Historical Anthropology
The purpose of the current chapter is to study the role of power brokers in Punjabi community to see how they replaced the cultural institution of leadership in name of deraydar. The paper tries to bring forth factors that made these... more
The purpose of the current chapter is to study the role of power brokers in Punjabi community to see how they replaced the cultural institution of leadership in name of deraydar. The paper tries to bring forth factors that made these power brokers influential and how did the traditional leader faded away from the cultural life of the villages. The paper also describes the sources of power that these brokers enjoy at local level and the manipulative strategies that are conscious held to maintain the social control through reciprocity towards group allies and coercive tactics towards the opponents. In order to better understand the role of power structure in the manipulating the developmental work, the inevitable existence of influential deraydars. Paper also discusses political set up of village to see how political set up of village revolves around the pressure groups of village. How these pressure groups are formed that is the source of power of these pressure groups due to which each group tried to manipulate benefits using their influence, political links, relationships, etc. The study also looks into that how these politically influential groups try to over throw their opponent groups.
This article discusses Fredrik Barths approach to the problem of ethnicity based on a wide-ranging analysis of his work. Analysis focuses on various key ideas recurrent in the authors programmatic and theoretical-methodological writings,... more
This article discusses Fredrik Barths approach to the problem of ethnicity based on a wide-ranging analysis of his work. Analysis focuses on various key ideas recurrent in the authors programmatic and theoretical-methodological writings, as well as his ethnographic studies. A critical evaluation is made of the explicatory power of ecological and demographic factors in his model, the importance of his thesis of relative identity, the genealogy of theoretical influences found in Barthian explanations and the problem of the rational actor as the binding element in his interactionist conception of social relations.
Several years before English settlements at Roanoke and Jamestown, Spanish colonists traversed the western edge of the North Carolina Piedmont, and they attempted to establish permanent settlements in the upper Catawba and Yadkin river... more
Several years before English settlements at Roanoke and Jamestown, Spanish colonists traversed the western edge of the North Carolina Piedmont, and they attempted to establish permanent settlements in the upper Catawba and Yadkin river valleys. Archaeologists attribute sites and artifacts dating from A.D. 1400 to 1600 in the Western Piedmont to the Burke phase, which is best known from sites in the upper Catawba Valley. This paper summarizes current knowledge about the Burke phase, and about encounters and interactions between Native Americans and Spanish conquistadores and colonists in the North Carolina Piedmont during the sixteenth century. From 1540 to 1568, the Western Piedmont formed the northern edge of the Spanish colonial province of La Florida, and before 1540, the Western Piedmont formed a frontier between South Appalachian Mississippian societies to the south and west, and Piedmont Village Tradition societies to the north and east.
Dozens of Cherokee towns dotted the river valleys of the Appalachian Summit province in southwestern North Carolina during the eighteenth century (Dickens 1967, 1978, 1979; Perdue 1998; Persico 1979; Shumate et al. 2005; Smith 1979). What... more
Dozens of Cherokee towns dotted the river valleys of the Appalachian Summit province in southwestern North Carolina during the eighteenth century (Dickens 1967, 1978, 1979; Perdue 1998; Persico 1979; Shumate et al. 2005; Smith 1979). What developments led to the formation of these Cherokee towns? Of course, native people had been living in the Appalachian Summit for thousands of years, through the Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippi periods (Dickens 1976; Keel 1976; Purrington 1983; Ward and Davis 1999). What are the archaeological correlates of Cherokee culture, when are they visible archaeologically, and what can archaeology contribute to knowledge of the origins and development of Cherokee culture in southwestern North Carolina? Archaeologists, myself included, have often focused on the characteristics of pottery and other artifacts as clues about the development of Cherokee culture, which is a valid approach, but not the only approach (Dickens 1978, 1979, 1986; Hally 1986; Riggs and Rodning 2002; Rodning 2008; Schroedl 1986a; Wilson and Rodning 2002). In this paper (see also Rodning 2009a, 2010a, 2011b), I focus on the development of Cherokee towns and townhouses. Given the significance of towns and town affiliations to Cherokee identity and landscape during the 1700s (Boulware 2011; Chambers 2010; Smith 1979), I suggest that tracing the development of towns and townhouses helps us understand Cherokee ethnogenesis, more generally.
