Anthropology

This paper proposes to test the use of heritage as a category of thought to compare cultures (Gonçalves, 2009). Focus on two public policies of intervention in historical centers, one in an old neighborhood in the center of Lisbon and another in the municipality of São José, Santa Catarina, with the goal of comparing them and analyze the understanding and the applications of this category in both contexts.

Resumo: A imagem pública de Santiago de Compostela assenta sobre a sua história e património, em torno de referências à Catedral e ao Caminho. Disto resulta que as experiências e as representações dos seus cidadãos acabam por ficar na sombra de um aparato turístico e promocional da cidade que pouco diz sobre a sua realidade social. Neste projeto, procurou-se, através de uma metodologia visual, ir ao encontro dessas representações " outras ".
Palavras-chave: Santiago de Compostela; fotografia participativa; imagem urbana.
Abstract: The public image of Santiago de Compostela is based on its history and heritage, around references to the Cathedral and the Camino. As a result, the experiences and representations of its citizens end up staying in the shadow of a touristic and promotional apparatus of the city that says little about their social reality. Through a visual methodology, this project aimed to meet these " other " representations.

De perceptie van het leven op straat vertelt het belang van het zelfbeeld wanneer het kind leert overleven zowel op straat als in het gezin. Dat zelfbeeld wordt grotendeels bepaald door de opvoedkundige vaardigheden van die mensen met wie het kind opgroeit. Het is op zich een belangrijk onderdeel van zowel de sociale, fysische als psychologische ontwikkeling van het kind.

De situatie van het straatkind zal toegelicht worden binnen de grenzen van Zuid Afrika aangezien ik de kans heb gekregen in dit land mijn praktijkervaring te verwezenlijken binnen twee projecten die werken met straatkinderen.

Wereldwijd worden straatkinderen of thuisloze kinderen genoemd naar de voornaamste activiteit die ze uitoefenen als zij op straat vertoeven. Dit verschilt van werelddeel tot werelddeel, zelfs van land tot land. In Colombia is de term ‘gamines’ de meest gebruikte uitdrukking voor straatkinderen, in India ‘gadahi boys’, in Italië ‘scugnizzo’, etc... . In Zuid Afrika is er dan weermaals een verschil tussen de verschillende provinciën. Zo noemen de straatkinderen van Johannesburg ‘skadukinders’ en deze van Bloemfontein ‘pypkinders’.  Maar ik wil me hier vooral baseren op de White Paper of Social Welfare, waarin de term ‘street children’ oftewel ‘straatkinderen’ wordt gehanteerd.

In de twee delen die ik hier als volgt wil behandelen staat steeds het straatkind centraal. ‘Het straatkind’ is een ruime omschrijving voor verschillende categorieën van kinderen die door verschillende factoren beïnvloed worden en opgroeien in een sociaal milieu dat niet stimulerend werkt op hun ontplooiing.

In het eerste deel (Straatkinderen geleid door een laag zelfbeeld) zal een toelichting volgen op het profiel van het straatkind met vervolgens een beschrijving van de ontwikkelingsprocessen van het zelfbeeld.

In het tweede deel (Gemeenschapswerk is de sleutel tot verandering in gedachtengang) zal eerder worden ingegaan op de gemeenschap waarin het kind opgroeit/opgroeide. Deze gemeenschap bestaat uit verschillende systemen, waarin het gezin als baksteen wordt benaderd vanuit een ecologische benadering.

Intro: It all begins with an interest in some particular area of social life.  People, places, activities, events, processes that may interest one in a certain way to meet and discover more profound with a curious and analytical attitude.

Through several methodologies one tries to find a way to bring this know-how-story to an academical or political atmosphere. But wouldn’t it be more interesting to acknowledge the differences and identify the resemblances between one another to share this story amongst everyday people?

As an anthropologist, one reveals not only his interests in the knowabouts but can also share a message to the outside world, in reaching people at different niches to create a sense of interconnectedness. We can share these findings in a more dynamic and more creative way, by unravelling an enigmatic  (sub)culture or group of society through visual media.

