Lehrende: N.N.
Veranstaltungsart: Seminar
Orga-Einheit: 03-Ethnologie
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Semesterwochenstunden: 2
Unterrichtssprache: Englisch
Offizielle Kursbeschreibung: Taking examples from various African contexts, this module problematizes the notion of modernity and its relation to processes of social change. The module introduces students to a range of ethnographic traditions and methodological approaches towards modernity, crisis and social change. Modernity is more than a reference to living in the present or “now“. It entails an often explicit distinction between “us“ and a traditional “other“. In order to achieve a transition from an idealized tradition to modernity, change has to occur. It may crystalize in development as ideology, changing notions of belonging and personhood, developments in popular culture or religious practice. Students in this module will consider discourse of crisis and disjuncture that accompany narratives of modernization. We discuss how ideologies of modernity impact on people's experiences of change and rupture in the case of civil war, generational conflict, religious strive, autochthony discourses, medical transformation and communication revolution. At a conceptual level, we question dominant view of perceiving Africa as the non-modern “Other”. The contingent is configured as an object that has to be brought into the (Western) world. Generating more complex analyses of modernity in Africa requires challenging this dominant representational mode.
Organisatorisches: Dozent: Maarten Beedert (bedert@eth.mpg.de)