Perspektiven auf Utopien aus anthropologischer Sicht: Vorstellungen von egalitären Zukunftsszenarien außerhalb der neoliberalen Wirtschaft
by Dr. Thomas Herzmark
Sonntag 9.11., 09.00 bis 09.45 Uhr
Ethnographic analysis of societies across global contexts necessarily documents the human propensity to construct elaborate hierarchies of exploitation, inequality, oppression, and domination. Contemporary anthropological research straddles obligations to engage with neoliberalism, declining welfare systems, and environmental degradation, while maintaining established preoccupations with hierarchy, social structure, and exposes of our social institutions.
Perhaps less eye-catching in the academic milieux are studies of human flourishing and “the good life”, often set within anthropological theories on morality and ethics. While research on “the good” has been critiqued as inherently conservative and misaligned with discursive shift to focus on human suffering, the anthropological and archaeological records contain vast documentations of thriving human societies.
Steering clear of further entrenching this bifurcation within anthropological thinking, and away from romanticising the idea of an enlightened indigenous subject, this lecture explores the visions for utopia documented and articulated within anthropological archive, drawing closely on the work of David Graeber. Three decades after Faye Harrison called for an anthropology for liberation, this lecture assesses the contributions of anthropologists and their interlocutors to envisioning egalitarian and utopian futures.
Thomas Herzmark is a social anthropologist with a regional focus on South Asia research interests in indigenous identities, minority recognition and representation, and affirmative action. He is a postdoctoral researcher in Centre for Modern Indian Studies, Göttingen, and teaches courses in South Asian studies, gender, anthropology theory and methods