""Since the Enlightenment smell has been regarded as the lowest level at the hierarchy of sences. Civilization produced concert halls and art galleries, but no museums of smell. Following on the methods of New Historicism and Annales... more
""Since the Enlightenment smell has been regarded as the lowest level at the hierarchy of sences. Civilization produced concert halls and art galleries, but no museums of smell. Following on the methods of New Historicism and Annales (Aries, Chartier, Braudel), the author is comparing the Russian smell policy with its European prototypes.
According to Freud, smell does not play any role in sexual relationships of human beings and is replaced by vision at the early stages of human development. However, Freud's statement contradicts the data of social research. Perfumes made from anal and sexual secretions of animals, amber and musk were the integral part of sexual activity in Europe in the 17th century. In Russian baths at that time musk was also a very common aphrodisiac. Smell was a sign of presence, a reference to memory and power.
Animal smells disappeared in Europe under the influence of the English sentimental fashion. The new urban space, being considered a "natural" one, presupposed a high olfactory sensitivity. As a remainder of English "pleasure gardens", lavender and thyme became the basic "cultural" smells at that time. Russian culture was not unaware of these changes, but experienced them later than the Western world. This delay has usually been considered by the Europeans as a "lack of culture" (Herberstein 1526, Fletcher 1591, Petreius de Erlesunda 1605, Olearius 1656, de Custine 1825 etc.).
Russia joined the new, culturally-oriented system of smells only in the 19th century. To illustrate this statement, the last part of the paper is devoted to the "olfactory" analysis of texts by Gogol' ("The Inspector General", "Evenings on a Farm near Dikan'ka), Tolstoj (Anna Karenina), Saltykov-Shchedrin ("The Tale of The One City"), Dostoevskii (Poor Folk), Chexov ("The Cherry Orchard", "The Seagull", "Three Sisters"). Some statistical information on the use of different smell designations is being provided as well""
According to Freud, smell does not play any role in sexual relationships of human beings and is replaced by vision at the early stages of human development. However, Freud's statement contradicts the data of social research. Perfumes made from anal and sexual secretions of animals, amber and musk were the integral part of sexual activity in Europe in the 17th century. In Russian baths at that time musk was also a very common aphrodisiac. Smell was a sign of presence, a reference to memory and power.
Animal smells disappeared in Europe under the influence of the English sentimental fashion. The new urban space, being considered a "natural" one, presupposed a high olfactory sensitivity. As a remainder of English "pleasure gardens", lavender and thyme became the basic "cultural" smells at that time. Russian culture was not unaware of these changes, but experienced them later than the Western world. This delay has usually been considered by the Europeans as a "lack of culture" (Herberstein 1526, Fletcher 1591, Petreius de Erlesunda 1605, Olearius 1656, de Custine 1825 etc.).
Russia joined the new, culturally-oriented system of smells only in the 19th century. To illustrate this statement, the last part of the paper is devoted to the "olfactory" analysis of texts by Gogol' ("The Inspector General", "Evenings on a Farm near Dikan'ka), Tolstoj (Anna Karenina), Saltykov-Shchedrin ("The Tale of The One City"), Dostoevskii (Poor Folk), Chexov ("The Cherry Orchard", "The Seagull", "Three Sisters"). Some statistical information on the use of different smell designations is being provided as well""
"En el marco de las actuales líneas de investigación sobre historia cultural queremos adentrarnos con nuestra propuesta de análisis en el vasto y complejo horizonte de la sociabilidad femenina medieval. Y para ello nos servimos de la... more
"En el marco de las actuales líneas de investigación sobre historia cultural queremos adentrarnos con nuestra propuesta de análisis en el vasto y complejo horizonte de la sociabilidad femenina medieval. Y para ello nos servimos de la información proporcionada en nuestro ámbito de investigación, el Aragón medieval, por tres tipologías documentales: la obra artística, los testimonios archivísticos y diversos textos médicos y literarios.
