Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Annual Report
2005
De Boelelaan 1081
1081 HV Amsterdam
+ 31 (0)20 598 6704
SCA.secretariaat@fsw.vu.nl
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Preface
In hindsight, 2005 looked like a harvesting year for the Department of Social
and Cultural Anthropology in terms of education and of research. Our first batch
of Bachelors graduated successfully, and in the first year that we ran our Masters
Program in Social and Cultural Anthropology, an unlikely 90% of the students
completed the one-year program within 12 months – a year that includes
coursework, field research and thesis writing. We are proud of that feat, the
more so because an external evaluation committee (‘Visitatiecommissie’) lauded
the quality of our program and of the theses that students produced in its verbal
feedback. With that tentative assessment, the Department is fully confident that
the future accreditation of its teaching programs will not be in doubt.
In terms of research output, 2005 seemed like a harvesting year as well. We had
an unusually number of more than 60 international refereed publications – the
usual benchmark of academic achievement these days. This is more than ever
before, and will be hard to match in the future, for ‘successes in the past are no
guarantee for the future’. Not only the quantity and quality of scientific
publications increased, they also became increasingly guided by and
contributive of the Department’s research program ‘Constructing Human
Security in a Globalizing World’. We organized a conference on the
anthropology of human security, we are working on publications, and our staff
members are invited to participate in human security projects around the world.
This is expected to lead to a growing number of publications around Human
Security.
Hopefully 2006 will be an even better harvesting year.
Oscar Salemink,
Head of Department
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Contents
1. Introduction
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2. The CONSEC research programme
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3. Staff
3.1 Staff members
3.2 Individual research projects undertaken by staff in 2005
3.3 PhD candidates
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4. Educational activities
27
5. Publications by staff and PhD candidates
5.1 Books, refereed
5.2 Books, non-refereed
5.3 Articles, refereed
5.4 Articles, non-refereed
5.5 Book contributions, refereed
5.6 Book contributions, non-refereed
5.7 Dissertations
5.8 Internal or external reports
5.9 Inaugural Lectures
5.10 Book reviews
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37
41
42
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43
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6. Other research-related activities
6.1 Organization of national and international congresses, seminars
and workshops.
6.2 Presentation of papers or lectures
6.3 Involvement as supervisor / co-supervisor of PhD projects
6.4 Participation in graduation and reading committees
6.5 Fieldwork
6.6 Membership of the editorial board of scientific journals
6.7 Membership of advisory boards and of professional organizations
6.8 Grants
6.9 Other activities and press contacts
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7.0 Epilogue
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Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Annual Report 2005
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1
Every known form of energy is the expression of difference and not the result of levelling
Mihai Nadin
Introduction
Globalization means that people now share their dissimilarities. The year 2005
continued to bring to light the many contradictions that accompany the
intensified insertion of the world into the globalized arena. The world as a whole
is affected by such events as the G8 meeting at Gleneagles, the tsunami disaster,
the dramas taking place in the Republic of Congo, the severe hurricanes in the
Caribbean, increasing worldwide migration, and the laborious processes of
democracy construction in Iraq, Afghanistan and many other regions throughout
the world. For anthropologists, these are reasons for concern, intensified
research efforts or (preferably interdisciplinary) reflection on backgrounds,
vicissitudes and possible contributions to mitigating the humanitarian tragedy
that often accompanies such events.
Social and cultural anthropology might be one of the best equipped of the
social sciences to help us to understand people’s different, often contradictory
perceptions and evaluations of these events, their causes and ‘perpetrators’, the
values and strategies needed to find solutions and, of course, the cultural
embeddedness of all these viewpoints. These perceptions and evaluations often
are the decisive triggers for human actions and responses. In this light,
understanding these perceptions might be just as important as understanding the
‘facts’. As the band Talking Heads put it: ’[F]acts are lazy and facts are
late…(…).. facts are useless in emergencies’.1 There is no doubt that we need to
know the facts. What is more important, however, is to know what people make
of the facts.
Research at the Social and Cultural Anthropology (SCA) Department of the
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam focuses on people’s attempts to cope with the
chances, risks, opportunities, dangers, options and uncertainties that accompany
globalization. But human security – the core concept of our scholarly work – is
not conceived of as a steadfast and perennial standard or unswerving inclination
of human endeavour, but as a dynamic, situationally embedded and culturally
saturated aspect of people’s agency. Understanding its logic might help us to
understand the key differences and similarities between people, and the
subsequent clashes and potential meeting grounds.
The year 2005 was a busy year. We had more PhD students in our midst
than ever before. The department welcomed three new ones. Regien Smit joined
us on 1 July and is now working on the comparison between two migrant
1
Talking Heads, in ‘Cross-eyed and Painless’, of the album Remain in Light, 1980.
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Pentecostal churches in the Netherlands. She was followed two months later by
Hanneke Minkjan, who is working on the theme of neo-paganism and its
position in the Dutch religious field. Our third new PhD candidate – João Rickli
– came all the way from Brazil to join our ranks on 1 November. His theme is
the link between the Dutch and the Brazilian players in the activities of ‘Kerk in
Actie’ (‘Church in Action’). His project is financed by Brazil, but the SCA will
be his working location for the coming four years. Professor André Droogers is
supervising all three projects.
Demands regarding research output remained high in 2005. Fortunately,
the department once again substantially increased the number of peer-refereed
publications.
The department had to say goodbye to one of its most senior and most respected
staff members, Bernhard Venema, who retired after over 30 years at the
department. During the ceremony, his praises were sounded in various speeches
that highlighted both his scientific contributions and robustness, and his pleasant
collegiality.
In September, André Droogers stepped down from his position as Head of
Department. This senior, experienced and highly appreciated colleague will
remain with the department for another year. The position of Head of
Department was assumed by Oscar Salemink, who was appointed full professor
on 1 September. Since that date, the department’s Management Team (MT) has
consisted of Oscar Salemink (Head of Department), Ina Keuper (Education
Coordinator) and Ton Salman (Research Coordinator, since 1 September).
Regrettably, we were not able to welcome back Donna Winslow. We hope
that she will fully recover from her illness and return to the department in 2006.
An important event was the departmental conference on Human Security (29-30
August 2005), at which various Dutch and international scholars commented on
the papers presented by members of our staff. The aim of the conference was to
reflect on and deepen our insights into the reach, limitations and polyphony of
the notion of human security, and to explore its potential as a ‘meeting ground
concept’ for the multifarious research projects our department hosts. A more
detailed report is provided in section 2.
Unfortunately, the department was not able to welcome substantially more
new BSc students at the start of the academic year. Once again, the total
enrolment was less than 30 students. To improve our enrolment figures, the
department has established the LEF committee, which comprises Ellen Bal,
Lenie Brouwer and Freek Colombijn. A whole series of measures have been
suggested, ranging from offering a more differentiated Bachelor’s programme
with various minors, to making the departmental websites clearer and improving
their ‘findability’. Many of these measures are now being implemented.
The MSc programme is thriving. In the academic year 2004/2005, almost
90% of our students graduated. Virtually all of the students in the current batch
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are now halfway through the programme. They are expected to do as well as, or
even better than, their predecessors.
All our staff members continued to set high standards for their courses and
supervision, resulting once again in student evaluation scores that are above the
faculty’s average.
Towards the end of the year, the department’s education programme
received its five-yearly audit. Both the Bachelor’s and especially the Master’s
programme were positively evaluated in the audit’s committee’s ‘first
impression’ statement; the final report will be issued in the course of 2006.
However, the committee questioned the present structure under which both the
SCA and the COM department at our faculty offer their Bachelor’s programme
under the heading of ‘anthropology’. The future of this collaboration will be
thoroughly re-evaluated in the course of 2006.
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2
The SCA research programme:
Constructing Human Security in a Globalizing World (CONSEC)
Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing
Werner von Braun
The programme
The ‘Constructing Human Security in a Globalizing World’ (CONSEC)
programme is based on the observation that in today’s globalizing world and
kaleidoscoping societies, the circulation of people, goods, capital and
information across borders and boundaries is occurring at increasing speed. This
process of globalization is seen to undermine ‘traditional’ forms of physical and
existential security, as experienced by many groups and communities around the
world, but it simultaneously multiplies the pools of resources and meaning from
which people can draw in their quest for such security. Although the scope of
anthropological research is often localized in nature, both the challenges to
human security and the repertoires of resources and meaning on which people
draw are increasingly transnational in nature. The aim of the research carried out
within the framework of this programme is to capture the paradoxes inherent in
this quest for human security in the context of and on the basis of fast-changing,
increasingly transnational repertoires of resources and meanings, by looking at
the localized quest for physical and existential security at the same time. The
central question of the research programme is: how do people construct and use
varying social and cultural repertoires in a globalizing world to create human
security, both physical and existential?
The programme emphasizes the multiple dimensions of physical and existential
security in their mutual entanglement. Physical security is associated with the
UN definition of human security as ‘freedom from want and freedom from fear’,
which entails aspects of economic, ecological, social and physical well-being.
These aspects are generally associated with the fields of development and
governance, which traditionally are the domain of social anthropology.
However, this research programme stretches the meaning of human security to
cover cultural, cognitive, emotional, religious and symbolic dimensions, which
here are subsumed under the concept of ‘existential’ and are connected to
processes of signification. Existential security is the human attempt to make
sense of this world and of the human being’s place in it, in relation to family,
community, society and the wider cosmos, through processes of signification in
connection with belief, trust, belonging, and mental and spiritual fulfilment.
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In our exploration of the potential of the concept, our attempt to test its
possible usefulness in the various research projects taking place in the
department, and our effort to ‘anthropologize’ the debate on human security
(HS), we continuously come across its contradictory manifestations. For
instance, it is a truism that in specific circumstances, some people are willing to
risk their own or others’ physical or economic security for religious or ethnic
reasons. These and similar paradoxical articulations of the quest for human
security confirm the fact that when cultural and religious dimensions are left out
of the equation, an HS analysis is bound to be incomplete, theoretically barren
and politically irrelevant.
However, while the material and existential dimensions of HS can
tentatively be distinguished, they also seem intertwined in complex and
sometimes unexpected ways. For instance, in cases where people’s security is
threatened because of their gender, people in the affected category are
sometimes willing to challenge traditional societal arrangements that condone
these threats. The male’s ‘right’ to violence towards his family, for instance, is
often challenged by women. These arrangements, however, often also give
predictability to gendered roles, entitlements and obligations. Ironically, gender
certainty is then given up in order to obtain gendered security.
Likewise, where globalization and transnationalization seem to contribute
to widespread feelings of insecurity and uncertainty, opponents of these
developments sometimes paradoxically draw on precisely some of the new
resources provided by globalization processes to defend and revitalize traditions.
Here, some external (‘modern’) influences are rejected and others are put to use.
Another example is that millions of migrants are prepared to leave behind
the steady but frugal security of a precarious livelihood and migrate to another
area or country, setting out on a highly risky quest to obtain a higher, albeit
more insecure income. The subsequent attempts among both migrants and host
communities to create cultural and group certainty along ethnic and/or religious
lines often, wryly enough, contribute to a sense of loss of people’s security.
This is not to say that all human endeavour can be interpreted in terms of a quest
for security. The antonym of security is not necessarily and exclusively
insecurity: it can be freedom or risk. As suggested by the classic social science
dispute between moral economists and rational choice theorists, people may also
want to avoid or escape forms of community and security that they experience
as stifling or oppressive. Much individual and group action can be interpreted as
conscious risk-taking rather than as a quest for security, as evidenced by many
contemporary forms of migration. It is this creative tension between security and
risk (or ‘freedom’) that the CONSEC programme attempts to explore
productively.
These examples serve to illustrate that diverse dimensions of human
security and insecurity are entangled in sometimes contradictory ways. They
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also reveal that people’s attempts to achieve material, physical and existential
security – either collectively or individually – may clash, creating new arenas of
contestation in those sectors that combine material interests with cultural
content, such as in the new (often transnational) media. Therefore, in our
department we tentatively define HS not as a field of inquiry, but as a
multidimensional and dynamic conceptual lens that allows us to link these
various dimensions – superficially classified as physical and existential security
– with one another in order to achieve a richer, more complex and more
compelling analysis.
In the research programme, then, we both explore the usefulness of HS for
opening new vistas in the respective participant’s research fields, and
continuously question and revise the concept. Such ongoing revisions and
contextualizations are indispensable if we want to move beyond detecting
factual degrees of risks and dangers, to include, as a crucial dimension, different
agents’ perceptions thereof. These perceptions, more than the quantifiable risk
calculations, are the stuff people’s agency is made of.
The 2005 conference
To deepen our insights into the potentials and limitations of the concept of HS,
the department organized an internal conference (29-30 August 2005). All staff
members were asked to present a paper at the conference relating their current
research project to HS. Dutch and international discussants were invited to
comment on our presentations.
One of the things we did during the conference was explore the strategies
of religions in the Netherlands, in the context of searches for certainties to
overcome ‘disembedded identities’ and dislocated authority. We also found out
that although ‘community’ is in many cases one of the vehicles of people’s
search for security in an increasingly porous world, these communities (of
ethnic, religious, regional or other character) trigger just as many insecurities.
They may arouse hostility in the surrounding society, they may be settings in
which security plays a zero sum game with the different individual’s lot, and
communities’ quests to assure their futures may well suffer from sudden ‘plot
twists’ when unintended consequences emerge. Additionally, an individual’s
willingness to try his or her luck outside the community may either foster or
jeopardize (or both) that person’s prospects of achieving security.
Finally, to reiterate, we found out that anthropologists try to do two things
at the same time: to explore the usefulness of HS for opening new vistas in their
own research field, and to contribute to the revision of the concept. Focusing on
and registering quantifiable degrees of risks and dangers is only half the job. We
first and foremost need to focus on different agents’ perceptions of security and
insecurity. HS always needs to be radically contextualized if it is to be of any
value to anthropological searches for its contents.
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With such and similar insights, the department will continue to delve into
the concept of HS. In the meantime, the contributions to the conference are in
the process of being reworked to meet the prerequisites for publication in peerrefereed forums.
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3
Staff
3.1 Department staff
Abbink, Prof. Jan
Bal, Dr Ellen
Bartels, Dr Edien
Brouwer, Dr Lenie
Büscher, drs. Bram
Cil, drs. Aysegul (until 15/12/05)
Colombijn, Dr Freek
Droogers, Prof. André
Evers, Dr Sandra
Grassiani, drs. Erella
Griffioen, Prof. Sander
Harskamp, Prof. Anton van
Hummel, drs. Rhea
Kamp, drs. Linda van de
Keuper, drs. Ina
Klaver, drs. Miranda
Knibbe, drs. Kim (until 1/3/05)
Kooiman, Dr Dick
Minkjan. drs. Hanneke (since 1/9/05)
Nguyen, Mr. Tuan Ahn
Noguchi, Mr. Ikuya
Rickli, João (since 1/11/05)
Roeland, drs. Johan
Salemink, Prof. Dr Oscar
Salman, Dr Ton
Salverda, drs. Tijo
Schwerzl, drs. Jeffrey
Smit, drs. Regien (since 1/7/05)
Stokhof, drs. Malte
Sutherland, Prof. Heather
Theije, Dr Marjo de
Uyl, Dr Marion den
Venema, Dr Ir. Bernhard (until 1/12/05)
Versteeg, Dr Peter
Winslow, Prof. Donna (absent on sick leave throughout 2005)
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Since September 2005, the Management Team (MT) has comprised:
Prof. Dr Oscar Salemink, Head of Department
drs. Ina Keuper, Education Coordinator
Dr Ton Salman, Research Coordinator.
