This book explores the role and implications of responsibility for anthropology, asking how responsibility is recognised and invoked in the world, what relations it draws upon, and how it comes to define notions of the person, institutional practices, ways of knowing and modes of evaluation. The category of responsibility has a long genealogy within the discipline of anthropology and it surfaces in contemporary debates as well as in anthropologists’ collaboration with other disciplines, including when anthropology is applied in fields such as development, medicine, and humanitarian response. As a category that unsettles, challenges and critically engages with political, ethical and epistemological questions, responsibility is central to anthropological theory, ethnographic practice, collaborative research, and applied engagement. With chapters focused on a variety of cultural contexts, this volume considers how anthropology can contribute to a better understanding of responsibility, including the ‘responsibility of anthropology’ and the responsibility of anthropologists to specific others.
Author(s): Melissa Demian, Mattia Fumanti, Christos Lynteris
Series: ASA Monographs
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 220
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Figures
Contributors
Acknowledgement
Introduction: Anthropology and Responsibility
References
1 Edgy Imaginaries: “Ghost” Orangutans, Extinction, and Responsibility in a Plantation Landscape
Edgy Imaginaries in Orangutan Conservation
Fragility Or Resilience? Edgy Questions in Conservation Strategies
Apes On the (Anthropogenic) Edge
“Ghost Orangutans”
Life and Responsibility On the Edge
Unsettling Scholarly Edges
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
2 The Responsibility to Consume: Excessive “Environmentourism” Against Rhinoceros Extinction in South Africa
The Responsibility to Consume: Excessive “Environmentourism” Against Rhinoceros Extinction in South Africa
Methodology
Environmentourism and Philanthrocapitalism
Environmentourism
Philanthrocapitalism
Environmentourism Against Rhinocide?
“Only Tourism Can Save Them”: Appeals to Tourists’ Responsibility
Saving Rhinos and Racial Inequality
Environmentourism Beyond the GKA
Conclusion: Responsible Consumption and Giving in the Environmentourism Bubble
Notes
References
3 Responsibility Versus Responsibilization: Mafiacraft, Witchcraft and the Rise of Conspiracy Thinking Today
Mafiacraft – Or How to Grasp a Phenomenon That Wants to Remain Hidden?
From Mafiacraft to Witchcraft
The Responsibility of the Anthropologist
Conspiracy Theory Now and the Anthropologist’s Responsibility.
Notes
References
4 In the Wake of Disenchantment: Silence and the Limits of Ethnographic Attentiveness
Disenchantment
Silence
Attentiveness
Conclusion: a Constellation of Concepts
Notes
References
5 The Vulnerability Vortex: Health, Exclusion, and Social Responsibility
Social Determinants of Health
Structural Violence
The Vulnerability Vortex
Indigeneity and Multiculturalism
Assessing Vulnerability
Conclusion
References
6 Keeping Things Under Control: Responsibilities Toward Things, Homes, and People in Hoarding Disorder
Introduction
Pathologies of the Uninhabitable: Responsibilities Toward Homes
Burdened By Treasures: Gendered Responsibilities Toward Things and People
Conclusion
References
7 Racialized Positionalities: Ethnographic Responsibility and the Anthropology of Racism and White Supremacy
Introduction
Racialized Positionalities, a Proposal
Position I – The Ti Fi Blan (White Girl)
Position II – The Translator of Discriminatory Practices and a Racialized Language
Position III – The Writer, Ethnographic Weaver
Conclusion
References
8 Of Calcutta, Death, and the South: Juxtaposing Three Calcuttas/Kolkatas
Introduction
What Is the “South”? A Scalar Problematic
From Salt Lake to New Town
Two KMDA/CMDAs
Of Margins and Representations
Death, Legibility, and the South
Notes
References
9 The Countess’ Diaries and Taonga Maori: Twenty-First Century Collaborations Around Nineteenth Century Collecting
A “Kit” to Carry Potatoes
Responsibilities to Taonga Maori in Museums
Collaborating With the Keith-Falconers
The Tukohu
The Hei Tiki
The Keith-Falconers and the Hei Tiki
The Hei Tiki and Matua Tonga
Responsibilities to Absent Taonga
Conclusion
Notes
References
10 Responsibility and Complicity in the UK “Hostile Environment”
Introduction: “Go Home!”
Pinball Logic
Colonial Responsibilities
Metaphorical States
Monsters
Games
States of Complicity
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