De entre los diversos ámbitos de relación entre mujeres que las fuentes escritas y artísticas permiten analizar, nuestra mirada se centra en uno de los mejores documentados: la cámara de parto. Al utilizar los recursos estilísticos y las fuentes literarias que tiene a su alcance, el artista medieval que compone una escena de nacimiento –generalmente, del nacimiento de la Virgen y del de San Juan–, sigue unos estereotipos que, a lo largo del siglo XV, se envuelven con la plasmación de las particulares formas, maneras y relaciones que acontecen en los alumbramientos de su época y de su contexto geográfico."
De entre los diversos ámbitos de relación entre mujeres que las fuentes escritas y artísticas permiten analizar, nuestra mirada se centra en uno de los mejores documentados: la cámara de parto. Al utilizar los recursos estilísticos y las fuentes literarias que tiene a su alcance, el artista medieval que compone una escena de nacimiento –generalmente, del nacimiento de la Virgen y del de San Juan–, sigue unos estereotipos que, a lo largo del siglo XV, se envuelven con la plasmación de las particulares formas, maneras y relaciones que acontecen en los alumbramientos de su época y de su contexto geográfico."
Research Interests:
What personalities and processes need to be present for religious traditions to successfully establish new constituencies? In Aceh, for example, did recently arrived Arabs from Aden play key roles in the processes of "Islamisation?" While... more
What personalities and processes need to be present for religious traditions to successfully establish new constituencies? In Aceh, for example, did recently arrived Arabs from Aden play key roles in the processes of "Islamisation?" While few claim rank outsiders to have been crucial in chapters of significant religious change, in this paper I argue that neither are individuals⎯albeit inadequately⎯described as insiders. Accounts provided by historians done with dissecting the dynamics of religious change note the presence of multi-lingual and mobile mediators, who have been described as "inbetweeners", who were adept at importing new ideas⎯including ways of dealing with the divine. Commerce across the Indian Ocean both before and after the rise in European presence centred on ports where being different was normal. Pre-colonial port-cities produced ethnolinguistical “creole” or “cosmopolitan” communities whose comfort with ethnoreligious diversity is lamentable scarce in present-day South and Southeast Asia. This paper considers the role of “mobile mediators” and “inbetweeners” in the importation of a range of Islamic movements in Thailand. I make suggestions about the personalities and processes through which ideas espoused by Imam Al-Ghazali (1058–1111), Sheikh Ahmad Ibn Idris (1760-1837), and Muhammad ‘Abduh (1849-1905) become known in Thai/Malay Peninsula. I describe the contributions and discuss the identity of local luminaries including Shaykh Ahmad al-Fatani, Ishmael Lutfi Japakiya, Direk Kulsriswasd, and Conrad Laurens Coolen to the spread of mystical, modernist, reformist, and revivalist Christian and Muslim movements.