3.2 Individual research projects undertaken by staff in 2005
(does not include PhD projects or the research projects carried out by the
department’s fellows Thomas Eriksen, Maurice Bloch and Saskia Sassen).
Abbink, Jan
Project title: ‘Political Culture in the Horn of Africa: Local and National Narratives of
Ethnicity and Conflict’.
Keywords: politics and power formation, ethnicity and conflict, religion and identity
formation/reformation, violence.
Politics and power formation in the Horn of Africa are marked by conflicting
narratives of historical, religious and ethnic identity. Governance and the exercise of
power are redefined, reinterpreted and enacted in specific local forms in settings
where different legal traditions and cultural commitments are at play. These local
forms, as entry points for national policy and foreign donor-supported development
interventions, need continuous study to assess their agency in the context of wider
socio-political processes. This research project looks both at developments on the
national level and at changing patterns of conflict and sociocultural transformation in
societies on the margins of the state, notably in Ethiopia. On the national level, the
research addresses the enduring problems of the ‘democratization’ of the Ethiopian
political system and its generation of conflict; on the local level it looks at the
formation/reformation of ethnic group relations and their mobilization in new, more
politicized forms under the impact of growing political and economic problems. The
project also intends to report on why these processes have not led to improvements in
the existential or physical security of people outside the centres of power.
Bal, Ellen
Project titles: ‘Searching roots and constructing homeland(s): the importance of
India for Hindustanis in Suriname and the Netherlands’ and (in preparation) ‘Of
dreams and nightmares: youth and human security in Bangladesh and India’.
The first project investigates notions of ‘roots’, ‘homeland’ and/or ‘belonging’
held by people of Indian origin in Suriname and the Netherlands, and explores
their emotional and practical attachments to India. The study is closely linked
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with a larger research project entitled ‘A Diaspora Coming Home? Overseas
Indians re-establishing links with India’, which is being carried out by Dr
Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff (Sept 2001- Sept 2005) and concentrates on PIOs
(People of Indian Origin) in Mauritius, the Netherlands and Suriname.
The second project (which is in preparation) focuses on the views and
experiences of young people in poor and conflict-ridden regions in South Asia
(Bangladesh and India), on what it means to be young, and on their dreams and
nightmares, their hopes, desires and ambitions, as well as their fears,
uncertainties and insecurities. The project will attempt to broaden the social
scientific understanding of young people’s perceptions of and role in
constructing (and/or risking) human securities and insecurities, in their present
lives and anticipated futures.
Bartels, Edien
Project title: ‘Religious identity formation under Moroccan migrants in the
Netherlands’.
Migrants from the southern shore of the Mediterranean in West European
countries are mostly Muslims. We perceive a revival of Islam in the context of
political problems in Europe (in part around the notion of ‘integration’), and
development problems in the countries of origin. If we speak of a ‘Dutch Islam’,
it implies a continuing process in which Muslims reorganize and reinterpret their
religious heritage in the light of the new social context in which they find
themselves as immigrants. Redefining themselves goes hand in hand with the
selection and adaptation that ensues from and is connected with the new context,
as well as with changes in the country of origin.
Other research themes in other research projects are: women abandoned in their
country of origin after ‘home trips’; arranged marriages; and female
circumcision.
Brouwer, Lenie
Project title: ‘New media and second-generation migrants in the Netherlands’.
Although rapid global transformations often create insecurity and uncertainty for
migrants, they also provide a challenge and an opportunity for new social and
cultural forms. In particular second-generation Muslim migrants derive their
concepts of meaning more and more from various pools of signification, for
example the Internet. Quests for, in particular, existential security materialize in
issues of ethnic, gender and religious identity, as bearers of people’s attempts to
create shared meaning and collective distinction. An example of these
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expressions of identity can be seen on Moroccan websites set up by secondgeneration migrants, as well as in the way migrant youth appropriates
technology in computer centres in multi-ethnic urban areas, by for example
composing rap songs on a computer. The project includes online and offline
research.
Colombijn, Freek
Project title: ‘The politics of housing in Indonesian cities during the long
decolonization (1930-1960)’.
This research project deals with the social effects of decolonization in Indonesia.
The main focus is on housing in a number of cities, because shelter is a basic need,
as has been underscored at two UN Habitat Conferences. Adequate housing, or
shelter, gives people a degree of physical security; however, the feeling of being
secure is just as important. The existential importance of housing is expressed in
such sayings as ‘Home is where the heart is’ and ‘An Englishman’s home is his
castle’. On the ground, feelings of security and insecurity become visible in ethnic
residential segregation, gated communities and symbolic markers of territory. The
changes in housing shed light on the social dynamics, namely processes of
ethnicity and class formation, and the emergence of the state bureaucracy and the
army as interest groups.
Droogers, André
Droogers spends most of his research time coordinating two research
programmes: ‘Between Secularization and Religionization’ and ‘Conversion
Careers and Culture Politics in Pentecostalism: a Comparative Study in Four
Continents’.
The first is a four-year programme comprising five projects (both PhD and
postdoc), in which qualitative methods are used to study changes in world-views
in the Netherlands. The programme is intended to complement quantitative
studies that have been done by sociologists and government offices. It is fully
financed by the Vrije Universiteit. This programme has advanced to the stage
where reports are being written or have already been published. One new project
was started in 2005.
The second programme is connected to the Hollenweger Center for the
Interdisciplinary Study of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, of which
André Droogers is director. The Center is a joint venture of the faculties of
Theology and Social Sciences. It is part of the European Research Network on
Global Pentecostalism (‘GloPent’), together with the universities of Birmingham
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and Heidelberg. The programme comprises four PhD projects and one postdoc
project. The five case studies concern Nicaragua, Mozambique, Korea/Japan and
the Netherlands (two studies). Two of the projects are financed by the VU, the
other three by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). The
programme started in November 2003 and will finish in 2010.
Additionally, research on such themes as Pentecostalism, globalization,
syncretism, ritual, play, and religion and power is ongoing.
Evers, Sandra
Project titles: ‘Cognition and Memory in Post-Slavery Societies of the Southwest Indian Ocean’ and ‘Poverty and Natural Resource Management in
Madagascar’.
When human security is viewed as an analytic concept containing both material
components (e.g. food security or economic security) and existential
components (e.g. social integration, the sense of belonging or freedom of
expression), one better understands the utility of the concept as a tool to
comprehend human relations and their ontology.
The research addresses post-slavery societies in the southwest Indian Ocean. In
Madagascar, for example, people of slave descent still have trouble dealing with
their memory of slavery. Their past constitutes a threat to their view of
themselves as worthy members of society, and this hinders their economic and
social integration into society. They are deprived of land ownership. They
consequently have no right to build tombs and thus no avenue to the hereafter
and no claim to status or recognition in society. They refer to themselves as the
olona very (‘lost people’). Others suspect them of originating from slaves, as
slaves were not allowed to build tombs.
Griffioen, Sander
Project title: ‘Tradition and Uncertainty’.
In his Moed tot cultuur (Amsterdam, 2003), Sander Griffioen approached
‘culture’ as a path, a road to be travelled, rather than an entity, thus focusing on
the cultural rather than culture. This shift has important implications for the
notion of ‘tradition’. Whereas tradition in the social sciences is mostly
understood as a house and a haven, the emphasis is now placed on being
underway, implying both leaving home and anticipating arrival at a destination.
However, the possibility of non-arrival can never be discarded. Thus, such
notions as ‘hope’ and ‘fulfilment’ come into play, as do ‘desolation’ and
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‘anxiety’. This research is focused on both Confucianism and Taoism, the
foremost Chinese traditions, in order to establish their original potentials and
limitations. The genre of the research is intercultural philosophy. The project
will officially end upon Griffioen’s retirement on 1 June 2006.
Harskamp, Anton van
Project title: ‘Civil society and religion’ (with a special emphasis on spirituality
and radical Christian orthodoxy).
According to John Keane, the concept of civil society is among the most
significant developments within the contemporary human sciences (J. Keane,
Global Civil Society, Cambridge UP 2003). Although it is one of the
continuously contested concepts in the human sciences, most authors agree that
in many cases the descriptions of specific manifestations of civil society are
saturated with normative values. Thus, the concept often points to ‘the good
society’ (M. Edwards, Civil Society, Polity 2004). One may say that the concept
symbolizes the longing to live in a secure, collective setting. These two aspects
– the normative use of civil society and the symbolic value of security in civil
society – constitute one of the understudied dimensions of the concept (and of
the social manifestations of civil society), which is even more interesting today
because of the relation between civil society and religion.
Kooiman, Dick
Project title: ‘The Power of Ceremonial in Princely India’.
In this research, the globalizing world is represented by British colonialism spreading
its tentacles out over all of India. From the India Office in London, lines of
administrative control ran to all corners of the Indian subcontinent, including a large
number of semi-independent princely states.
There were hundreds of these princely states. Although the majority were small and
insignificant, some were kingdoms similar in size to England or France. They were
allowed to maintain their own administration but had to relinquish control over their
external and military affairs. Together with the representatives of the British
Paramount Power at their courts, these Indian rulers are the main actors in the
research.
What these Indian states/princes sought was primarily a political security, which in
colonial conditions meant the preservation of their semi-autonomous existence and
the upholding of their izzat (honour). Ceremonial honours – such as gun salutes and
durbar arrangements – were important means to strengthen their sense of security
and are the main subjects of this research.
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Meijer, Birgit
Project title: ‘Modern Mass Media, Religion and the Imagination of
Communities’.
This is a NWO/PIONEER research programme at ASSR/UvA. In 2005, Birgit
Meijer had only a 0.1 FTE appointment at SCA. As from September 2006, she
will be working full time.
This multidisciplinary research programme addresses the role of electronic mass
media in the shift from the nation-state as the privileged space for the
imagination of community to the articulation of alternative, religious
imaginations. Special emphasis is put on the question how the rise of religious
organizations and their outspoken manifestation in the public sphere are related
to the legitimacy crisis of the post-colonial state and the increasing global
accessibility of electronic mass media at the dawn of the information age.
Salemink, Oscar
Project title: ‘Human security and religious certainty in Southeast Asia’.
Southeast Asia is undergoing rapid economic growth, and is also extremely rich
in religious repertoires. Throughout the region there is a proliferation of novel
forms of devotion linked to movements of religious change that might evolve
towards religious purity or towards syncretistic recombinations and bricolage. In
a glocalizing and eclectic religious market, these religious transformations draw
from both local and transnational religious and ritual repertoires to imagine
and/or enact alternative modernities in line with globalizing lifestyles. The
region offers a plethora of religious networks and movements that cross national
borders and religious and ethnic boundaries, and that are characterized by a
renewed emphasis on ritual, using both old and new forms and pervading other
fields (e.g. state ritual). By looking at ways in which boundaries are
symbolically and ritually constructed and/or transgressed / transcended, this
research project seeks to establish how religious leaders and their followers use
a variety of religious and ritual repertoires to construct religious certainty and
human security – often through religious purity or syncretistic recombination –
against the backdrop of increased individual choice, flux and national and
transnational reconfigurations.
Salman, Ton
Project title: ‘Citizenship in Latin America’.
The research addresses the question how people, particularly poor people, in
Latin America perceive their ‘rights’, and how they approach the institutions
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that are supposed to deliver these rights, taking into account the varying political
cultures and state’s attitudes with regard to these civil, political and social (and
ethnic/collective) rights. The central issues are such dimensions as the
‘internalizations’ of existing deficiencies in the warranting/realizing of rights,
and learning processes in the present era of demands for deepening democracy
accompanied by struggles over the meaning of ‘rights’ and ‘citizenship’
triggered by the neo-liberal onslaught.
Theije, Marjo de
Project title: ‘”Little Belem” in Paramaribo’.
In the past few years, a large number of Brazilians have migrated to Suriname.
According to journalistic sources, as many as 40,000 Brazilians have found a
home in Suriname since 1995, many of them as gold prospectors in the woods,
but increasingly also in Paramaribo, where a neighbourhood is called after one
of the hometowns of these new migrants, namely Belem, the capital of the state
of Pará (northern Brazil).
Little is known about the backgrounds of the Brazilians migrants, their reasons
for migrating or the manner in which they acquired the connecting links with
Suriname. It is not yet clear to what degree they preserve links with Brazil,
perhaps in a constant process of coming and going, maintaining dominant
sociocultural end economic ties and thus engaging in a transnational network.
The research deals with these questions, connecting them with the issue of
community construction once they have been uprooted.
Uyl, Marion den
Project title: ‘Urban Renewal and identities’.
This project is taking place in the Bijlmer, a multicultural neighbourhood in
Amsterdam. The research is focused on urban renewal and on the identity
formation of migrant girls and mothers, in the context of the availability of
different, sometimes contrasting cultural messages.
Versteeg, Peter
Project title: ‘Changing ritual praxis: A comparative research of two Protestant
churches in Houten, the Netherlands’.
In this research, two Dutch Protestant churches are compared by looking at their
changing ritual praxis in relation to processes of secularization and
23
individualization. The two churches are a mainline Reformed church (Protestant
Church in the Netherlands; PCN) and a conservative Reformed church
(Netherlands Reformed Congregation; NRC). They are in Houten, a suburban
boom-town in the centre of the Netherlands.
Secularization and individualization are viewed as sources of both uncertainty
and certainty. Secularization may result in uncertainty about the identity of
church and believer, while individualization may lead to feelings of anxiety
when people experience a loss of ideological-symbolic certainty and control.
However, both processes may give people the opportunity to move beyond
traditional confines and to develop a sense of autonomy, in particular in terms of
religious exploration and affirmation.
Winslow, Donna
Project title: ‘Human security, peace operations and the military’.
The end of the Cold War was marked by a proliferation of intra-state conflicts.
In addition, various global issues have surfaced, including some related to
human rights violations, refugees and internally displaced persons, landmines
and small arms, terrorism, environmental degradation, drug trafficking and such
infectious diseases as HIV/AIDS. Human security has both global and local
dimensions, and this will be discussed in terms of the state’s ability to care for
its citizens and the international community’s responsibility to intervene to
protect human rights. Human security has policy implications and has inspired
some governments to take action in order to promote a human security agenda.
The focus of this project is on the ethics, possibilities and limitations of such
actions.
3.3 PhD candidates
On 7 October 2005, Valli Kanapathipillai successfully defended her thesis
‘Repatriation or Deportation? Nation Building, Citizenship and the Indian Tamil
Estate Workers in Sri Lanka after Independence’. Valli was the last PhD
candidate to start her project with the late Professor Peter Kloos. Her cosupervisor was Dr Kooiman; her supervisor was Professor Schrijvers (Professor
Emeritus, UvA).
We expect that H.J. Haenen – an ‘external’ PhD – will graduate in 2006 with his
project ‘Afrikaans denken: ontmoeting, dialoog en frictie. Een filosofisch
onderzoek’. His supervisor is Prof. Griffioen.
