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Ethnographic Material (ethnographic + material)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences83%

Selected Abstracts

The horse, the Kyrgyz horse and the ,Kyrgyz horse'

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 1 2009
Rebecca Cassidy
Ethnographic material gathered among horse owners in Kyrgyzstan, as part of a multi disciplinary project based at the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research is used to explore diverse ideas about horse breeding. [source]

The Shared History: Unknotting Fictive Kinship and Legal Process

LAW & SOCIETY REVIEW, Issue 1 2009
Marie-Andrée Jacob
This article looks in detail at a form of kinship that is contingently crafted and mobilized to achieve specific purposes. On the basis of ethnographic material collected among local actors within bodies that regulate kidney transplants in Israel, the objective of this article is to expand the sociolegal definition of fictive kinship. I use transplant relatedness to refer to the set of formal and informal norms that grow out of social and medico-legal practices in the field of kidney donations and sales; however, the form of fictive kinship that appears in this specific field tells us something broader about kinship as it is constructed and performed in legal processes more generally. The configuration of fictive kinship that is examined is the shared history (historia meshoutefet). I argue that in the present case, the shared history alters social and legal deep-seated understandings of kinship and ultimately makes the distinctions between allegedly real and pseudo-kinship collapse. [source]

MORE THAN ONE WAY TO STUDY A BUILDING: APPROACHES TO PREHISTORIC HOUSEHOLD AND SETTLEMENT SPACE

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2006
MARION CUTTING
Summary. This article reviews a number of research methodologies used to record household and settlement architecture and assesses their value in the investigation of the human use of prehistoric built space. It exemplifies, through case studies, five broad approaches to, and research techniques associated with, the investigation of such architecture. These approaches are: architectural form; the spatial distribution of activities; continuity and standardization; the relationship between built and non-built space; and human patterns of movement. Then, drawing mainly on Near Eastern, and particularly Anatolian, material, it shows how a sixth approach, the use of ethnographic observation and analogy, provides insights into functional and seasonal variations in spatial use, patterns of movement and social organization. It identifies seven categories of data collection and nine observations drawn from the ethnographic material which together provide an investigative and interpretative framework for the study of early farming communities in the Near East and elsewhere. [source]

Divination and experience: explorations of a Chagga epistemology

THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 2 2006
Knut Christian Myhre
This article argues that anthropological approaches to African divination are characterized by a certain epistemology, which creates specific problems with regard to vernacular truth-claims. Using ethnographic material from the Chagga-speaking people of Kilimanjaro, the article traces the multiple overlapping ramifications that interrelate vernacular concepts, physical objects, and local subjectivities. By thus avoiding reductionist arguments, the article endeavours to demonstrate that careful attention to these complex lateral relationships reveals how local diviners are able ,to see', or ,be shown', the ,truth' pertaining to their clients. [source]

A comparative geochemical study of bituminous boat remains from H3, As-Sabiyah (Kuwait), and RJ-2, Ra's al-Jinz (Oman)

ARABIAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND EPIGRAPHY, Issue 1 2005
Jacques Connan
This paper presents a geochemical analysis of fragments of bituminous amalgam from H3, As-Sabiyah (Kuwait), and RJ-2, Ra's al-Jinz (Oman). The fragments bear barnacles on one side and reed impressions on the other, and are thought to have been part of the coating of reed-bundle boats. The material from H3 dates to between 5300,4900 BC, while that of RJ-2 dates to 2500,2100 BC. Samples from both sites were geochemically compared to archaeological and ethnographic material from Kosak Shamali (northern Syria, c.5000,4400 BC), RH-5 (Oman, 4400,3500 BC) and Baghdad (central Iraq, 1900 AD). The composition of the bituminous amalgams was studied in detail. Rock-Eval Pyrolysis gave a measure of Total Organic Carbon in the samples, and allowed an initial comparison of the data sets using various parameters. Examination of the proportions of soluble and insoluble organic matter allowed an assessment of the quantity of vegetal matter added to the bitumen to make the bituminous amalgam. The composition of the Ra's al-Jinz material was studied using X-Ray Diffraction analysis and thin-section petrography, in order to assess the proportions of various minerals in the bituminous amalgams. It was concluded that the recipe for the bituminous mixture used to coat reed-bundle and wooden boats did not differ significantly from that commonly used to make ,mortar' for architectural purposes in Mesopotamia. Traces of animal fats or fish oils were not found in the analysed Ra's al-Jinz material, in contrast to previous hypotheses regarding the composition of the mixture. Comparison of the gross composition of extractable organic matter (the constituents of pure bitumen, soluble in chloroform or dichloromethane) showed the progressive effects of weathering on the samples. The isotopic composition of the bituminous material from H3 and the other sites was then compared to that of bitumen seeps and crude oils from Mesopotamia, Iran and Oman. The most significant result is that the material from As-Sabiyah originated in Kuwait, at a surface seep at Burgan, while the material from Ra's al-Jinz had a source in northern Mesopotamia. [source]

A Quest for Justice in Cuzco, Peru:Race and Evidence in the Case of Mercedes Ccorimanya Lavilla

POLAR: POLITICAL AND LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW, Issue 2 2008
Laura A. Bunt
The life of Mercedes Ccorimanya Lavilla renders a telling portrait of the pursuit of justice in Cuzco, Peru, revealing how courts of law can be key sites in the production and negotiation of racial and gender taxonomies. Mercedes (who was gang-raped as a young woman) illustrates the near-heroic efforts necessary to mount and pursue rape charges in Peruvian courts, where rape victims largely manage the construction of evidence in lieu of the state. In the following article, I reconstruct the social circumstances and legal institutional setting surrounding the rape trial of Mercedes Ccorimanya Lavilla through the use of historical and ethnographic materials. In arguing that race mutually defines women's sexuality in rural Peru, I show how (in order to achieve a conviction) Mercedes had to develop a strategy in which she instrumentally employed the languages of race to distance herself from her own indigeneity, as well as that of her alleged attackers. [source]