Histories for Anthropology: Ten Years of Historical Research and Writing by Anthropologists, 1980–1990

1991 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-455
Author(s):  
Susan Kellogg
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Historical Anthropology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Textual Practice ◽  
Anthropological Study ◽  
Duke University ◽  
Anthropological History

Editor’s Note: Susan Kellogg’s article on anthropology and history continues our special series “History and the Other Social Sciences.” There will be one further article, by David Robertson, on political science and history. An expanded version of the whole series will then be published as a book by Duke University Press.The past, once considered the exclusive domain of historians and antiquarians, has increasingly been embraced by anthropologists. Today, it is difficult to find a major anthropological study that does not claim to offer a diachronic, processual, historical analysis. In examining 10 years of historical anthropological writing, I cover three broad topics in this essay. First, I explain the emergence of a more historical anthropology as a widespread response to a crisis in the conceptualization of culture. Second, I argue that while there are certain identifiable themes that cut across this literature, in general, it reflects long-standing topical interests within anthropology; I review this literature according to these topics rather than divide it into interpretive or cultural studies versus studies of political economy. Third, I try to assess this body of work critically. I concentrate here on anthropological history as both research and textual practice, as well as briefly examine anthropological uses of the concepts of time, colonialism, and structure and agency.

School Notes: Committee on Historical Studies

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-236
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Processes Of Change ◽  
Graduate Faculty ◽  
New School ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Historical Moment

The Committee on Historical Studies was established in the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in 1984. The Graduate Faculty has long emphasized the contribution of history to the social sciences. Committee on Historical Studies (CHS) courses offer students the opportunity to utilize social scientific concepts and theories in the study of the past. The program is based on the conviction that the world changes constantly but changes systematically, with each historical moment setting the opportunities and limiting the potentialities of the next. Systematic historical analysis, however, is not merely a diverting luxury. Nor is it simply a means of assembling cases for present-oriented models of human behavior. It is a prerequisite to any sound understanding of processes of change and of structures large or small.

The role of non-corporeal Actant theory in historical research

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-76
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Hartt ◽  
Albert J. Mills ◽  
Jean Helms Mills
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The New Deal

Purpose This paper aims to study the role of non-corporeal Actant theory in historical research through a case study of the trajectory of the New Deal as one of the foremost institutions in the USA since its inception in the early 1930s. Design/methodology/approach The authors follow the trajectory of the New Deal through a focus on Vice President Henry A. Wallace. Drawing on ANTi-History, the authors view history as a powerful discourse for organizing understandings of the past and non-corporeal Actants as a key influence on making sense of (past) events. Findings The authors conclude that non-corporeal Actants influence the shaping of management and organization studies that serve paradoxically to obfuscate history and its relationship to the past. Research limitations/implications The authors drew on a series of published studies of Henry Wallace and archival material in the Roosevelt Library, but the study would benefit from an in-depth analysis of the Wallace archives. Practical implications The authors reveal the influences of non-corporeal Actants as a method for dealing with the past. The authors do this through the use of ANTi-History as a method of historical analysis. Social implications The past is an important source of understanding of the present and future; this innovative approach increases the potential to understand. Originality/value Decisions are often black boxes. Non-Corporeal Actants are a new tool with which to see the underlying inputs of choice.

Recent research in the history of international law

2016 ◽  
Vol 84 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 313-334
Author(s):  
Frederik Dhondt
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Law ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Global History ◽  
Intercultural Awareness ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Legal Thinking ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
Interdisciplinary Scholarship

This review article treats the booming scholarship on the history of international law over the past decade. Works with a broader view (1), including the recent big-book syntheses and collective works, are contrasted with monographs (2), from studies of treaties and doctrine, over diplomatic practice to scholarship by historians and, finally, interdisciplinary scholarship. This texts provides a personal panorama of the wide array of scholarly perspectives on a common object: rules recognised in the community or society of states. New insights from history and social sciences, especially the turn to global history, open fresh prospects for ‘traditional’ legal historical research. Studying the encounter between ‘European’ international law and other continents rises our indispensable intercultural awareness. Yet, it should also serve to better understand the specificity of European legal thinking or diplomatic practice, and does not render research on the latter obsolete or redundant.


Introduction to Methodology: Virtual Special Issue for the Journal of Design History 2018

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. e25-e40
Author(s):  
D J Huppatz
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Art History ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Design History ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Extended Self ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The Past

Abstract Design historians generally avoid extended self-reflection or discussion of how they conduct research. Typically, they use historical research methods, yet design historians have also used methods borrowed from art history, cultural and literary studies, anthropology, sociology or other social sciences. This Virtual Special Issue, comprising articles drawn from past issues of the Journal of Design History, addresses the state of design history’s methodology. While few authors in the Journal have focused specifically on the topic of methodology, their implicit adoption of an eclectic variety of research methods over the past thirty years is revealing. This Introduction seeks to contextualize a collection of twelve articles within a brief overview of methodologies in history, art history and design history. The articles are then linked to scholarship beyond the Journal of Design History, and the final section presents additional methodological possibilities for design historians.