24
As mentioned in the introduction, three new PhDs – João Rickli, Regien Smit
and Hanneke Minkjan – joined the department in 2005. João is studying the
relation between the Dutch and the Brazilian partners in the ‘Kerk in Aktie’
development cooperation; Regien is focusing on ‘Een vergelijkende studie van
twee migranten-Pinksterkerken in Nederland’; and Hanneke will dedicate her
time to the project ‘Religieuze producenten en consumenten op de neopaganistische markt: een antropologisch onderzoek naar individuele religiositeit
in Nederland’.
The six PhDs who started in 2004 (namely Linda van de Kamp, Miranda Klaver,
Nguyen Tuan Anh, Ikuya Noguchi, Inge Ruigrok and Tijo Salverda) made
substantial progress in 2005. Their projects are:
Linda: ‘Brazilian Pentecostalism in Mozambique: exploring the transnational
dimensions of Pentecostal conversion in Maputo’.
Miranda: ‘Conversion and commitment in the Netherlands: a seeker church and
a charismatic church compared’.
Nguyen Tuan Anh: ‘The role of kinship in village community – a case study in
Quynh doi village, Quynh luu district, Nghe an province, Vietnam’.
Ikuya: ‘The Culture Politics of Pentecostalism in East Asia: A Comparative
Study of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Korea and Japan’.
Inge: ‘Negotiating governance: politics, decentralization and cultural ideology in
post-war Angola’.
Tijo: ‘Transnational networks linking Mauritius, South Africa and France: an
anthropological study of Franco-Mauritian trading networks’.
Alex Claver (externally financed) has finished his thesis (supervisor: Prof.
Sutherland) and will graduate in 2006. The same goes for Agustus Suypriyono.
Supervisor: Prof. Sutherland.
In 2005, we had 20 PhDs working at SCA. The eight not previously mentioned
are: Erella Grassiani, Jeffrey Schwerzel, Kim Knibbe, Aysegül Cil, Rhea
Hummel, Johan Roeland, Bram Büscher and Malte Stokhof. Their projects are:
Erella: ‘Reasoning on Moral Issues in Non-conventional Conflict: Israeli
Soldiers’ Views on Moral Dilemmas’.
Jeffrey: ‘NATO security culture: an anthropological analysis of institutional
(dis)trust’
Kim: ‘Changing religious repertoires and moral practices in the southern part of
Limburg, the Netherlands’.
Aysegül: ‘Entitlements, Conflicts and Negotiated Co-management: Urban
Development and Sustainable Resource Management in the Coastal Region of
the Bodrum Peninsula, Turkey’.
25
Rhea: ‘Veranderende levensbeschouwelijke taal bij Nederlandse kunstenaars’.
Johan: ‘Identiteit en religiositeit onder Nederlandse evangelicale jongeren’.
Bram: ‘The politics and governance of linking conservation and development in
Southern Africa: a study on the transnationalisation of the conservationdevelopment discourse with a special focus on the Maloti-Drakensberg
Transfrontier Conservation Area between South Africa and Lesotho’.
Malte: ‘Transforming Local Identities in a Transnational Muslim Context:
Descendants of Javanese Immigrants in Communist Vietnam’.
The department prides itself on its PhD students. We will continue to do
everything in our power to facilitate them, so that they can finish their
dissertations on time. Meanwhile, we are enjoying their ideas, suggestions and
research outcomes – and company!
26
4
Educational activities
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem
those who think alike than those who think differently
Nietzsche
SCA offers both a Bachelor’s (BSc) and a Master’s (MSc) programme in social
and cultural anthropology. The Bachelor’s programme offers a broad
introduction to the field, emphasizing the interconnections between cultural
dimensions (existential, symbolic, meaning-focused) and social dimensions
(social and economic relations, stratifications and transformations, policies and
politics). Students learn to apply their awareness of social and cultural
differences and varieties in current societal and global problematiques. This
provides them with the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are crucial in
contemporary societies, and prepares them for the department’s Master’s
programme.
The Bachelor’s programme provides introductions to the social sciences
in general, methodological courses, global history, and writing and presentation
skills. Additionally, courses are offered on development questions, political
anthropology, ethnicity and identity, symbols and rituals, history and theories of
anthropology, gender and sexuality, and ICT. Finally, various research training
courses are provided.
In 2005, some courses – such as the massively attended general
introduction to anthropology – were evaluated as ‘satisfactory’, while most
received a ‘good’ or ‘very good’, and some received an ‘excellent’
(Bachelorwerkgroep SCA, Mondiale geschiedenis).
In total, 12 students were awarded their BSc in 2005.
In the English-language Master’s programme in Social and Cultural
Anthropology, the quest for human security – our main research topic – takes
central stage. As in the Bachelor’s, the intertwinedness of social and cultural
dimensions plays an important role. Thus, as in the departmental research, both
physical and existential dimensions are included. Physical security concerns
aspects of economic, ecological, social and physical well-being, which are
generally associated with the fields of development, livelihood and governance
– the traditional domain of social anthropology.
Here, the cultural, cognitive, emotional, religious and symbolic
dimensions of HS are subsumed under the concept of ‘existential’ security. They
refer to processes of signification, which are traditionally the realm of cultural
anthropology.
27
The department also provides a pre-Master’s course (PMC) for students
applying for our Masters, with thematic, disciplinary or methodological
deficiencies. This course, like the Master’s, is in English and prepares the
students for the Master’s.
The Master’s programme is offered both full time and part time. The full-time
programme takes one year. During the first four months, students follow
compulsory courses on human security. The first two months provide an indepth introduction. During the last two months, the students choose between two
parallel courses: one emphasizes social approaches and the other cultural
approaches to the field. Simultaneously, the students prepare for their threemonth period of fieldwork. After their fieldwork, they attend writing seminars
and are supervised by individual staff tutors.
In the academic year 2004/2005, 23 students followed the full-time
Master’s programme. Of these, 20 obtained their degree in the summer of 2005.
In 2004, four students started the part-time Master’s. Student evaluations and the
high scores of students who have been awarded their MSc have strengthened our
feeling that the programme is both of high quality and well structured. We are
delighted with how it has worked out.
In the academic year 2005/2006, there are (at present) 30 students in our
Master’s programme, and 8 have started the part-time Master’s. The four
students who started their part-time Master’s in 2004 are now in their second
year. Two anthropology students are participating in the faculty’s two-year
Research Master’s, which elaborates research skills more than the Master’s
does.
The department is eager to invest in internationalization. Both the PMC and
the Master’s programme had various foreign students enrolled in their classes
(three in the PMC, two in the Master’s). Also in our Bachelor’s programme, four
classes are taught in English, to facilitate foreign exchange students.
Approximately 25 foreign students participated in our English-language
Bachelor’s courses.
Each year, the students decide who should be awarded the department’s annual
prize for the best lecturer. The winner in 2005 was Dick Kooiman. The students
expressed particularly high appreciation for his course on ‘global history’,
saying that they found it both very clear and very inspiring.
28
5
Publications by staff and PhD candidates
Beware the man of one book
St Thomas Aquinas
‘Publish or perish’ is the jingle of current academic life. The SCA department
takes a critical stand towards the often monomaniac, quantity-obsessed and
English-language-biased criteria for measuring people’s success as a researcher.
Often, in such cases, the results of research are reduced to statistics. In particular
towards anthropology, exclusively quantity-focused criteria are often
inequitable; they misjudge the desire of and need for anthropologists to be in
dialogue with their ‘field’, and to publish in non-English, often local languages.
They also misapprehend the particular value and importance of monographs and
thematic edited volumes. They misjudge the importance of ‘peer review’ – or
perhaps have forgotten about its literal meaning: to be read, evaluated and
responded to by local colleagues and scholars, and if possible by the
communities one studies. These are the people that, besides the Anglo-Saxon
scholars’ peer group, should be enabled to judge one’s contributions. This is
even more pressing in cases where current events are still evolving and
controversies are strong.
But there is no use in engaging in quixotic battles: apart from seeking exchange
with our local research domains and looking for alternative ways to disseminate
our research outcomes and ensuring that they have an impact, we also publish in
international, often English peer-reviewed journals and with international
publishers, and in almost all cases meet the publication criteria we look upon so
critically. But let’s remember Erasmus’s wise (and ‘fool’-ish!) words in his
unsurpassed ‘Praise of Folly’:
Come now then as many of you as challenge the respect of being
accounted wise, ingenuously confess how many insurrections of rebellious
thoughts, and pangs of a labouring mind, ye are perpetually thrown and
tortured with; reckon up all those inconveniences that you are
unavoidably subject to, and then tell me whether fools, by being exempted
from all these embroilments, are not infinitely more free and happy than
yourselves?
Below is a list of the publications by the SCA staff members and PhD
candidates. The titles are divided into refereed and non-refereed books/edited
books, refereed and non-refereed articles, refereed and non-refereed book
29
contributions, dissertations, inaugural lectures, internal and external reports, and
book reviews.
The following figures substantiate the claim about the progress in refereed
research output (dissertations and PhD student’s research input are excluded):
2003: 41 refereed publications, 6.4 SCA FTE research input = 6.4 publications
per 1.0 input
2004: 31 refereed publications, 5.8 SCA FTE research input = 5.3 publications
per 1.0 input
2005: 53 refereed publications, 5.0 SCA FTE research input = 10.6 publications
per 1.0 input
The figures suggest an increasing average. Many of us love rising averages, but
– as Des McHale – remarked, the average human has but one breast and one
testicle.
5.1 Books/edited books, refereed
Jan Abbink
(edited a special issue of Northeast African Studies 7(3)), titled Cultural
Variation and Social Change in Southern Ethiopia: Comparative Approaches,
pp. 206.
Ellen Bal
(edited, with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff & Alok Deo Singh) Autobiography of an
Indian Indentured Labourer: Munshi Rahman Khan (1874-1972), New Delhi:
Shipra, pp. 271.
Maurice Bloch
Essays in Cultural Transmission, London, Berg, pp. 174.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Engaging Anthropology: The Case for a Public Presence, Oxford: Berg
Publishers, pp. 192.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Immer schneller – immer mehr? Balance finden zwischen Beschleunigung und
Ruhe, Freiburg: Herder Verslag, pp. 237.
30
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Hvad er socialantropologi, Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, pp. 186.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Vad är socialantropologi, Stockholm: Natur och kultur, pp. 205.
Sandra Evers
(edited, with M.J. Spierenburg and H. Wels) Competing Jurisdictions: Settling
Land Claims in Africa, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, pp. 364.
Inge Ruigrok
Mozambique, Amsterdam: Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (KIT), pp. 74.
Ton Salman
(edited, with Willem Assies & Marco Calderón) Citizenship, Political Culture
and State Transformation in Latin America Amsterdam/Zamora, Michoacán,
Mexico: Dutch University Press / El Colegio de Michoacán, pp. 453.
Saskia Sassen
(edited, with Robert Latham) Digital Formations: IT and New Architectures in
the Global Realm, Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press, pp.
456.
5.2 Books/edited books, non-refereed
Jan Abbink
(edited, with A. Alders) Eritrean Beauty. The Wonderful People of Eritrea,
Veenendaal: PrimaMedia Publishers, pp. 160.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Internett i praksis. Om teknologiens uregjerlighet (The Internet in Practice: On
the unruliness of the Net), Oslo: Spartacus, pp. 196.
Heather Sutherland
(edited, with G. Knaap) Monsoon Traders: Ships, Skippers and Commodities in
Eighteenth-century Makassar, Leiden: KITLV Press, pp. 269.
31
5.3 Articles, refereed
Jan Abbink
Comparing cultures in Southern Ethiopia: from ethnography to generative
explanation, in: Northeast African Studies 7 (3), pp. 1-14.
Ellen Bal (with Kathinka Sinha Kerkhoff)
Introduction: Muslims in Suriname and the Netherlands and the Divided
Homeland, in: Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 25 (2), pp. 205-229.
Edien Bartels
Wearing a headscarf is my personal choice, in: Journal of Islam and ChristianMuslim Relation 16(1), pp. 15-29.
Bram Büscher (with Ton Dietz)
Conjunctions of Governance: the state and the conservation-development nexus
in Southern Africa, in: Journal of Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies Roskilde University 4(2), pp. 1-15.
Bram Büscher (with Marlous van Amerom)
Peace Parks in Southern Africa: Bringers of an African Renaissance?, in:
Journal of Modern African Studies, 43 (2), pp. 159-182.
Freek Colombijn
A moving history of Middle Sumatra, 1600-1870, in: Modern Asian Studies
39(1), pp. 1-38.
Freek Colombijn
Badly disguised self-interest: Public housing in Medan 1948-1950, in:
Kampung: Kampung menulis kota 2005(2), pp. 84-110.
André Droogers
Syncretism and Fundamentalism: A Comparison, in: Social Compass, 52(4), pp.
463-471.
André Droogers
Enjoying an emerging alternative world: ritual in its own ludic right, in: Social
Analysis, 48(2), pp. 138-154.
Thomas Hyllland Eriksen
Norwegian folk costumes and cultural capital. Keeping the recipe, in: Focaal,
European Journal of Anthropology 44, pp. 20-34.
32
Thomas Hyllland Eriksen
Mind the gap: Flexibility, epistemology and the rhetoric of new work, in:
Cybernetics & Human Knowing 12(1) pp. 50-60.
Thomas Hyllland Eriksen
Nothing to lose but our aitches, in: Anthropology Today 21(2) pp. 1-3.
Dick Kooiman
Imagining Maharajas: political constructions of Indian princes, in: Journal of the
Indian Anthropological Society 40(1) pp. 17-31.
Dick Kooiman
Invention of Tradition in Travancore: a maharaja’s quest for political security,
in: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 15(2) pp. 151-165.
Dick Kooiman
Tempel versus Moskee: religie en geweld in India, in: Tijdschrift voor
Geschiedenis 118(3) pp. 348-366.
Inge Ruigrok
Mozambique’s 2004 General Elections, in: African Security Review 14(4) pp.
35-47.
Ton Salman (with Willem Assies)
Ethnicity and Politics in Bolivia, in: Ethnopolitics 4(3) pp. 269-297.
Saskia Sassen
The ecology of global economic power: changing investment practices to
environmental sustainability, in: Journal of International Affairs 58(2), pp. 1134.
Saskia Sassen
Regulating Immigration in a Global Age: A New Policy Landscape, in: Parallax
11(1) pp.35-45.
Saskia Sassen
The repositioning of citizenship and alienage: Emergent subjects and spaces for
politics, in: Globalizations 2(1) pp. 79-94.
Saskia Sassen
The Global City: Introducing a Concept, in: Brown Journal of World Affairs
11(2) pp. 27-43.
33
5.4 Articles, non-refereed
Jan Abbink (with K. van Walraven)
Landenstudies als velden van wetenschappelijke kennis, in: Civis Mundi 44(1-2)
pp. 20-23.
Edien Bartels
La déclaration des droits de l’enfant concernant les droits sociaux et culturels
des enfants de parents immigrés marocains: La constitution et les écoles
islamiques aux Pays Bas, in: Revue Marocaine d’Économie et de Droit Revue
Marocaine d’Économie et de Droit. 9-10 (November) pp. 3-15.
Edien Bartels
Marokkaanse meisjes en jeugdliteratuur in Nederland, in: Al Nisa, Islamitisch
maandblad voor vrouwen. (2005, June edition) pp. 19-26.
Edien Bartels (with Martijn de Koning)
Voor Allah en mijzelf. Jonge Marokkanen op zoek naar de ‘echte’ islam, in:
Socialisme en Democratie – ‘Poldermoslims: identiteit gezocht’ 62(1/2) pp.19-27.