As is well known, historians and religious studies have studied the haj, an element of Islam’s globally normative ritual repertoire widely dismissed by anthropologist as ethnographically insignificant. Anthropologists in Southeast Asia,... more
As is well known, historians and religious studies have studied the haj, an element of Islam’s globally normative ritual repertoire widely dismissed by anthropologist as ethnographically insignificant. Anthropologists in Southeast Asia, particularly influenced by the anthropology of Islam, have complimented traditional interest in local ritual performances with how haj has impacted Southeast Asian Muslims and Muslim societies. This paper describes the effects of the the haj and umrah on individual salvation and social change. While the empirical data introduced in this paper is based on extensive enthnographic fieldwork undertaken in the overwhelmingly Muslim context of Pattani town (amphur muang Pattani), this paper suggests areas of continuity and disjuncture with other cosmopolitan Southeast Asian port city-states such as Penang. I argue that despite their geographical proximity, significant differences in the economic, ethnic, linguistic, and religious dynamics of these cosmopolitan centres should not be overlooked. Penang might have been the closest port of departure to Mecca for Muslims resided in the western coast of Thailand’s upper south that before the Anglo-Siamese treaty of 1909 was part of the Kedah Kerajaan, but many Malays from Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat left for Mecca from ports on the east coast. This paper argues that a significant similarities between Patani/Pattani and Penang the absence that has has been inadequately dealt with my scholars who shares the authors interest in the Thai/Malay Peninsula is the marginalization of Malay rajas by Siamese and British colonial expansion. Given the importance of these institutions in the patronage and administering of Islam, pilgrims returning to Penang and Patani/Pattani faced different obstacles to disseminating reformist agendas encountered in the Haramyn to than those returning to contexts still within the control of the palace. Whether from Penang and Patani/Pattani, pilgrims enjoyed the personal benefits of fulfilling the fifth and final pillar of Islam and the merit received from pious performances in Mecca’s potent centre, the details of which I delineate and discuss.
This chapter describes Patani’s Indic, Islamic and Thai pasts. The argu- ment is that the Malay kerajaan of Patani was similar to—rather than distinct from—other port city-states on the peninsula and islands of Southeast Asia where a... more
This chapter describes Patani’s Indic, Islamic and Thai pasts. The argu- ment is that the Malay kerajaan of Patani was similar to—rather than distinct from—other port city-states on the peninsula and islands of Southeast Asia where a Sanskrit cosmopolis existed for a millennium before the earliest chapters of Islam’s Southeast Asian expansion. Islam also circulated east and west of Patani through trade between the Middle East and China via the Indian Ocean. This created a range of Indian/Arab/Malay creole communities whose members played key roles in the adoption of, or adhesion to, Islam in Southeast Asian port city-states like Patani. India’s importance to the arrival of Islam to the Thai/Malay peninsula relates to what Islam came to, where Islam initially came from, and who Islam came through. Rather than refer to conversion, I refer to an adhesion to, or adoption of, Islam. The impact of Thai and Islamic influences in Patani/Pattani following its defeat in 1785 is described. The details of the process through which the Malay Kingdom (SM. kerajaan) of became the Thai Province of Pattani, including Bangkok’s legislative and administrative initiatives are also provided. A central con- cern of this chapter is to highlight the fact that these developments coincided with a period of revolution and reform in the Hijaz. I describe how these developments impacted local religious life and thought through local luminaries such as Shaykh Daud Al-Fatani, Shaykh Ahmad Al-Fatani and Haji Sulong. The methodologies and contributions of present-day reformist revivalist movements are also described.