The “Historical Turn” in the Social Sciences

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert S. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
Professional Societies ◽  
Historical Turn ◽  
The Social

The first professional societies in the United States, from the 1880s to the 1910s, understood history to be closely associated with the other social sciences. Even in the mid-twentieth century, history was still grouped with the other social sciences, along with economics, sociology, political science, and anthropology. But in the past few decades, history and anthropology in the United States (though not necessarily in other countries) have moved away from the social sciences to ally themselves with the humanities—paradoxically, just when the other social sciences are becoming more committed to historical research.

A Promising Liaison? Social History and Anthropology in South-Eastern Europe. Opportunities and Pitfalls

2008 ◽  
Vol 34-35 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 161-184
Author(s):  
Ulf Brunnbauer
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Historical Anthropology ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fixed Set ◽  
History Of ◽  
South Eastern Europe

This article argues that historical anthropology provides approaches for the exploration of previously neglected problems of the history of Southeastern Europe. Historical anthropology is not seen as a fixed set of methodologies and theories but rather as a perspective which directs attention to the questions of how societies have worked in the past and “ordinary” people made sense of their lives. Furthermore, historical anthropology tends to be comparative. In the past, Southeastern European historians concentrated on political history and ethnographers on the “traditional” culture of their nation, with little interaction between the two disciplines. After the fall of the communist system in 1989/1991, however, historians and ethnologists borrowed approaches from each other. The potential of historical anthropology is shown in particular with respect to the study of the social fabric of socialism—a topic until now shunned by historians while anthropologists have provided exemplary studies on this issue. The article ends with a discussion of the limits oPf historical anthropology and warns not to leave the state and economic structures out of historical analysis.

scholarly journals EUROPEAN EMPIRE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW FROM THE EIGHTEENTH TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
RICHARD BOURKE
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
International Law ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Moral Judgement ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Philosophy Of Right

In the 1821 Preface to his Elements of the philosophy of right, Hegel famously claimed that ‘philosophy…is its own time comprehended in thoughts’. It is tempting to view history in equivalent terms. After all, historical research usually engages the past under the influence of contemporary concerns. Topics acquire pertinence on account of prevailing values and interests. And yet there is a clear difference between being roused to investigate a subject as a result of its ongoing resonance and interpreting its meaning in terms of current attitudes. This distinction, however, is often blurred, and with it appropriate relations between historical analysis and moral judgement. It may well be that, at the level of political philosophy, each of these activities can be reconciled; but first their respective provinces should be carefully delimited.

An historical analysis of species references in American English

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-349
Author(s):  
Craig Frayne
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
American English ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Google Books

This study uses the two largest available American English language corpora, Google Books and the Corpus of Historical American English (coha), to investigate relations between ecology and language. The paper introduces ecolinguistics as a promising theme for corpus research. While some previous ecolinguistic research has used corpus approaches, there is a case to be made for quantitative methods that draw on larger datasets. Building on other corpus studies that have made connections between language use and environmental change, this paper investigates whether linguistic references to other species have changed in the past two centuries and, if so, how. The methodology consists of two main parts: an examination of the frequency of common names of species followed by aspect-level sentiment analysis of concordance lines. Results point to both opportunities and challenges associated with applying corpus methods to ecolinguistc research.

Editor's Note

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Kaliel
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Red River ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
The Past ◽  
Relationship Of

The articles published in our Fall 2016 edition are connected loosely under the themes of public memory and the uses of identity in the past. We are thrilled to present to you three excellent articles in our Fall 2016 edition: The article "Dentro de la Revolución: Mobilizing the Artist in Alfredo Sosa Bravo's Libertad, Cultura, Igualdad (1961)" analyzes Cuban artwork as multi-layered work of propaganda whose conditions of creation, content, and exhibition reinforce a relationship of collaboration between artists and the state-run cultural institutions of post-revolutionary Cuba; moving through fifty years of history “’I Shall Never Forget’: The Civil War in American Historical Memory, 1863-1915" provides a captivating look at the role of reconciliationist and emancipationist intellectuals, politicians, and organizations as they contested and shaped the enduring memory of the Civil War; and finally, the article “Politics as Metis Ethnogenesis in Red River: Instrumental Ethnogenesis in the 1830s and 1840s in Red River” takes the reader through a historical analysis of the development of the Metis identity as a means to further their economic rights. We wholly hope you enjoy our Fall 2016 edition as much as our staff has enjoyed curating it. Editors  Jean Middleton and Emily Kaliel Assistant Editors Magie Aiken and Hannah Rudderham Senior Reviewers Emily Tran Connor Thompson Callum McDonald James Matiko Bronte Wells

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