Lenie Brouwer
Marokkaanse websites: een barometer voor storm in de multiculturele
samenleving, in: ZemZem; Tijdschrift over het Midden-Oosten, Noord-Afrika en
Islam 1(1) pp. 91-97.
Lenie Brouwer
Yasmina: een virtuele plek voor Marokkaanse meisjes [‘Yasmina: a virtual place
for Moroccan girls’], in: Pedagogiek 24(3) 211-215.
Bram Büscher
Land and Resources in a Transfrontier Setting: the Case of the MalotiDrakensberg Transfrontier Project, in: PLAAS Policy Brief no. 19. Programme
for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), School of Government, University of
the Western Cape. Online: www.uwc.ac.za/plaas.19 (1-4).
Bram Büscher
Wie zoekt zal vinden - Community Based Tourism in Ghana, in: Vice Versa 39
(1), p. 11.
Anton van Harskamp
De verbeelding van de verschrikking: De Left Behind romans, in: In de Marge
14(3), pp. 1-12.
34
Miranda Klaver
Netwerken die de kerk veranderen, in: IDEA (Nederlandse Evangelische
Alliantie), 26(3) pp. 3-5.
Dick Kooiman
Werkelijkheid en Verbeelding in David Copperfield, in: The Dutch Dickensian
25(52) pp. 17-22.
Martijn de Koning
De Hirsi Ali Diss nader belicht, in: ZemZem 1(1), pp. 36-41.
Martijn de Koning (with Edien Bartels)
Voor Allah en mijzelf – Jonge Marokkanen op zoek naar de 'echte' islam, in: S
& D. Maandblad van de Wiardi Beckman Stichting, wetenschappelijk bureau
van de Partij van de Arbeid 62(1-2) pp. 19-27.
Birgit Meyer (with Ria Reis)
Interview with M. Schoffeleers: Anthropologist and Priest, in: Etnofoor 19(2).
Johan Roeland
Het zelf in christelijke religiositeit. Discoursen van het zelf in hedendaagse
vormen van religiositeit, in: In de Marge 14(1) pp. 22-30.
Johan Roeland
‘You are the song inside my heart’. Over reli-pop en christelijke kunst, in: In de
Marge 14(4) pp. 22-32.
Inge Ruigrok
Angola werkt met Chinees geld aan herstel, in: Dagblad Trouw 2005 (15 Nov.).
Inge Ruigrok
MPLA houdt stevige grip op Angolees vredesproces, in: Dagblad Trouw 2005
(11 Nov.).
Inge Ruigrok
Soaps bevorderen verzoening in Angola, in: De Kracht van Cultuur
(http://www.krachtvancultuur.nl) 2005 (Nov.) pp. 2.
Inge Ruigrok
Wapens nog wijdverspreid onder Angolese bevolking, in: Internationale
Samenwerking 10 2005 (Dec.).
35
Jeffrey Schwerzel
Transforming Attitudes, in: NATO Review, at
http://www.nato.int/docu/review/2005/issue2/english/art3.html 2005(2) pp. Web
publication, pp. 3.
Jeffrey Schwerzel
Transforming Attitudes, in: NATO Special issue: Examining NATO's
Transformation, at:
http://www.nato.int/docu/review/2005/issue2/english/art3.html 2005 (spring) pp.
45-47.
Jeffrey Schwerzel (with Shanti Tuinstra)
De Vrome Moslima als Gesluierde Heldin, in: Begrip Moslims Christenen 31(1)
pp. 23-32.
Jeffrey Schwerzel
The Aftermath of the Van Gogh Assassination, in: International Policy Institute
for Counter Terrorism website, at
www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=533 2005. Web publication, pp. 5.
Jeffrey Schwerzel
‘London Bombings: In Search of Answers’, in: Centre for Defense Information
website, at
www.cdi.org/friendlyversion/printversion.cfm?documentID=3056 2005, Web
publication, pp. 4.
Marjo de Theije
‘A Caminhada do Louvor: como carismáticos e grupos católicos da base vem se
relacionando na prática’, in: Religião e Sociedade 24(2) pp. 37-45.
Marion den Uyl (with Ina Keuper)
‘Whatever happened to patriarchy?’ Gesprek met Sherry Ortner, in: Lova.
Tijdschrift voor Feministische Antropologie 26(1) pp. 86-94.
Peter Versteeg (with Paul N. van der Laan)
Bibliography Walter J. Hollenweger, in: PentecoStudies 4(1) pp. 1-47.
Peter Versteeg
Op zoek naar christelijke spiritualiteit, in: Kennislink.nl - Vakpagina
Maatschappijwetenschappen, at
http://www.kennislink.nl/web/show?id=138181&vensterid=811&cat=60360
2005, pp. 5.
36
5.5 Book contributions, refereed
Jan Abbink
‘Local leadership and state governance in southern Ethiopia: from charisma to
bureaucracy’, in: O. Vaughan (ed.): Tradition and Politics: Indigenous Political Structures
in Africa, Trenton, NJ:
Africa World Press, pp. 159-184.
Jan Abbink
‘Ethiopia’, in: A. Mehler, H. Melber & K. van Walraven (eds.): Africa
Yearbook. Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara, Leiden – Boston:
Brill Academic Publishers, pp. 287-299.
Jan Abbink
‘Of snakes and cattle: the dialectics of group esteem between Suri and Dizi in
Southwest Ethiopia’, in: I. Strecker & J. Weinerth (eds): Ethiopian Images of
Self and Other. Essays on Cultural Contact, Respect and Self-esteem in
Southern Ethiopia, Münster – Hamburg – Berlin – Vienna – London: Lit Verlag,
pp. 158-177.
Jan Abbink
‘Tigre’, in: C. Skutsch (ed.): Encyclopedia of the World’s Minorities, vol.3,
London – New York: Routledge, pp. 1200-1202.
Jan Abbink
‘Somali’, in: C. Skutsch (ed.): Encyclopedia of the World’s Minorities, vol. 3,
London – New York: Routledge, pp. 1125-1127.
Jan Abbink
‘Ethiopia’, in: C. Skutsch (ed.): Encyclopedia of the World’s Minorities, vol. 1,
London – New York: Routledge, pp. 438-440.
Jan Abbink
‘Eritrea’, in: C. Skutsch (ed.): Encyclopedia of the World’s Minorities, vol. 1,
London – New York: Routledge, pp. 434-436.
Jan Abbink
‘Djibouti’, in: C. Skutsch (ed.): Encyclopedia of the World’s Minorities, vol. 1,
London – New York: Routledge, pp. 401-402.
Jan Abbink
‘Congo Republic’, in C. Skutsch (ed.): Encyclopedia of the World’s Minorities,
vol. 1, London – New York: Routledge, pp. 328-330.
37
Jan Abbink
‘Bilin’, in: C. Skutsch (ed.): Encyclopedia of the World’s Minorities, vol. 1,
London – New York: Routledge, pp. 222-223.
Jan Abbink
‘Afar’, in: C. Skutsch (ed.) Encyclopedia of the World’s Minorities, vol. 1,
London – New York: Routledge, pp. 11-13.
Jan Abbink
‘Rasha’ida’, in: C. Skutsch (ed.) Encyclopedia of the World’s Minorities, vol. 3,
London – New York: Routledge, pp. 1004-1005.
Ellen Bal (with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff)
‘Introduction’, in: Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, Ellen Bal & Alok Deo Singh
(eds.): Autobiography of an Indian Indentured Labourer: Munshi Rahman Khan
(1874-1972), Shipra: New Delhi, pp. x1-lii.
Lenie Brouwer
‘Women, Gender and Virginity: Discourses and Practices in Western Europe’,
in: Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, Brill: Leiden, pp. 29-32.
Maurice Bloch
‘Ritual and Deference’, in: H. Whitehouse and J. Laidlaw (eds.), Ritual and
Memory, Altamira Press: Walnut Creek, pp. 65-88.
Maurice Bloch
‘Levi-Strauss en Grande Bretagne’, in: M. Izard (eds.): Levi Strauss, Cahiers de
L'Herme: Paris, pp. 349-356.
Maurice Bloch
‘Foreword’, in: E. Keller (ed.): The Road to Clarity, Palgrave Macmillan: New
York, pp. xiv-xviii.
Freek Colombijn
‘Kuala Lumpur and Singapore: high hopes versus a low profile’, in: Peter J.M.
Nas (ed.): Directors of urban change in Asia, Routledge: London – New York,
pp. 96-125.
André Droogers
‘Pentecostalism’ in: Guillermo Hansen (ed.): El silbo ecuménico del Espíritu:
Homenaje a José Míguez Bonino en sus 80 años, Buenos Aires: Instituto
Universitario ISEDET, pp. 21-32.
38
André Droogers
‘Enjoying an Emerging Alternative World: Ritual in Its Own Ludic Right’, in:
Don Handelman and Galina Lindquist (eds.): Ritual in Its Own Right: Exploring
the Dynamics of
Transformation, Berghahn Books: New York and Oxford, pp. 138-154.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
‘Economies of ethnicity’, in: James Carrier (ed.): A Handbook of Economic
Anthropology, Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, pp. 353-369.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
‘How can the global be local?’, in: Thomas Tufte and Oscar Hemer (eds.):
Media & Glocal Change: Rethinking Communication for Development,
CLACSO + Nordicom: Buenos Aires, pp. 25-40.
Sandra Evers (with Marja Spierenburg and Harry Wels)
‘Introduction Competing Jurisdictions: Settling Land Claims in Africa,
including Madagascar’, in: S. Evers, M. Spierenburg & H. Wels (eds.):
Competing Jurisdictions: Settling Land Claims in Africa, Leiden: Brill, pp. 1-19.
Sandra Evers
‘Trumping the ancestors: the challenges of implementing a land registration
system in Madagascar’, in: Sandra J.T.M. Evers, M.J. Spierenburg, H. Wels
(eds.): Competing Jurisdictions: Settling Land Claims in Africa, Leiden: Brill
Academic Publishers, pp. 223-242.
Sander Griffioen
‘Multiple Religious Participation as Ideology and Fact. Exploring the “Eastern
Mind”’, in: Alexei Chernyakov (ed.): Science and Faith, Science and Faith, St
Petersburg School of Religion and Philosophy: St. Petersburg, pp. 192-198.
Sander Griffioen
‘Homo culturalis. Waarom wij cultuur hebben’, in: G.J. Buijs, P. Blokhuis, S.
Griffioen, R. Kuiper: Homo respondens. Verkenningen rond het mens-zijn,
Buijten en Schipperheijn: Amsterdam, pp. 84-91.
Sander Griffioen
‘Hegel’, ‘Hegelianisme’, ‘Linkshegelianen’, in: G. Harinck (ed.): Christelijke
Encyclopedie, Kok: Kampen, pp. 748-750, 1118-1120.
39
Birgit Meyer
‘Mediating Tradition: Pentecostal Pastors, African Priests, and Chiefs in
Ghanaian Popular Films’, in: Toyin Falola (ed.): Christianity and Social Change
in Africa. Essays in Honor of J.D.Y. Peel, Carolina University Press: Durham
NC, pp. 275-306.
Philip Quarles van Ufford (with Rob D. van den Berg)
‘Disjuncture and Marginality; towards a New Approach to Development
Practice’, in: David Mosse and David Lewis (eds.) The Aid Effect; Giving and
Governing in International Development, Pluto: London, Ann Arbor, pp. 196213.
Oscar Salemink
‘Vietnam’, in: Carl O. Skutsch (ed.): Encyclopedia of the World’s Minorities
vol. 3, Routledge: New York – London, pp. 1293-1295.
Ton Salman
‘Grassroots Activism’, in: Tim Forsyth (ed.) Encyclopedia of International
Development, Routledge: London, New York, pp. 295-296.
Ton Salman
‘Citizenship between Polymorphy and Universality: the Globalocal Features of a
Phenomenon in Turmoil’, in: Willem Assies, Marco Calderón & Ton Salman
(eds): Citizenship, Political Culture and State Transformation in Latin America,
Dutch University Press / El Colegio de Michoacán: Amsterdam / Zamora,
Michoacán, Mexico, pp. 79-91.
Ton Salman (with Willem Assies & Marco Calderón)
‘Citizenship, Political Culture and State Transformation in Latin America’, in:
Willem Assies, Marco Calderón & Ton Salman (eds): Citizenship, Political
Culture and State Transformation in Latin America, Dutch University Press / El
Colegio de Michoacán: Amsterdam / Zamora, Michoacán, Mexico, pp. 3-26.
Heather Sutherland
‘Trade, court and company: Makassar in the later seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries’, in: E. Locher-Scholten and P. Rietbergen (eds): Hof en
Handel: Aziatische vorsten en de VOC 1620-1720, KITLV Press: Leiden, pp.
85-112.
Marion den Uyl
‘Dowry in India: Respected Tradition and Modern Monstrosity’, in: Tine Davids
and Francien van Driel (eds): The Gender Question in Globalization. Changing
Perspectives and Practices, Ashgate: Williston VT, USA, pp. 143-159.
40
Bernhard Venema
‘State formation, access to the commons and autochthony among the Berbers of
the Middle Atlas, Morocco’, in: S. Evers, M. Spierenburg and H. Wels (eds):
Competing Jurisdictions. Settling land claims in Africa, Brill: Leiden, pp. 181201.
Donna Winslow
‘Strange Bedfellows in Humanitarian Crises: NGOs and the Military’, in:
Natalie Mychajlyszyn and Timothy M. Shaw (eds.): Twisting arms and flexing
muscles : humanitarian intervention and peacebuilding in perspective, Ashgate:
Aldershot [etc.], pp. 113-129.
5.6 Book contributions, non-refereed
Jan Abbink
‘Transformaties van staat en geweld in Afrika: de teloorgang van de
postkoloniale orde’, in: T. Zwaan (ed.): Politiek en Geweld. Etnisch Conflict,
Oorlog en Genocide in de 20e Eeuw, De Walburg Pers en Nederlands Instituut
Oorlogsdocumentatie: Zutphen – Amsterdam, pp. 161-180.
Edien Bartels
‘Ritueel en religieuze beleving’, in: Dick Douwes, Martijn de Koning, Welmoet
Boender (eds.): Nederlandse moslims. Van migrant tot burger, Amsterdam
University Press Salomé: Amsterdam, pp. 55-69.
Freek Colombijn
‘A cultural practice of violence in Indonesia: Lessons from history’, in: Dewi
Fortuna Anwar, Hélène Bouvier, Glenn Smith, Roger Tol (eds.) Violent internal
conflicts in Asia Pacific: Histories, political economies and policies, Yayasan
Obor Indonesia, LIPI, LASEMA-CNRS, KITLV Jakarta: Jakarta, pp. 245-268.
Freek Colombijn
‘Budaya praktik kekerasan di Indonesia: Pelajaran dari sejarah’, in: Dewi
Fortuna Anwar, Hélène Bouvier, Glenn Smith, Roger Tol (eds.): Konflik
kekerasan internal: Tinjauan sejarah, ekonomi-politik, dan kebijakan di Asia
Pasifik, Yayasan Obor Indonesia, LIPI, LASEMA-CNRS, KITLV Jakarta:
Jakarta, pp. 281-308.
André Droogers
‘Knowledge of Religion and Religious Knowledge: The Cultural Anthropology
of Religion and a Religious Anthropology’, in: John H. Kok (ed.): Ways of
Knowing in Concert, Dordt College Press: Sioux Center, Iowa, pp. 203-226.