The signifying practice of street arts as an underground (sub)culture, has gained over the years more appreciation as well as legitimation. The different conceptualizations of the legal and illegal artistic activities performed in the streets will be the theme for this more reflexive essay. With the intend to approach the different controversies that lay within this theme and the main tendency of commodification. As stated by Stuart Hall  representation means using (a) language (signs, images, words, sounds) to say something meaningful about, or to represent, the world meaningfully, to other people.

With this representative writing I hope to unravel as well as sensitize more about the topic of art in the streets. It is not so much a question of art versus vandalism, but moreover an insight in the similarities and differences between the act of bombing (refers to illegal painting on walls) and the act of painting (refers to legal painting on walls). I tend to give more clearance in questions like, how come there is art in the streets. In which way is it bound to time and place? And how does it relate to different social systems? Who is behind those different expressions in the street to spread messages, arts, name…?  In which way are these considered to be individual or collective performances in an urban landscape? What are the changes that lead to more popularization? And in its turn to more legalized artistic interventions? How does the content transform into a more conditioned artwork? And is this reflected in the audience that changes attitude towards the world of street art?

The three main elements that will be approached are:
- Street art/Graffiti/Urban art…  Contextualizing the act of painting versus bombing
- Artist/Vandal/Painter…  Contextualizing the representation of painter
- Urban Landscape  Contextualizing the representation of walls

The last Pioneers: memories of a ritual

In former Yugoslavia children were initiated in the pioneer movement under the Federation's ideal of "Unity and Brotherhood". In the 1990s other values started entering the newly independent Republic of Slovenia. How was this transition felt by the last generation of pioneers?

Keywords: pioneers; Yugonostalgia; Slovenia; memory; ritual; ethnographic film

In former Yugoslavia kids were initiated in the pioneer movement under the Federation's ideal of "Unity and Brotherhood". In the 90's other values entered the newly independent Republic of Slovenia. How was this transition felt by the last generation of pioneers?

Short documentary film focusing on yugonostalgia, raise of capitalism, nation building, memory and ritual.

In Cuba one might encounter a lively exchange occurring between the living
and the dead (los muertos), one which is often described in terms of ‘affinity’. This
involves a reciprocity among the biographies of the former, the past (biographies)
and present condition (‘necrography’) of the latter, who are not in the least limited
to ancestors or previously intimate to the living persons. The intensification of such
exchange takes place within a dynamic and multiple field of identifications and differentiations,
wherein the dead slowly become dead in a parallel process of un-becoming
living, through becoming ‘affinity’ muertos of their living counterparts. This could be
said to be the point of what is going on, but things, when they get so radically mobilised
through exchange, might also go beyond the point of conclusion.

This chapter aims at shedding a comparative light between Afro-Cuban religiosity, secularism as a theory, and also Cuban revolutionary practice. The apparent paradox of how religious traditions can exhibit secular-friendly attitudes that may equal or, even, surpass those of the political regime it is surrounded by is the most immediate point of departure. I propose a broad distinction between “secularism-as-substance” and “secularity-as-a-relation” and argue that a “secular-friendly” environment is not necessarily the sole outcome of its most immediate actor, the state, and with overt ideological claims of sorts but may derive from other interacting agents, even religious ones. More crucially than “secularism-as-substance,” within the “space” of “secularity-as-a-relation,” a vital room of “indifference” is also necessary, and this may refer to both political and religious actors.
Secularisms in a Postsecular Age? Secularisms in a Postsecul

By critically engaging with anthropological theories on sacrice and religious "mediation," this article offers a doubly indigenous ethnographic theory of sacrice and much beyond. Using material on Afro-Cuban divination and Fernando Ortiz's notion of "counterpoint," it goes beyond dominant scholarly understandings of sacrice as a dialectical mediation between the "sacred" and the "profane," and an act of substitution and annihilation. Rather, it offers an account of sacrice as part of a much wider praxis and eld wherein it serves, among many other offerings, materials and sensibilities, as a counterpoint and crossroads of exchange. The outcome is a dynamic transformation of a point of view into a "path" that is guided and forged through the ignition and further cultivation of oracular articulacy.