papers accepted at the conference will be published in the conference proceedings (ISBN referred electronic format with international distribution). We are also exploring opportunities to publish an edited book and special issues of peer reviewed academic journals based on a selection of papers (developed into full articles). More info on this shall be available shortly after the event.

 

CONTACT

 

Carina Amaral and David Picard

Conference email: tourismcontactculture@gmail.com

Website: tourismcontactculture.org.uk

 

Address:

CRIA/FCSH-Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Lisbon, Portugal

 

CTCC, Leeds Metropolitan University,

Leeds, United Kingdom

Please find below a CFP for TOURISM AND SEDUCTIONS OF DIFFERENCE, an international conference jointly organised by the Tourism-Contact-Culture Research Network (TOCOCU), the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change (CTCC) at Leeds Metropolitan University, and the Centre for Anthropological Research in Portugal (CRIA).

The conference will take place at the New University of Lisbon, in Lisbon, Portugal, 10-12 September 2010. The deadline to submit abstracts is 20 March 2010. In addition to the general CFP, a number of special interest panels are being proposed as part of the event (with a different deadline; see below). Please find updated information about the conference at www.tourismcontactculture.org.uk.

As tourism research spreads into the social sciences, the aim of this Conference is to bring together social scientists studying tourism and related social phenomena from different disciplinary perspectives. The focus on ‘seductions of difference’ tackles one of the central ontological premises of tourism, the relations to ‘Others’ – people, spaces, times, objects – and the way in which these enable the constitution and maintenance of Selves. Tourists travel to, and through, spaces ‘different’ from those they inhabit most of the time. They voluntarily expose their bodies to different environments, ingest different foods, live in a different temporality, and meet different people. Many authors have studied how such differences are socially construed, how people, temporalities and places are experienced and brought into being through the perceptive realms of the journey, but also through the political agendas of stakeholders acting within the field of tourism planning and cultural policy. The cultural history of tourism indicates that tourists are ‘drawn in’ by certain types of places – forests, mountains, rivers, churches and religious shrines, stately homes and palaces, ancient monuments, ruins, waterfalls, seashores, countrysides, islands, cities, etc. Some psychologists, for instance, have observed how some places – such as Florence, Jerusalem, or Paris – trigger quasi-Stendhalian epiphanies among certain tourists who often do not seem to share more than a common nationality. Who, or what are they seduced by? What constitutes this arousal? How do tourists learn what to be seduced by? How is the tourist experience and the temptation to travel culturally framed? What can these attractions tell us about the moral order of tourism and modern culture? How are forms of local, ethnic, gender and national self being worked and shaped in the contact zones of tourism? How are tourist attractions assembled to entice tourists? Seduction is no isolated act but always has some form of consequence and usually demands compensation. In the same vein, touristic consumption is not free, and in different senses implies forms of expected reciprocity. What are the moral obligations of those who lure tourists to a symbolic death by singing a siren song? How are tourists resuscitated, and how do they buy their freedom? What are the threats and consequences of seducing tourists? What happens when tourists seduce? How does tourism seduce all sorts of people and who rejects seduction? What kinds of society result from tourism?

CONFERENCE THEMES

Along with studies on methodological issues in tourism research, we welcome papers that address issues related to the theme of the conference. Indicative topics of interest include:

 - Seduction as ontological work: maintaining identity, socialising time and space, others

- Formations of seduction: social assemblages, contact cultures, attractions

- Fields of seduction: gender, houses, heritages, nations, territories, classes

- Mediums of seduction: texts, bodies, arts, architectures, foods and natures

- Techniques of seduction: performance, flirtation, enticement, friendship, magic, concealment

- Emotions of seduction: temptations, transgressions, ingestions, emancipations

- Threats of seduction: spoliation, contamination, exclusion, death, degradation

- Politics of seduction: hospitality, containment, kinship, power

- Moralities of seduction: values, reciprocity, obligations, co-habitation

- Consequences of seduction: mobilities, cosmopolitanisms, world society

 

GENERAL CALL FOR PAPERS
To propose a paper, please send a 250 word abstract including title and full contact details to tourismcontactculture@gmail.com. The Call for Papers for this event will initially be open until 20 March 2010. Late abstracts may be considered. All abstracts will be peer-reviewed by the academic committee. CFP FOR SPECIAL INTEREST PANELS There is also an option to submit papers to SPECIAL INTEREST PANELS organised as part of the conference. These panels work as double or triple sessions (6 or 9 papers) and are fully integrated to the general conference programme. While thematically connected to the overall conference theme, these panels aim to deepen a particular theoretical or thematic aspect, or explore new ideas or hypothesis. The organisation of these special interest panels is semi-autonomous; each has its own panel director(s) and most have launched their own call for papers. The deadline for submitting abstracts (150 words + full contact details of authors - directly sent to the panel directors) to these special interest panels may be after the deadline for the general call for papers.  More details and information at our website.

 

List of Special Interest Panels:

 

1. Slumming: Tourism and the Seductive Marginal (Panel directed by Fabian Frenzel, Bristol, and Ko Koens, LeedsMet, UK)

 

2. Seductions of History: Visitors’ Motives and Experiences in Historical Destinations (Panel directed by Luis Silva, CRIA / FCSH-Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

 

3. Seducing Bodies (Panel directed by Valerio Simoni, CRIA-ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal)

 

4. Rethinking Pilgrimage, Seduction and Difference (Panel directed By Michael A. Di Giovine, Dept of Anthropology, University of Chicago, discussant Regina Bendix, Univ Goettingen, Germany)

 

5. Borders, Unfamiliarity and (Im)mobilities  (Panel directed by Bas Spierings, Urban and Regional Research Centre Utrecht, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University)

 

6. Seducing Wilderness (Panel directed by Dennis Zuev, CIES-ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal)

 

7. Cartographies of Seduction: Tourism, Objects and Places (Panel directed by Filipa Fernandes, ISCSP - Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Portugal)

 

8. Seductions of Ugliness (Panel directed by Tamas Regi, CTCC, Leeds Met, UK and David Picard, CRIA-UNL, Lisbon, Portugal).

 

PROCEEDINGS
Fully revised papers accepted at the conference will be published in the conference proceedings (ISBN referred electronic format with international distribution). We are also exploring opportunities to publish an edited book and special issues of peer reviewed academic journals based on a selection of papers (developed into full articles). More info on this shall be available shortly after the event.

 

CONTACT

 

Carina Amaral and David Picard

Conference email: tourismcontactculture@gmail.com

Website: tourismcontactculture.org.uk

 

Address:

CRIA/FCSH-Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Lisbon, Portugal

 

CTCC, Leeds Metropolitan University,

Leeds, United Kingdom

Shom Dasgupta commented on Magnus Reuterdahl's group 'Archaeology/ Anthropology blogs'

Jan Begine commented on Jan Begine's group 'Anthropology of Humour and Laughter'

Julia Yezbick added a group