41
Sander Griffioen
‘Recht in overvloed. Gerechtigheid en professionaliteit in de ontmoeting tussen
arm en rijk’, in: Gerard Verbeek (Series editors S. Griffioen, B. Goudzwaard,
G.J. Buijs): Voorwoord, Best: Damon, pp. 5-6.
Anton van Harskamp
‘Simply Astounding: Ongoing Secularization in the Netherlands’, in: Sengers,
Erik (ed.): The Dutch and Their Gods: Secularization and Transformation of
Religion in the Netherlands Since 1950, Verloren: Hilversum, pp. 43-57.
5.7 Dissertations
Valli Kanapathipillai graduated on 7 October. Her dissertation was ‘Repatriation
or Deportation? Nation Building, Citizenship and the Indian Tamil Estate
Workers in Sri Lanka after Independence’ (pp. 243). She started the project with
the late Prof. Peter Kloos as supervisor. Prof. Joke Schrijvers became her
supervisor after the death of Prof. Kloos. Co-supervisor: Dr Dick Kooiman.
5.8 Internal and external Reports
Edien Bartels
Onderzoeksnotitie over migrantenvrouwen en kinderen die gedwongen zijn
achtergelaten in landen van herkomst, Den Haag, Adviescommissie
Vreemdelingenzaken, pp. 78.
Edien Bartels (with Martijn de Koning)
Over het huwelijk gesproken. Partnerkeuze en gedwongen huwelijken onder
Marokkaanse, Turkse en Hindostaanse Nederlanders, Den Haag,
Adviescommissie Vreemdelingenzaken, pp. 58.
Bram Büscher (with D. Atkinson)
Emergent Farmers, Local Knowledge and the Implication for Land Reform: A
Profile of Commonage Users in Philippolis, Free State, Free State, South
Africa: Karoo Institute, Philippolis, pp. 59.
Martijn de Koning (with Edien Bartels)
Over het huwelijk gesproken. Partnerkeuze en gedwongen huwelijken onder
Marokkaanse, Turkse en Hindostaanse Nederlanders, Den Haag,
Adviescommissie Vreemdelingenzaken, pp. 58.
42
5.9 Inaugural Lectures
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
On 15 March, Thomas Eriksen delivered his inaugural lecture at the VU:
‘Risking security: Paradoxes of social cohesion’, published internally, pp. 21.
5.10 Book reviews
Jan Abbink
Review of L. Favali & R. Pateman’s ‘Blood, Land and Sex. Legal and Political
Pluralism in Eritrea’, Bloomington-Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003,
in: African Affairs 104(415), pp. 346-347.
Jan Abbink
Review of P. Woodward’s ‘The Horn of Africa: Politics and International
Relations’, I.B. Tauris: London – New York, 2003, in: Journal of Contemporary
African Studies, 23(3), pp. 442-455.
Bram Büscher
Review of Dennis A. Rondinelli and G. Shabbir Cheema (eds.) ‘Reinventing
Government for the Twenty-First Century. State Capacity in a Globalizing
Society’, Bloomfield: Kumarian Press, 2003, in Development and Change 36(2).
Bram Büscher
Review of J. Igoe’s ‘Conservation and Globalization: A Study of National Parks
and Indigenous Communities from East Africa to South Dakota’, Wadsworth:
Andover UK, 2004, in Development and Change 36(1), pp. 203-204.
Freek Colombijn
Review of Timothy P. Barnard’s ‘Multiple centres of authority: Society and
environment in Siak and eastern Sumatra, 1674-1827’, Leiden: KITLV Press
2003, in Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 118, pp. 298-300.
André Droogers
Review of Stephen P. Reyna’s ‘Connections: brain, mind and culture in a social
anthropology’, Routledge: London, New York, 2004, in: Anthropological
Theory 4(2), pp. 260-261.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Review of Fred Inglis’s ‘Culture’, Polity Press: Cambridge, 2004, in: Journal of
the Royal Anthropological Institute, 11(3), pp. 601-602.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
43
Review of Josep R. Llobera’s ‘Foundations of national identity. From Catalonia
to Europe’, Berghahn Books: New York, 2004, in: Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, 11(1), pp. 129-131.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Review of Raquel Romberg’s ‘Witchcraft and Welfare. Spiritual Capital and the
Business of Magic in Modern Puerto Rico’, University of Texas Press: Austin,
2003, in: Anthropos 100(2), pp. 632-633.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Review of Luke Eric Lassiter’s ‘Invitation to anthropology’, Altamira Press:
Lanham, 2002, in: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11(3), pp. 709710.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Review of Terry Bell and Dumisa Buhle Ntsebeza’s ‘Unfinished Business:
South Africa, Apartheid and Truth’, Verso: London, 2003, in: Journal of
Contemporary African Studies 23(1), pp. 193-195.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Review of Wim van Binsbergen’s ‘Intercultural Encounters: African and
Anthropological Lessons Towards a Philosophy of Interculturality’, LIT:
Berlin/Hamburg/Münster, 2003, in: Journal of Contemporary African Studies
23(1), pp. 126-128.
Anton van Harskamp
Review of T. Bernts’s ‘Boodschap aan de kerken? Religie als sociaal en moreel
kapitaal’, Meinema: Zoetermeer, 2004, in: Tijdschrift voor Theologie 45(2), pp.
233.
Miranda Klaver
Review of Douglas T. Anderson and Michael J. Coyner’s ‘The Race to Reach
Out – Connecting Newcomers to Christ in a New Century’, Abingdon Press:
Nashville, 2004, in: Exchange 34(3), pp. 280.
Inge Ruigrok
Review of Tony Hodges’ ‘Angola: anatomy of an oil state’, Indiana University
Press: Bloomington, Indiana, 2005, in: Africa, 75(3), pp. 463-464.
44
Oscar Salemink
‘Localizing globalization?’ Review of Globalization in Southeast Asia: Local,
national and transnational perspectives, Shinji Yamashita and J.S. Eades (eds.),
in: Focaal 45: 176-178.
Heather Sutherland
Review of Howard Dick, Vincent J.H. Houben, J. Thomas Lindblad and Thee
Kian Wie (eds.) ‘The Emergence of a National Economy: An economic history
of Indonesia, 1800-2000’, KITLV Press: Leiden, 2002, in: Bijdragen tot de
Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 16(1/2), pp. 389-391.
Heather Sutherland
Review of Roderich Ptak’s ‘China, the Portuguese and the Nanyang: Oceans and
routes, regions and trade (c.1000-1600)’, Ashgate/Variorum: Aldershot, 2004,
in: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 16(1/2), pp. 392-393.
Peter Versteeg
Review for the Journal of Contemporary Religion (20(1), pp. 124-125) of
Anderson, Allan (2004) An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic
Christianity, Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.
45
6
Other research-related activities
According to the latest official figures, 43% of all statistics are totally worthless
Ashleigh Brilliant
Being a ‘valuable’ and ‘good’ researcher depends not only on one’s publications
(whether or not refereed): one’s professional performance also comprises being
involved in and committed to the communities that one researches or the peer
group to which one relates in writing and analysis. This involvement and
commitment comprehends such activities as organizing or attending (also local)
conferences, presenting papers, being involved in PhD thesis committees and
PhD projects, media coverage, etc. The following is a selection of these and
similar activities performed by our staff and PhD candidates. However, we
should bear in mind that:
It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what
they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always
assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had
achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – whilst all
the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a
good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they
were far more intelligent than man – for precisely the same reasons.
(Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
6.1
One of the activities performed by the SCA staff in order to foster research is the
organization or co-organization of national and international congresses,
conferences, seminars and workshops, both within and outside our faculty and
our department. In 2005, various staff members were involved in such activities.
The following is an overview.
Jan Abbink was the chief organizer and panel convener of the second biannual
Conference of the NVAS (Netherlands Association for African Studies), Leiden,
28 October 2005.
Jan Abbink also convened and chaired the Horn of Africa conference of the
DRPN (Development Policy Review Network, linked to CERES) on
‘Challenges and Prospects of Democratization in a Zone of Conflict: Rethinking
46
the role of non-state actors and international development partners in the 21st
century Horn of Africa’, Leiden, 14 December 2005.
Edien Bartels participated in organizing the conference ‘Tradition and
Modernity: Morocco and the Netherlands’, Amsterdam, 30-31 May 2005. She
co-organized the workshop ‘Youth between traditionalism and modernity’.
Edien Bartels also participated in organizing the meeting of the ‘Kennis Kring
Amsterdam’, Vrije Universiteit, 20 April 2005. She organized the workshop
‘Zelforganisaties: brug of nest’.
André Droogers co-organized a study day for ‘cluster 7’ of the CERES
Research School, with the ‘Future teams’ of the Radboud Universiteit in
Nijmegen (on pilgrimage) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (on
Pentecostalism), Nijmegen, 28 January 2005.
André Droogers also co-organized a conference under the auspices of the NWO
programme ‘The Future of the Religious Past’, at the Beurs van Berlage in
Amsterdam, 2-4 June 2005. His team working within this programme
contributed in the form of a panel on Pentecostalism projects.
On 28 June, André Droogers co-organized the presentation by the team working
on ‘Tussen Secularisatie en Religionisatie’ at the CERES Summer school at the
ISS, in The Hague. On 16 June, he organized a one-day workshop for the
programme ‘Tussen Secularisatie en Religionisering’ at the VU, Amsterdam.
Sandra Evers, with Oscar Salemink, Ton Salman and Bernhard Venema (all
SCA), organized the SCA departmental conference ‘The Anthropology of
Human Security’ (Amsterdam, 29-30 August). International discussants
participated in the event.
Sandra Evers organized two panels on Madagascar in collaboration with Dr
Eva Keller (University of Zurich) and Professor Maurice Bloch (VU and LSE),
namely ‘Memory and Retrieval of the Past in Contemporary Social
Configurations’ and ‘Negotiating the Foreign’. AEGIS (European Association
for African Studies) conference, London, 29 June - 3 July.
Sandra Evers also initiated and organized the Madagascar conference ‘Applied
perspectives on poverty and natural resource management in Madagascar’, VU,
Amsterdam, 4-5 September.
47
Thomas Hylland Eriksen co-organized, as part of the CULCOM programme,
the meeting ‘Flying the flag: Critical perspectives on symbolism and politics’,
University of Oslo, 20 November.
He organized, also as part of the CULCOM programme, the fortnightly research
seminar on themes of ‘Cultural Complexity’ at the University of Oslo.
Birgit Meijer co-organized with Vincent de Rooij and Peter Pels the conference
‘Performing Anthropology’ at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), 20-21 May.
Birgit Meijer also co-organized the conference ‘What is Religion: Vocabularies,
Temporalities, Comparabilities’, with members of the programme commission
of the NWO programme ‘The Future of the religious Past’, Amsterdam, 2-4
June. At this conference, she co-organized the workshop ‘Religious
Representations: Questions of Aesthetics and Styles’, with Mattijs van de Port.
Ton Salman, with the board of Netherlands Association for Latin American and
Caribbean Studies (NALACS), organized the seminar ‘Indigenous (self)representations in contemporary Latin America’, Leiden, 12 October. At the
seminar, lectures were given by Charles Hale (University of Texas at Austin),
Arij Ouweneel (CEDLA Amsterdam) and Alexander Geurds (Leiden
University).
Saskia Sassen co-organized an international conference on Globalization,
University of Chicago, 4-5 May.
Marjo de Theije co-organized the seminar ‘Urban security in comparative
perspective: violence in Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam’, Vrije
Universiteit Amsterdam, 12 April.
Marjo de Theije organized the Second Paulo Freire Programme Research
Meeting ‘Human Security in a Comparative Perspective’ (a component of the
‘Safety without Borders’ conference, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 13-14
April). She was involved in the organization of three workshops: ‘Poverty, drugs
and organized crime’; ‘Religion, violence and security’; and ‘Police
accountability and integrity’.
Marion del Uyl organized two panels at the conference ‘Autochtonen, burgers
en vreemdelingen. Kwesties van in- en uitsluiting’, Arnhem (NL), 3-4
November.
Peter Versteeg was chairman of the study group on Pentecostalism, Vrije
Universiteit Amsterdam. He convened the research workshops on 8 February, 24
March, 15 May, 21 June, 23 September and 18 November.
48
6.2
Another activity performed by staff members was the presentation of papers
or lectures / guest lectures at national or international conferences,
congresses or workshops, or participation in academic courses. Presentations
at conferences and workshops are crucial to share with others the results or
provisional results of ongoing research, and to obtain comments and suggestions
to improve the presentation of these outcomes.
Jan Abbink participated in the 2nd biannual NVAS (Netherlands Association of
African Studies) conference (Leiden, 28 October) by presenting his paper
‘Discomfiture of democracy? Tension and controversy in Ethiopia’s 2005
elections’.
He also participated in the conference ‘The Anthropology of Human Security’,
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,
29-30 August, by presenting his paper ‘Violence, social tensions and personal
drama in Suri society’.
Additionally, Jan Abbink presented his paper ‘Transformations of Islam and
communal relations in Wallo, Ethiopia, 1991-2004’ at the International
conference on ‘Islam, Globalization and the State in Africa’, which was
sponsored by the ministries of Foreign Affairs of France and the Netherlands
and organized by ASC, Leiden and CEAN, Bordeaux, 1-3 May 2005.
At ‘Rhetoric in Social Relations and Religion’ – an international conference
held at the Institute of Ethnology and African Studies, J.W. GutenbergUniversität, Mainz, Germany, 13 February – Jan Abbink presented his paper
‘Culture, power and rhetoric’.
Jan Abbink gave the lecture ‘The Darfur Tragedy: a creeping genocide?’ at
Universiteit Groningen, 23 February.
He also gave a guest lecture titled ‘On Rhetoric in Anthropological Writing: an
Introduction’ at the SCA graduate seminar, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 11
April.
Ellen Bal presented her paper ‘Bharat-wasie or Surinamie? Hindustani notions
of belonging’ at the conference ‘The Anthropology of Human Security’,
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,
29-30 August.
49
With Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, Ellen Bal also presented the paper ‘When
Muslims Leave their Homeland: Muslims of British Indian Descent in Suriname
and Mauritius’ at the international conference ‘The South Asian Diasporas: the
creation of unfinished identities in the modern world’, Erasmus University
Rotterdam, 23-24 June.
Also with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, Ellen Bal presented ‘Borders of the Mind.
Geographical partitions and their mental Impact on People in India and
Bangladesh after the Partition of 1947’, at the International Conference
‘Memory and the Partition Motif in Contemporary Conflicts’, Martin Luther
University, Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany, 14-17 July.
She also presented ‘Processes of in- and exclusion: The Garos of Bangladesh’ at
the Department of Sociology, Dhaka University, 23 December, and ‘Youth and
Human Security’, for the UN Youth and Students Organization in Bangladesh,
Dhaka, 19 December.
Edien Bartels presented the following papers:
‘Evil comes from outside’, at the conference on ‘Religion and Evil’,
Amsterdam, 17-19 March.
‘For Allah and myself’, at the conference on ‘Safety without Borders’,
Amsterdam, 13-14 April.
‘Religion and Moroccan youth in the Netherlands’, at the conference ‘Tradition
and Modernity: Morocco and the Netherlands’, Amsterdam, 30-31 May.
‘Human security: a concept to achieve better, sharper and richer analysis?’, at
the conference on ‘The Anthropology of Human Security’, Department of Social
and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 29-30 August.
‘Les abandons forcés au Maroc: les femmes abandonnées et des enfants au pays
d’ origine’, at the ‘Colloque international: Migration maghrébine: Enjeux actuels
et Contentieux’ of the Centre d’Étude des Mouvemants Migratoires Maghrébins,
Université Mohammed I, Oujda, Morocco, 24-25 November.
Edien Bartels participated in the workshop ‘Eigen organisaties: brug of nest?’ at
the ‘Kennis Kring Amsterdam, Sociale Innovatie’, Amsterdam, 20 April.
She gave the lecture ‘Empowerment in breder perspectief’ at ‘KennisNetwerk’,
Amsterdam, 17 November.
50
She gave the lecture ‘Schuld en schaamte in relatie tot gewetensontwikkeling’ at
the Nederlands Instituut Psychologen (NIP), Vught (NL), 15 December.
Lenie Brouwer presented her paper ‘Moroccan websites: a barometer for the
multicultural society’ at a meeting of the NOVO Research Group, Oslo, 9 April.
At the invitation of Professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen, director of the Research
Programme ‘Cultural Complexities, University of Oslo, she presented her paper
‘The Dutch debate on Islam: the reactions of Dutch Moroccan youths’ at the
University of Oslo on 11 April.
Lenie Brouwer presented ‘Dutch Muslims on the Internet: the implications for
radicalism’ as an invited speaker at the conference convened by the Atlantic
Council on ‘Topics in Terrorism: toward a Transatlantic Consensus on the
Nature of the Treat’, Budapest, 4-8 May.
She presented ‘Tradition and Modernity: Morocco and the Netherlands 16052005’ at the Netherlands-Morocco Congress, Faculty of Arts, Vrije University
Amsterdam, 30-31 May.
She presented her paper ‘Web site marocains en Hollande’, at the Colloquium
‘Migration Maghrebine: enjeux actuels et contentieux’, organized by the Centre
d’Étude des mouvement Migratoire Maghrebine, University Mohammed I,
Oujda (Morocco), 24-25 November.
Finally, she presented her paper ‘ICT in a multicultural neighbourhood
(Amsterdam)’ in the panel VI: ‘Human Security’ at the National Congress of the
Anthropological Association ‘Autochthonous, citizens, foreigners, questions of
in- and exclusion’, Arnhem, 3-4 December.
Freek Colombijn presented his paper ‘Badly disguised self-interest: public
housing in Medan (Indonesia), 1948-1950’ at the seminar ‘Dekolonisasi di pulau
Sumatera 1930-1970’, Padang (Indonesia), 1-2 August.
He presented his paper ‘Solid as a rock or ephemeral as a handful of dust: The
security of land tenure in Indonesian towns, 1930-1960’ at the Conference ‘The
Anthropology of Human Security’, Department of Social and Cultural
Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 29-30 August.
He presented his paper ‘The search for an extinct volcano in the Dutch polder:
pilgrimage to memorial sites of Pim Fortuyn’ at the conference ‘Cities of
pilgrimage and cities of Central Asia’, Shehid Beheshti University, Tehran, 1921 December.
51
Freek Colombijn gave a one-day training in Indonesian as part of the ‘Pelatihan
tingkat lanjut’ course (Jakarta, 12-28 January) on such topics as ‘Introduction to
urban studies’, ‘Methodology of urban history’, ‘Writing a research proposal or
a paper’ and ‘Indonesian cities in comparative perspective’.
He gave a guest lecture ‘Semiloka kota dan karya sastra dalam studi sejarah’ at
UNAIR, Surabaya (Indonesia), 13 August.
André Droogers gave a lecture on ‘Claude Lévi-Strauss’ for an audience of
CERES PhD candidates in a series on ‘Great Thinkers’, organized by Johan
Roeland and Linda van de Kamp, on 10 January.
He presented a paper (with Peter Versteeg) on ‘A Typology of Exorcism’ at the
international conference ‘Evil in Religion’, organized by the Vrije Universiteit
and KIT, Amsterdam, 17-19 March.
He presented the same paper (with Peter Versteeg) at the international
EPTA/EPCRA conference for Pentecostalism researchers, Schloss Beugen
(Germany) 29 March - 2 April.
He presented his paper ‘Pomeranian Lutheran Migrants in Espírito Santo,
Brazil’ at the ‘The Anthropology of Human Security’ conference, Department of
Social and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 29-30 August.
He presented his paper ‘Pomeranians in Brazil’ for the panel on ‘Religion and
Migration’ at the international conference on ‘Anthropology of Religion;
Section of the American Anthropological Association’, Vancouver, 8-11 April.
Sandra Evers presented her paper ‘Memory as an Instrument of Power and
Exclusion: a case study of the Betsileo in the Extreme Southern Highlands of
Madagascar’ at the AEGIS (European Association for African Studies)
conference, London, 29 June - 3 July.
She presented her paper ‘Human Security in the Seychelles’ at the Human
Security Conference, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 29-30 August.
She presented a paper on and a compilation report of the Madagascar Project
‘Applied perspectives on poverty and natural resource management in
Madagascar’ at the Madagascar Conference, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 5-6
September.
52
At the invitation of Professor Narivelo Rajaonarimanana, she gave the lecture
‘Les lois et coutumes foncières de Madagascar’ at INALCO CEROI (Centre
d’Etude et de Recherche sur l’Océan Indien Occidental), Paris, 11 February.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen presented the following papers:
‘Vulnerability and flexibility’, SAREC Conference, Stockholm, January.
‘New work, flexibility and the cult of creativity’, ASA Conference, Aberdeen,
April.
‘From obsessive egalitarianism to pluralist universalism?’, NERA (international
education conference), Oslo, March.
‘Human security and the role of the United Nations’, VU Lustrum Conference,
April.
‘Ernest Gellner and the problem of multiculturalism’, conference on Ernest
Gellner’s Legacy, National University of Ireland, May.
‘What is ethnic about ethnic conflicts?’, DGV (Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Völkerkunde) conference, Halle (Germany), October.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen was discussant of various papers and presented a paper
on human security at the conference ‘The Anthropology of Human Security’,
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,
29-30 August.
He gave a keynote lecture ‘English as a second language: Some cultural
implications’ at a conference on bilingualism, University of Helsinki,
September.
He was chair of the workshop ‘Gender and whiteness’ at ‘Crossroads’ (a
University of Oslo-based international conference on gender), Oslo, June.
He chaired a session on ‘Ethnic minorities in Europe’, University of Oslo,
October.
He gave the keynote lecture ‘Memorial sites and multiculturalism: An
impossible contradiction?’ at the conference on memorial sites ‘The limits of
constructivism’, Stiklestad National Cultural Centre, University of Oslo,
November.
53
Thomas Eriksen also gave the following guest lectures:
‘Time and flexibility’, University of Torun, Poland, May.
‘Comparative dimensions in the study of exclusion and inclusion’, Oxford
University, May.
‘Ernest Gellner and the multicultural mess’, Queen’s University, May.
‘Globalization theory’, University of Malmö, August.
‘Identity politics’, University of Malmö, August.
‘The culture and politics of transnationalism’, Oslo University College.
‘Dimensions of cultural complexity’, Association for the Anthropological Study
of Nordic societies, November.
‘Cultural flattening and identity politics’, University of Jyväskylä, April.
He also gave about ten lectures at various departments at the University of Oslo.
Anton van Harskamp presented his paper ‘The Civic Life of American
Religion: Citizens and Believers in a Diverse Society’ at the University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, 1 May.
For a private communication meeting, organized by Paul Lichterman and C.
Brady Potts, he presented ‘Annotations to the Civic Life of American Religion’.
At the invitation of the KNAW, he gave the lecture ‘Civil Society en Religie:
Vijf Keer Anders’ at the ‘Hendrik Muller Seminar’ on civil society and religion,
Brussels, 1 April.
At the invitation of the Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid of the Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven, he gave the opening lecture at the Vliebergh-Sencieleergangen, Louvain, 23 August. The title was ‘Religieuze ruis: Over de
wedergeboorte van het religieuze’.
Dick Kooiman presented his paper ‘The Guns of Travancore – or how much
powder may a Maharaja blaze away?’ at the International Research Symposium
on the Indian Princely States, University of Southampton (UK), 8-10 July.
54
He presented his paper ‘Harnessing Ceremonial for Political Security: an Indian
princely state on the verge of extinction’ at the SCA departmental conference
‘The Anthropology of Human Security’, Amsterdam, 29-30 August.
Additionally, Dick Kooiman was a consultant on ‘Dalit Theology and
Hermeneutics’ at a meeting of the Theologische Faculteit Vrije Universiteit in
collaboration with the Centre for Dalit Studies, New Delhi, 26 October.
Birgit Meijer presented her ‘Mediating Tradition. Revelation, Secrecy and the
Limits of Visual Representation in Ghanaian Popular Video Films’ at the
Universiteit Leuven, 21 January.
She presented the same paper at the University of Ireland, Maynooth, on 17
February.
She presented her paper ‘Pictures of Evil and the Limits of Representation.
Interfaces of Entertainment and Anxiety in Christian Entertainment in Ghana’
for the Christianity and Media Group of the Centre for Religion and Media, on
11 March, and for the Christianity working Group, at Chicago University, on 12
April.
Birgit Meijer presented her ‘Religion in the Era of Visual Mass Media’ at
Universität Bayreuth, 23 June.
She presented ‘Films vidéo du Ghana et du Nigeria: entre spectacle et
découverte’ at the Palais des Beaux Arts, Bozar, Brussels, 3 September.
She gave a special lecture on ‘Mediating Tradition: Revelation, Secrecy and the
Limits of Visual Representation in Ghanaian Popular Video Films’ at the Sussex
‘Lectures in Anthropological Theory’, 15 February.
She presented her ‘Religious Revelation, Secrecy and the Limits of the Visual:
Ghanaian Popular Video Films’ as a ‘Distinguished Lecture’ at the Centre for
Religion and Media, NYU, 10 March.
She gave a lecture ‘Pictures of Evil and the Limits of Framing. Christian Popular
Aesthetics and the Power of Images in Southern Ghana’ as part of the Saul A.
Sidore Lecture Series ‘Modernity and Evil’, University of New Hampshire,
Durham (NH, USA), 29 September.
She gave the public lecture ‘The Pentecostal Aesthetic and the Spirit of Modern
Consumerism. Faith, Prosperity and Vision in African Pentecostal-Charismatic
55
Churches’ at the ‘Reasons of Faith Conference’ at the Wiser and Goethe
Institute, Johannesburg, 19 October.
Oscar Salemink made the following presentations (lectures, papers):
‘Socialist, Capitalist and Protestant Conversions of Vietnam’s Central
Highlanders’, Humboldt Universität, Berlin, 20 January 2005.
Course module ‘Vietnam – cultural and social aspects’, Lecture series spring
2005: Development Studies in Hoi An – Oslo University College and Culture
Studies, Hoi An (Vietnam), 21-25 March 2005.
‘Socialist, Capitalist and Protestant Conversions of Vietnam’s Central
Highlanders,’ conference on ‘Religious Conversion after Socialism,’ Max
Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, 7-9 April 2005.
‘Christian conversions in Southeast Asian uplands: A comparative exploration’,
conference on ‘Casting Faiths: The construction of religion in East and
Southeast Asia’, National University of Singapore, 7-8 June 2005.
‘Some reflections on artisans, artists, and cultural knowledge in market
conditions’. Paper presented in absento in Hue, conference on ‘Preservation of
Arts and Crafts in Vietnam’, Hue Institute of Culture and Arts Studies, 7 July
2005.
Course module on ‘Human Security’ at Oslo Summer School in Comparative
Social Studies (with Prof. Thomas Hylland Eriksen), Oslo University, 24-30
July 2005.
‘Seeking spiritual security in contemporary Vietnam’. Paper presented at the
Conference ‘The Anthropology of Human Security’. Amsterdam, Vrije
Universiteit, 29-30 August 2005.
‘Religious definitions of nation and nationalism in post-socialist Vietnam’.
Paper presented at the conference ‘Nationalism in mainland Southeast Asia’,
Amsterdam: IIAS, 17 October 2005.
‘Redefining development, redefining rights: Globalization and religious change
in Vietnam’, Amsterdam: AMIDST, 10 November 2005.
‘Spirits of consumption and the capitalist ethic in Vietnam’. Paper presented at
the workshop on ‘Religious Commodifications in Asia: The Re-enchantment of
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a Globalizing World?’, Singapore, Asia Research Institute, 24-25 November
2005.
‘The anthropology of human security’, lecture for the ‘Doctoral course on
Human Security’, Department of Political Science, University of Tromsø, 16
December 2005.
Ton Salman presented his paper ‘Identidad y ciudadanía - Las paradojas de una
democracia estable en Bolivia’ at the International Conference (Coloquio)
‘Antropología pública y ciudadanía: la fiesta del Gran Poder’, organized by the
French Embassy, IRD, IFEA, Alianza Francesa and UPIEB, La Paz, Bolivia,
May 10-12.
He gave a lecture ‘Reconstrucción de Ciudadanía y Reforma del Estado’ at a
forum meeting (foro) organized by the ‘Fundación de Apoyo al Parlamento y a
la Participación Ciudadana, FUNDAPPAC’, La Paz, 18 May.
He gave a lecture ‘The Loss of Trust: Aspects of Bolivia’s Deconsolidating
Democracy’ at a lunch meeting at the Dutch Embassy in La Paz, 17 May.
He gave a guest lecture on ‘Citizenship in Bolivia in the light of current political
developments’ at the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
(CEDLA), Amsterdam, 12 December.
Saskia Sassen presented papers (many of them keynote) at many conferences
and gave many lectures. They are too numerous to be listed.
Marjo de Theije presented her paper ‘Brazilian Migrants in Suriname’ at the
CERES Summer School at the ISS in The Hague, 27-29 June.
She also presented ‘Insecurity prospers: the lives of Brazilian migrants in
Suriname (or: Community building through the lens of human security)’ at the
conference on ‘The Anthropology of Human Security’, Department of Social
and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 29-30 August.
She presented her paper ‘Migrantes Brasileiros e a construção de religião
popular em Paramaribo, Suriname’ at the Round Table Session ‘Religiosidade
popular, poder e política’ at the ‘XIII Jornadas sobre Alternativas Religiosas na
América Latina’, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul
(PUCRS), September 27-30.
She presented her paper ‘Conhecer a cidade através da religião: transformações
urbanas e construção social em Recife’ at the ‘XIII Jornadas sobre Alternativas
Religiosas na América Latina. GT: Religião e Cidades’, Pontifícia Universidade
Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, September 27-30.
57
Marjo de Theije gave the lecture ‘Insegurança próspera: as vidas dos migrantes
brasileiros no Suriname’ at the Departamento de ciências sociais, Instituto de
Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Universidade Federal de Rio Grande do Sul,
Porto Alegre, 3 October.
She gave the same lecture at LAH/UFRJ, Laboratório de Antropologia e
História, Rio de Janeiro, 11 October, and at FAGES, Departamento de Ciências
Sociais, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, 18 October.
Marion den Uyl presented her paper ‘Building and rebuilding the Bijlmer:
creating safety and security in a multicultural area’ at the SCA departmental
conference ‘The Anthropology of Human Security’, Amsterdam, 29-30 August.