Research Interests:
Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics, Historical Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Self and Identity, and 103 moreSoutheast Asian Studies, Languages and Linguistics, Thai Studies, Social Identity, Death, Death Studies, Religion and Thai Culture, Linguistic Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology Of Religion, Urban Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics (Languages And Linguistics), Ritual, Islamic Contemporary Studies, Death & Dying (Thanatology), Identity (Culture), Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean History, Language Policy and Politics of Identity, Cultural Identity, Thailand, Localization, National Identity, Islamic Studies, Thai History, Muslim Minorities, Islam in the Southeast Asia, Malay World, Muslims in Southern Thailand, Islam, Ritual (Anthropology), Cultural Anthropology, Ritual Theory, Indian Ocean World, Islamic movements (Anthropology Of Religion), Southeast Asian history, Anthropology of Southeast Asia, Talal Asad, Identity, Islamic Movements and Political Islam, Ritual Studies, Language contact, Islamic revival and reform movements, Anthroplogy, Clifford Geertz, Rituals, Salafism, Politics in Thailand, Reformist Muslim Thought, Islamic Movement, Anthropology of Islam, Salafi, Salafi revivalist movement, Muslims, Cultural Anthroplogy, Thai Language, Revivalism, Patani Malays, Wahhabism, History of Islam in Southeast Asia, Jamaat Tabligh, Islamic Movements, Islamic revivalism, Islam in Thailand, Contemporary Salafism, Contact Linguistics Language Contact and Sociolinguistic Variation, Sociological and anthropological theory, Islamic identitiy, Islam in Southeast Asia, Patani-Malay, Ritual Practices, Ethnicity and National Identity, Anthropology of Language, Anthropological Theory, Islam Salafism, Anthropological History, Anthroplogy and Religion, South Thailand, Salafiyyah, Islam In Southeast Asia, history of Patani kingdom, History of Islam In the Southeast Asia, Reformist Islam, South Thailand, Patani, History, Patani history, Violence in South Thailand, Buddhist-Muslim Relations, Southeast Asian Islam, Islam In Modern Southeast Asia and the Middle East, Malay World Studies, Urban Anthroplogy, Salafist, Deep South of Thailand, Malay World and Malay Studies, Contemporary Islamic Movement, The Malay World, Anthropological Debates, Educational Reform In Thailand, Social Anthroplogy, Salaf, Merit and Merit-making, Patani, John Bowen, and Malaynessedit
This chapter introduces readers to the circumstances behind my arrival in the Malay community of Cabetigo. I relate how curiosity at what Thai-speaking Muslims mean by tham bun (Th. merit-making) led to my metamorphosis into an accidental... more
This chapter introduces readers to the circumstances behind my arrival in the Malay community of Cabetigo. I relate how curiosity at what Thai-speaking Muslims mean by tham bun (Th. merit-making) led to my metamorphosis into an accidental anthropologist. Readers are also introduced to how other anthropologists have sought to explain references by Thai-speaking Muslims to merit-generation, and how past approaches to studying Muslim societies affected the conclusions reached. Details are also supplied about elements of the anthropology of Islam which has informed the conceptualisation of Muslim diversity, assessments of local adat (tradition), and the ethnographic significance of ‘ibadat, (Islam’s globally normative ritual repertoire). Particulars about data collection and the issues encountered during the course of fieldwork are given before addressing the limits, structure and style of this study.
This article aims to explain the idiosyncrasies of cultural history as practiced in Germany – or rather the German-speaking world – and to draw attention to some recent developments within the context of this new cultural history among... more
This article aims to explain the idiosyncrasies of cultural history as practiced in Germany – or rather the German-speaking world – and to draw attention to some recent developments within the context of this new cultural history among German ancient historians in the specialized field of the history of the body. Several trends of cultural history are discussed. First, historians have been influenced by the history of everyday life, which focuses on small units and different aspects of ordinary life rather than large superstructures of society. Another trend is the growing interest of German historians in methods and theories derived from cultural anthropology. A third trend is the growing interest in feminist history and especially in the construction of gender roles. A special case in this rather broad field of cultural history is the history of the body. To a certain extent, this specialized area of history exemplifies all the problems and opportunities of cultural history.
Contemporary Anthropology of Religion is proudly sponsored by the Society for the Anthropology of Religion,. and is co-edited by Don Seeman and Tulasi Srinivas. We seek proposals for ethnographic monographs and edited volumes that... more
Contemporary Anthropology of Religion is proudly sponsored by the Society for the Anthropology of Religion,. and is co-edited by Don Seeman and Tulasi Srinivas. We seek proposals for ethnographic monographs and edited volumes that contribute broadly to the anthropological study of religious experience, cultures and practice, as well as innovative interdisciplinary works. Please see our flier for more details!
Research Interests:


