Termin:
22.04.2009
18:00
Anthropological Macrocomparison of Counterinsurgencies in
Argentina and Iraq
Antonius Robben, Utrecht University
Parts of the world have become too dangerous for ethnographic fieldwork. As a consequence, anthropological perspectives on those violent regions are missing, and anthropology runs the risk of becoming marginalized in public debates. I propose ethnographic imagination at a distance as a methodological alternative until fieldwork becomes possible again. This approach conducts a macrocomparison of field studies and research conducted at a distance, and compares underlying cultural models and their externalization into social practices.
In his lecture Antonius C.G.M. Robben, Department of Cultural Anthropology,Utrecht University will illustrate the anthropological study of inaccessible war zones with a controlled macrocomparison of counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Argentina in terms of mimesis and Manichaeism, and the ensuing swarming operations and dehumanizing practices. These shared cultural models and operational practices made counterinsurgency troops produce chaotic war zones in mimetic response to the unpredictable actions of insurgents, and made civilians vulnerable at checkpoints, during raids, and in detention centers.
Einladung [PDF]
Kontakt:
Dr. Gebhard Fartacek
Stellvertretender Direktor
Forschungsstelle Sozialanthropologie
Zentrum Asienwissenschaften und Sozialanthropologie
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)
Prinz-Eugen-Str. 8-10, 1.Stock
T +43 1 51581-6454