She presented two papers – ‘Many-faced Dowry in Modern India’ and
‘Contradictions in urban renewal in the Bijlmer, Amsterdam’ – at the conference
on ‘Autochtonen, burgers en vreemdelingen. Kwesties van in- en uitsluiting’,
Arnhem (NL), 3-4 November.
Bernhard Venema presented his paper ‘State Formation, Imposition of a Land
Market and Resilient Pathways among the Berbers of the Middle Atlas’ at the
conference on ‘The Anthropology of Human Security’, Department of Social
and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 29-30 August.
Peter Versteeg presented his paper ‘Renewing Time: Charismatic Renewal in a
Conservative Reformed Church’ at the NWO ‘The Future of the Religious Past’
conference on ‘What is Religion? Vocabularies, Temporalities and
Comparabilities’, Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, 3 June.
6.3
Another activity of staff members was their involvement as supervisor / cosupervisor of PhD projects, either in or outside the SCA department.
Jan Abbink was involved in the following projects as supervisor:
(Supervisor since 2003) Bayleyegn Tasew, MA, Addis Ababa University
(WOTRO funded): ‘Metaphors of Peace and Violence in the Folklore Discourse
of Southwest Ethiopian Peoples: a Comparative Study’. Graduation expected in:
2007.
(Since March 2000) Ms Hénoké Courte: ‘The Social Organization of Begging:
A Study of Street Life in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’. Graduation expected in: 2006.
58
(Since 2004) Ms Inge M. Ruigrok (Vrije Universiteit; WOTRO funded):
‘Negotiating Governance: Culture, and Decentralization in post-war Angola’.
Graduation expected in: 2008.
(Since 2004) Tijo S. Salverda (Vrije Universiteit): ‘Transnational networks
linking Mauritius, South Africa and France: an anthropological study of FrancoMauritian trading networks’.
Graduation expected in: 2008.
Erella Grassiani (Vrije Universiteit), since early 2005: ‘Reasoning on Moral
Issues in Non-Conventional Conflict: Israeli Soldiers’ Views on Moral
Dilemmas’. Graduation expected in: 2008.
(Since early 2005) Jeffrey Schwerzel (Vrije Universiteit): ‘NATO security
culture: An anthropological analysis of institutional (dis)trust’. Graduation
expected in: 2007
Ellen Bal was co-supervisor of Jantine Messing: ‘Migration and Material
Culture. The Domestic Interiors of Surinamese Hindustanis and Their
Descendants in the Netherlands’. Supervisor: Prof. Mario Rutten, UvA.
Edien Bartels was co-supervisor of Martijn de Koning: ‘Religieuze beleving
van Marokkaanse jongeren in Gouda’. Graduation expected in 2006. Supervisor:
Prof. Droogers.
Freek Colombijn was co-supervisor of Ota Atsushi: ‘Changes of regime and
social dynamics in West Java: Society, state and the Outer world of Banten,
1750-1830’ (supervisor Prof. J.L. Blussé van Oud Alblas). Graduated at
Universiteit Leiden: 15-12-2005.
He is also co-supervisor of Hans Versnel: ‘The kampong improvement in
Indonesia, 1920-2005’, Graduation expected in: 2009 (supervisor: Prof. Peter
J.M. Nas, Leiden University)
André Droogers is co-supervisor (with Anton van Harskamp) of Johan
Roeland: ‘Identity Formation of Evangelical Youth in the Netherlands’.
Graduation expected in: 2007.
André Droogers is supervisor of the following:
Miranda Klaver: ‘Conversion and Life in the Spirit: Recruitment, Initiation,
Participation and Disaffiliation in New Evangelical Churches within the
Secularised Context of the Netherlands’. Graduation expected in: 2009.
59
Hanneke Minkjan: ‘Religious Producers and Consumers on the Neo-Pagan
Market: An Anthropological Research of Individual Religiosity in the
Netherlands’. Graduation expected in: 2010.
Regien Smit: ‘Een vergelijkende studie van twee migranten-Pinksterkerken in
Nederland’. Graduation expected in: 2010.
Rhea Hummel: ‘Veranderende levensbeschouwelijke taal bij Nederlandse
kunstenaars’. Graduation expected in: 2006.
Kim Knibbe: ‘Changing religious repertoires and moral practices in the southern
part of Limburg, the Netherlands’. Graduation expected in: 2006.
Linda van de Kamp: ‘Brazilian Pentecostalism in Mozambique: exploring the
transnational dimensions of Pentecostal conversion in Maputo’. Graduation
expected in: 2009.
Ikuya Noguchi: ‘The Culture Politics of Pentecostalism in East Asia: A
Comparative Study of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Korea and Japan’.
Graduation expected in: 2008.
Martijn de Koning: ‘Religieuze beleving van Marokkaanse jongeren in Gouda’.
Graduation expected in: 2006.
André Droogers is a member of the supervision committee for Marten van der
Meulen (Faculty of Godgeleerdheid): ‘Church and civil society in a new
suburb’.
Sandra Evers is co-supervisor of Tijo Salverda: ‘Transnational networks
linking Mauritius, South Africa and France: an anthropological study of FrancoMauritian Trading Groups’. Graduation expected in: 2008.
She is also co-supervisor of Jeffrey Schwerzel: ‘Trust at NATO HQ Brussels’.
Graduation expected in: 2006.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen is supervisor of Marisa d’Mello (University of Oslo):
‘Indian software industry and social mobilities’. Graduation expected in: 2006.
He also is supervisor of Marta Cecilia Ruiz Muriel: ‘Social representations and
self-perceptions of Colombian and Peruvian migrant sex workers in Ecuador’.
Graduation expected in: 2009, at the Vrije Universiteit. Co-supervisor: Dr
Lorraine Nencel.
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Anton van Harskamp is co-supervisor (with André Droogers) of Johan
Roeland: ‘Identiteit en religiositeit onder Nederlandse evangelische jongeren’.
Graduation expected in: 2007, at the VU.
He is the supervisor of:
Cors Visser: ‘Evangelicalen en civil society: Een vergelijkende studie naar de
habitus van evangelicalen ten opzichte van de civil society’. Graduation
expected in: 2008, at the VU
Koert van der Velde: ‘onmogelijke religiositeit’ (working title). Graduation
expected in: 2009, at the VU.
Janine Verdonk: ‘Religieuze individualisering en maatschappelijke participatie:
een bijdrage aan de cultureel-antropologische en sociologische studie naar de
antroposofische beweging in Nederland (vanaf 1950)’. Graduation expected in:
2010, VU.
Dick Kooiman was co-supervisor of Valli Kannapathipillai: ‘Repatriation or
Deportation? Nation building, Citizenship and the Indian Tamil Estate Workers
in Sri Lanka after Independence’. The candidate graduated on 7 October at the
Vrije Universiteit. Supervisor: Prof. Joke Schrijvers.
Birgit Meijer was co-supervisor of:
(together with Peter Geschiere) Francio Guadeloupe: ‘Chanting Down the New
Jerusalem, the Politics of belonging on Sait Martin and Sint Maarten’. The
manuscript was accepted by the thesis committee, to be defended on 11/1/2006
at the UvA.
(together with Peter Geschiere) Rachel Spronk: ‘Ambiguous Pleasures. Young
Professionals at the Interface of Sexuality and Postcolonial Transformations in
Nairobi’. This dissertation has been completed and will be sent to the thesis
committee in December 2005. Graduation at the UvA.
(together with Michiel Baud) Martijn Oosterbaan: ‘Divine Mediations.
Pentecostalism, Politics, and Mass Media in a Favela in Rio de Janeiro’. The
manuscript is to be sent to the thesis committee of the UvA in December 2005.
(together with Peter Geschiere) Marleen de Witte: ‘Mediating Charisma’, to be
completed and defended in 2006 at the UvA.
61
(together with Willem van Schendel) Lotte Hoek: ‘Islam and Popular Film in
Bangladesh’, to be completed in 2007. Graduation at the UvA.
(together with Peter Geschiere) Nienke Muurling: ‘Het transnationale Mande
Huwelijk’, to be completed in 2006, graduation at the UvA.
Oscar Salemink is supervising Malte Stokhof: ‘Transforming Local Identities
in a Transnational Muslim Context: Descendants of Javanese Immigrants in
Communist Vietnam’ (WOTRO).
He is also supervising Nguyen Tuan Anh: ‘The role of kinship in a village
community: A case study in Quynh Doi village, Quynh Luu district, Nghe An
province, Vietnam’ (Vietnam government fellowship).
He is also supervisor of Joan van Wijk: ‘Violence in a Mexican Tourist Area’
(Vrije Universiteit).
He is involved as co-supervisor or fellow-supervisor of John ter Horst: ‘Khmer
Diaspora Ties and Processes of Ethnicization in Cross-Border Silk Trade in the
Greater Mekong Region’. Supervisor: Prof. Dahles.
He is co-supervisor of:
Nguyen Thi Thu Huong (University of Amsterdam): ‘Rape and Gender in the
Transitional Context of Vietnam’. Supervisors: Prof. Gouda and Dr de Vries.
Nguyen Tran Lam (Universiteit van Amsterdam): ‘Rural Change and Emerging
Epidemics in Vietnam’s Northern Mountain Region’. Supervisor: Prof.
Streefland.
Tran Sy Hai (Wageningen Agricultural University): ‘Adapting Participatory
Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E) method to Farmer Field Schools (FFS) in
soil-plant management at field and landscape levels’. Supervisors: profs.
Almekinders and Richards.
Luis Matias Cruz: ‘Alternatives to Rebellions: A Cry from Chiapas and the
Political Economy of Dignity’. Supervisors: profs. Goudswaard and de Gaay
Fortman).
Ton Salman is co-supervisor of Lorena Nuñez: ‘Illness and Health: Peruvian
Migrants in Chile’ (working title). Supervisor: Prof. Annemiek Richters, RUL.
Graduation expected in: early 2007.
He also is co-supervisor of Joan van Wijk: ‘Violence in a Mexican Tourist
Area’. Graduation expected in: 2008.
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Saskia Sassen is involved in PhD projects only at the University of Chicago.
She directs 17 such projects.
Bernhard Venema is co-supervisor of Bram Büscher: ‘The politics and
governance of linking conservation and development in Southern Africa: a study
on the transnationalisation of the conservation-development discourse with a
special focus on the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area
between South Africa and Lesotho’. Graduation expected in: 2008.
Peter Versteeg is co-supervisor of:
Johan Roeland: ‘Identity Formation of Evangelical Youth in the Netherlands’.
Supervisor: Prof. Droogers. Graduation expected in: 2007.
Miranda Klaver: ‘Conversion and Life in the Spirit: Recruitment, Initiation,
Participation and Disaffiliation in New Evangelical Churches within the
Secularised Context of the Netherlands’. Supervisor: Prof. Droogers. Graduation
expected in: 2009.
Hanneke Minkjan: ‘Religious Producers and Consumers on the Neo-Pagan
Market: An Anthropological Research of Individual Religiosity in the
Netherlands’. Supervisor: Prof. Droogers. Graduation expected in: 2010.
6.4
Yet another activity performed by staff members was participation in
graduation and reading committees of PhD public defences and graduations.
Jan Abbink was a member of the thesis reading/graduation committee for Dr
Getinnet Taddele (University of Amsterdam): ‘Bleak Prospects: Young Men,
Sexuality and HIV/AIDS in an Ethiopian Town’, 9 September 2005.
He also was a member of the thesis reading/graduation committee for Dr Assefa
Fisseha (University of Utrecht): ‘Federalism and the Accommodation of
Diversity in Ethiopia’, 9 November 2005.
Ellen Bal was a member of the thesis committee for Valli Kanapathipillai:
‘Repatriation or Deportation: Nation Building, Citizenship and the Indian Tamil
Estate Workers in Sri Lanka after Independence’. Graduation at the VU,
Amsterdam, 7 October 2005.
63
Freek Colombijn will be a member of the Board of Examiners for the PhD
thesis by Subrata Sankar Bagchi: 'Social dynamics of the marginalisation of
population and child labour in Calcutta’, Department of Anthropology,
University of Calcutta. Graduation expected in: 2006.
He was a member of the graduation committee for Bart Barendregt: ‘From the
realm of many rivers: memory, places and notions of home in the Southern
Sumatran highlands’. Graduated at Leiden University, 7 September 2005.
André Droogers was a member of the graduation committee for Nicole
Stuckenberger: ‘Community at Play: Social and religious dynamics in the
modern Inuit community of Qikiqtarjuaq’, Universiteit Utrecht, 11 May 2005.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen was a member of the graduation committee for
Alexandra Hall, Queen’s University, Belfast, in May. The thesis was on the
British asylum system.
In August he was a member of the graduation committee for Mark Vacher on
Migrants in Marseille, at the University of Copenhagen.
Anton van Harskamp was a member of the graduation committee for Annelies
van Leest-Borst: ‘Fundamentalistische opvoeding vanuit liberaal-democratisch
perspectief: Grenzen van de onderwijsvrijheid’, VU, Amsterdam, 24 February
2005.
He was also member of the graduation committee for R.J.J.M Plum, at the
Radboud Universiteit in Nijmegen: ‘Spreken over God: een symboolbenadering
in de lijn van Paul Ricoeur en Ernst Bloch’ (published by Kok, at Kampen), 9
May 2005.
Birgit Meijer was a member of the graduation committee for Anouk de Koning:
‘Global Dreams, Space, Class and Gender in Middle-Class Cairo’, University of
Amsterdam, 21 September 2005.
She also was a member of the graduation committee for Anke Hoffmann: ‘Since
the Germans came it rains less. Landscape and Identity of Herero Communities
in Namia’, University of Amsterdam, 15 December 2005.
Finally, she will be member of the graduation committee for Esther Peperkamp:
‘Being a Christian – “Being the Same Everywhere”. The Making of Religious
Selves in Post-Socialist Poland’, University of Amsterdam, to be defended 7
February 2006.
Ton Salman was a member of the reading and graduation committee for Valli
Kanapathipillai, who graduated at the VU on 7 October 2005. Supervisor: Prof.
64
Joke Schrijvers; co-supervisor: Dr Dick Kooiman. Thesis title: ‘Repatriation or
Deportation? Nation Building, Citizenship and the Tamil Estate Workers in Sri
Lanka after Independence.’
Saskia Sassen was a member of 27 such committees worldwide.
6.5
One recurring activity of anthropologists is fieldwork.
Jan Abbink had planned fieldwork in 2005 but had to cancel it due to serious
violence and insecurity in the fieldwork area (Ethiopia) in November December 2005.
Ellen Bal left on 10 December 2005 to do fieldwork until 21 January 2006. This
is a research visit to India and Bangladesh, where she will visit Guwahati,
Shillong, Tura, Calcutta, Rajshahi, Mymensingh and Dhaka. The project is titled
‘South Asian Youth Research’.
Edien Bartels did fieldwork in the Netherlands in January and February for the
research project ‘Women who have been left behind in their country of origin’.
In March and April, she did fieldwork in the Netherlands for the research project
‘Forced marriages’.
In June, she did fieldwork in Morocco for the research project ‘Women who
have been left behind in their country of origin’.
In July, she did fieldwork in the United States for the research project ‘Forced
marriages’.
Throughout the year, she did fieldwork in the Netherlands for the research
project ‘Constructing Islam’.
Freek Colombijn was in Indonesia in the period 8-30 January for the project
‘The politics of housing during the long decolonization of the Indonesian city’.
He also spent the period 31 July - 19 August in Indonesia, working on the same
project.
65
Sandra Evers did literature research in Paris (February 2005) and London (June
2005) for two research projects: ‘Natural Resource Management and Poverty in
Madagascar’ and ‘Human Security in the Seychelles’.
Dick Kooiman had to postpone his trip to the India Office Collections of the
British Library in London for medical reasons.
Ton Salman made a fieldwork trip to Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia from 5 April
till 21 May, for the project ‘Citizenship in Latin America – a Comparative
Perspective’.
Marjo de Theije spent the period 8 March - 4 April doing fieldwork in
Suriname, Georgetown and Belem, for the project ‘Brazilian migrants in
Suriname. In search of security in transnational Amazon’.
Peter Versteeg did fieldwork in Houten (the Netherlands) from January till
November for the post-doctoral research project ‘Changing Protestant Liturgies:
A Comparative Research of Two Churches’, as part of the research programme
‘Between Secularization and Sacralization’.
6.6
Many staff members are also a member of the editorial board of scientific
journals
Jan Abbink is member of about five such editorial boards. Among others, he
was a member of the editorial advisory board of Focaal. European Journal of
Anthropology (Berghahn) and of Annales d’Ethiopie (Paris, Maisonneuve et
Larose), and was associate editor of the Northeast African Studies (Michigan
State University Press)
Sandra Evers is member of the editorial board of Kabaro, a peer-reviewed
scientific journal on the social sciences in the South-West Indian Ocean and
Southern Africa. It is published by l’Harmattan and the University of La
Réunion.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen is on two such boards: that of Ethnos (Routledge)
and that of Anthropological Theory (Sage).
Anton van Harskamp is on the board of the Tijdschrift voor Theologie (Faculty
of Theology, Nijmegen University).
66
Birgit Meijer is co-editor of Etnofoor (since 1987, published by the University
of Amsterdam). She is a member of the board of the series Modernity and
Belonging (with Peter Geschiere), published by Lit Verlag. She is a member of
the editorial advisory board of The Journal of Religion in Africa (since 1999),
published by Brill. And she is a member of the editorial board of the electronic
journal Pentecostudies.
Ton Salman is member of the Editorial Board of Critique of Anthropology
(Sage).
Saskia Sassen is member of seven of such boards.
Marjo de Theije is member of the editorial commission of AntHropológicas, a
peer-reviewed anthropological journal produced in Recife, Brazil (UFPE
University Press).
Peter Versteeg is managing editor of PentecoStudies.
6.7
Staff members also engage as members of advisory boards, grant-advising
juries, or on the management or board of professional organizations
Jan Abbink was chairman of the Netherlands Association for African Studies.
Ellen Bal was a board member of the Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternatives in
Development (IDPAD, The Hague), and a member of the Academic Committee
of the International Institute Asian Studies (IIAS, Leiden).
André Droogers was (on 5 September) an external member of the appointment
committee of the Bijzondere leerstoel Religieuze en Historische Antropologie of
the RijksUniversiteit in Groningen.
He chaired the number 7 cluster of Research School CERES on ‘Religion,
Culture, Identity’.
In December, he was a member of the jury of the Johannes van der Zouwen
Thesis Award.
Anton van Harskamp was a member of the Wetenschappelijke adviesraad
Heyendaal Instituut of the Radboud Universiteit in Nijmegen; of the
Wetenschappelijke adviesraad Dominicaans Studiecentrum voor Theologie en
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Samenleving; of the ‘Adviesraad NCRV’; and of the Bestuur Stichting ter
bevordering van de christelijke pers in Nederland.
He was also chair of the Kenniscentrum Maatschappij en Religie, in Nijmegen.
Dick Kooiman was an advisory member of the Asia Desk of ‘Kerk in Actie’, in
Utrecht.
Birgit Meijer was a member of the programme committee of ‘The Future of the
Religion Past’ programme (since 2003). She was a member of the WOTRO
grant selection committee in both 2004 and 2005. She was a member of the
International Advisory Board of the Centre for Religion and Media, NYU, and a
member of the Commission Culture, Media and Religion.
Ton Salman was a member (as from 2002) of the Directorate of CERES
(Research School for Resource Studies for Development). He was also a
member of board (as from 2004) of NALACS: Netherlands Association for
Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and of (since 2002) the Dutch
Anthropological Association (Antropologen Beroepsvereniging, ABv).
Marjo de Theije was a member of the governing board of CEDLA (Centre for
Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Documentation), Amsterdam.
6.8
Anthropologists also try to obtain grants to do research, to travel to their
research areas, and to find time to read, analyse and write up their findings.
Jan Abbink obtained a WOTRO grant for a PhD project (EUR 55,000).
Ellen Bal obtained a WOTRO Capacity Building Grant (with Dr K.R. SinhaKerkhoff, Research Director Asian Development Research Institute). The
project is ‘Lessening Academic Dependency: A South Asian Youth Research
Network in the Periphery (Ranchi India’).
Edien Bartels won the Vrije Universiteit’s Science and Communication Award
(October 2004).
Sandra Evers obtained an ICCO (Inter-church organization for development
cooperation) grant of EUR 20,000 for the Madagascar project (for more details,
see below)
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Dick Kooiman obtained a grant of EUR 1013 from NWO The Hague for
research in the India Office Collections, British Library, London. For medical
reasons, he was unable to use it.
Birgit Meijer obtained Pioneer Grant worth a EUR 1.7 million from
MaGW/NWO for a project that started in 2000 and will run till 2006. The
project is called ‘Modern Mass Media, Religion and the Imagination of
Communities’.
Ton Salman obtained an NWO Travel Grant (Dossier R 52-1095) for his trip to
Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia. The amount was EUR 3095.
Marjo de Theije obtained an NWO (MaGW) grant for travel costs (ISW grant)
for five Brazilian participants of the Second Paulo Freire Research Meeting on
‘Human Security in a Comparative Perspective’ (see conference organization).
She also obtained an NWO grant for her field trip to Suriname, Georgetown and
Belém (EUR 2625, file no. R 51-116).
6.9
Other activities and press contacts. Having become an ‘expert’ as a result of
doing research in a certain field for many years, one often attracts press interest
whenever that field is in the news, or when background programmes are made
by the media. In addition, sometimes other institutions find one’s ‘expertise’
interesting enough to invite one to contribute to policy-making, news items,
documentaries, and such like. In the words of Peter Medawar: ‘Quite ordinary
people can be good at science. To say this is not to depreciate science but to
appreciate ordinary people’.
Jan Abbink prepared numerous written and oral advisory reports for lawyers,
NGOs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on issues related to Africa. He gave
many interviews to national and international media on African current affairs
and backgrounds.
Edien Bartels, together with Martijn de Koning, was often in contact with the
media in relation to the Van Gogh murder and its aftermath:
- 4 November: ‘waarom worden radicaliserende moslimjongeren niet intern
gecorrigeerd?’ Radio 1.
- 5 November: ‘Why and how do young Muslim Radicalize?’ Radio 1 Journaal.
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- 9 November: Norwegian Television (NTV) ‘What is de cause of the problems
in the Netherlands and how do non-Muslims react to these problems?’ Together
with Dr. E. Bartels.
- 9 November: Interview Het Parool (Amsterdam daily newspaper): ‘Why and
how do young Muslims radicalize?’
- 10 November: Algemeen Dagblad (national daily newspaper), ‘Why and how
do young Muslims radicalize?’
- 10 November: Goudsche Courant (Gouda daily newspaper), ‘Why and how do
young Muslims radicalize?’
- 10 November: RTL Nieuws (commercial television) Cooperation with
journalist and several Muslims,
- 10 November: MCTV (local television in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht)
‘Why and how do young Muslims radicalize?’
- 12 November: Knevel Op Zaterdag (prime time television, public broadcasting
company), ‘Research on Moroccan youth in Gouda’,
- 12 November: Interview GPD (press agency for regional daily newspapers),
- 12 November: Interview Frankfurter Rundschau (German television)
Integration and radicalization; lessons for Germany),
- 1 December: Interview De Gelderlander (regional daily newspaper), ‘Muslim
youth and anti-Dutch attitudes’,
- 10 December: Programme ‘Wat Nou’ of the Muslim Broadcasting company in
the Netherlands,
- 14 December: Italian television: ‘Integration and radicalization in the
Netherlands’,
- 23 December: Radio programme ‘Met het Oog op Morgen’: ‘How does
radicalization on the Internet work?’,
- 10 February: ‘Zembla’ programme on NPS Television: ‘The Call of Terror’,
- 30 March: Radio programme TROS Radio Online: ‘Muslim radicals on the
Internet’,
- 10 June: Radio programme Radio 1 Journaal: ‘Prelude to the Mohammed B.
Trial’,
- 26 June: Radio programme Radio 1 Journaal: ‘The Verdict’ (on Mohammed
B.).
With Martijn de Koning, Edien Bartels also participated in a series of expert
meetings on radicalization:
- 3 February: Forum National Expert Meeting on the Radicalization of Young
Muslims.
- 16 February: Rotterdam Social Work Expert Meeting.
- 25 May: Internet and Technology Commission of the Dutch Parliament.
- 2 June: Rotterdam Social Work Expert Meeting.
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Funded by the award mentioned above, in April 2005 Edien Bartels wrote a
proposal for a student research project, a kind of post-Master’s research
proposal. Four research proposals were accepted. The four post-Master’s
students have started their research and will continue until May 2006.
Edien Bartels is also one of the supervisors of a project (‘Sociale
innovatieproject VU’) financed by the Municipality of Amsterdam. She is
supervising four students who are studying the theme of integration and identity
among young Muslims.
Lenie Brouwer participated on 13 July in a television programme on Moroccan
youngsters produced by the Dutch Muslim Broadcasting Organization (NMO).
On 22 June, she was a member of a panel of the discussion programme
‘ZwartWit’, addressing the theme of the double nationality of Moroccan
citizens, on the local television channel of Amsterdam (AT5).
Finally, in February she was a guest on a radio programme (Teleac) on
Moroccan websites.
Lenie Brouwer is one of the supervisors of a project financed by the VU
(‘Sociale innovatieproject VU’). She is supervising two students who are
studying the theme of the role of Moroccan discussion sites in integration and
identity.
Freek Colombijn was discussant of:
Two papers at the PMB-LIPI - NIOD Workshop ‘Hasil Akhir Penelititian
Indonesia Across Orders: Reorganization of Indonesian society 1930-1960’,
Jakarta, 10-11 January.
Two papers at the ‘Lokakarya hasil penelitian sementara Indonesia dalam
lintasan kekuasaan: Belanda, Jepang dan Kemerdekaan periode 1930-1960’,
Padang (Indonesia), 3-5 August.
Two papers at the seminar ‘Street images: Decolonization and changing
symbolism of Indonesian urban culture between 1930s and early 1960s’,
Yogyakarta (Indonesia), 8-9 August.
André Droogers was chair of the Panel on ‘Religion and Identity’ at the DPRN
meeting dealing with the Millennium Development Goals, ISS, The Hague, 28
June.
He attended the GLOPENT meeting (Europees Netwerk voor Pentecostalismeonderzoek), Heidelberg, 4 April.
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Sandra Evers initiated the Madagascar Project in January 2005. This is a
research project on natural resource management and poverty in Madagascar. It
is a collaboration between the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; the Institut de Civilisations/Musée d’Art et
d’Archéologie, Université d’Antananarivo (ICMAA); and the Inter-church
Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO). In 2005, nine VU Master’s
students and nine Malagasy students participated in this project. The project
resulted in papers, research reports, MSc theses and the Madagasca conference
mentioned above.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen, with Oscar Salemink, gave the PhD course ‘Human
Security’ at the Oslo Summer School of Comparative Social Sciences.
Dick Kooiman gave radio interviews on the earthquake in Azad Kashmir (BNN
20-10-2005) and on Christian-Muslim dialogue (Radio de Branding, 8
November).
Birgit Meijer was chair of the ASSR research cluster ‘Religion, Politics and
Identity’. She was also a member of the ‘ASSR programmaraad’.
She was a peer reviewer of articles submitted to American Ethnologist, Cultural
Anthropology, Current Anthropology, Africa, African Studies Review, Journal of
Religion in Africa, and JRAI.
From 2005 onwards, she will be one of the editors of Material Religion (Berg
publishers).
Oscar Salemink succeeded Prof. André Droogers as chair of the SCA
Department.
On 31 December 2005, he stepped down as chairman of the NWO-WOTRO
Capacity Development Programme committee, but was invited to be a member
of a WOTRO drafting committee for a new funding programme in line with
WOTRO’s new mission.
Oscar Salemink continued as member of the executive committee of the
Vietnam Studies Group of the Association for Asian Studies, and as advisor to
the ‘Renovation of Vietnam’s ethnological discipline in the context of
industrialization, modernization and international integration’ programme. This
is a national curriculum development/reform programme at BA, MA and PhD
levels coordinated by the Institute of Anthropology in Hanoi on behalf of 12
participating ethnology and anthropology institutions all over Vietnam.
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Ton Salman, with NALACS & CERES, organized a PhD masterclass with Prof.
Charles Hale on ‘Collaborative and Action Research’, Utrecht, 13 October.
He was interviewed by:
- Radio Nederland Wereldomroep on events in Bolivia in Spanish (March 7) and
in Dutch (9 March).
- Radio Erbol in La Paz on the theme of citizenship in Bolivia (10 May).
- Radio Paris (Spanish-spoken radio in Bolivia under the auspices of the French
government) (18 May).
- A VRT (Belgium) radio programme on the Bolivian elections (7 December).
Ton Salman gave an introduction to a novel written by Peter Gelauff on political
and societal developments in Chile, at the book’s launch on 17 December at
LAC, Amsterdam.
He was a member of a discussion panel on the Bolivian elections on ‘election
night’, at LAC, Amsterdam, 18 December.
He is member of the review board of:
- Political Geography (Pergamon)
- Mobilization (San Diego State University)\
- Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe / European
Review for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, CEDLA, Amsterdam.
Marion del Uyl is member of the directorate of Lova, (the Netherlands
Association of Feminist Anthropologists).
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Epilogue
There are no errors in this book, except this one
Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, anthropology finds itself a bit in a
quandary. The criticisms and dog-eat-dog self-investigations that started in the
1970s and are continuing today will not fade away. The discipline can no longer
simply ‘do its thing’ without asking critical questions about our work’s
epistemological bases, the political legitimacy of the intrusion in the worlds of
others, the accuracy of its concepts and methods in the current network society
era, and the changing nature of the very thing we are looking for: culture. We
need this ongoing self-critique if we do not want to shift from looking at
‘knowledge of traditional people’ to looking at ‘traditional knowledge about
peoples’. At the same time, the need for insights into the impacts of cultural
encounters and into cultural changes, mutual influences and images, and
reactions to new chances and threats offered by globalization, seems more
urgent than ever. Combined with questions about the applicability of our
research outcomes and about the ‘measurement’ of our publications, we face
challenges of unprecedented depth and scope. The only way, therefore, to
explain that most of us do not in the least regret having ended up as an academic
anthropologist, is that it continues to be one of the most fascinating métiers. In
that spirit, we will go on working hard to meet our own and other’s high
standards with regard to both education and research outcomes. And we will
keep trying to get better at what we do.
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