Selvdestruktion: Et islandsk eksempel på kollektiv afvikling

Collective self-destruction is a kind of »catastrophe« in the theoretical sense of representing a non-linear logic of change. The historical situation in 17th and 18th century lceland was catastrophic in this sense. All social domains were marked by disintegration and disruptive development. Old technologies were »forgotten«, ecomic rationality was repressed, and hunger was a commonplace. A demographic crisis was an imminent threat to the population. The marriage ratio was extremely low, and the mortality rate was high. Mothers gave up breast feeding and the infants died from the raw cow's milk they were given instead. The sexual organization disintegrated. Incest was frequent. Briefly, there was a remarkable negligence of all cultural standards; chaos and disorder ruled the social space. Generally speaking, it was a case of achieved helplessness connected to a collective depression.It may be read as a cultural psychological reaction to increasingly difficult historical conditions. Apart from natura( catastrophe and political submission, the Icelanders also found themselves with no symbolic exchange with »others«, and the only mirror ofself-identification was their own past. The illustrious ancestors made the Icelanders acutely aware of their own powerlessness - and their reaction was one of cultural destruction.Kollektiv selvdestruktion udgør i teoretisk forstand en katastrofe eller et kvalitativt spring, som fornægter sædvanlig udviklingslogik. Islands situation i 16-1700 tallet kan bedst beskrives som netop katastrofal i denne betydning. På alle områder af samfundslivet var der opløsning og tilbagegang. Gamle teknologier glemtes, økonomiske vækstpunkter undertryktes, og hungersnød blev hverdagskost. En demografisk krise truede med at udslette befolkningen. Ægteskabsfrekvensen var extremt lav og dødeligheden stor. Mødrene ammede ikke længere deres børn, og få nyfødte overlevede den rå komælk. Incest var almindeligt. Der var kort sagt tale om en opgivelse af enhver kulturel standard; kaos og uorden havde overtaget det sociale rum.Generelt kan man tale om en formfortillært hjælpeløshed i forbindelse med en kollektiv depression. Den kan læses som en kulturpsykologisk reaktion på en historisk situation, som blev mere og mere vanskelig.Naturkatastrofer og politisk underkastelse gjorde deres. Den symbolske udveksling med andre var gået helt i stå, og det eneste spejl, islændingene kunne se sig selv i, var fortiden. Spejlingen i forfædrenes bedrifter tydeliggjorde deres egen afmagt - og reaktionen var en næsten stædig destruktion af kulturen

RADIKAL FORTOLKNING: Humanistisk teori ved årtusindskiftet

The renaissance view of humans as ffee and responsible agents is the starting point for this article that seeks to delineate the task of the humanities today, at an age which has had to accept the fail of Objectivism. The time is marked by a switch from seeing the task of science in general as one of clarifying what is already there, in nature, to seeing it as a kind of radical interpretation that adds its own layer of understanding, and thereby of reality, to the object. The conclusion is that the object of study for the human Sciences cannot and should not be seen in naturalistic terms; instead we have to work with fluid objects and ontologies that seriously question the disciplinary boundaries established in the nineteenth century

VILJENS SVAGHED: Hamlet og Macbeth

The concept of person derives from latin persona, originally referring to the ritual or dramatic mask. In classical Rome, the category came to include the juridical person, who – like other dramatis personae – had a particular position in society. In this article, an analysis of two well known characters in Shakespeare’s plays are used to rethink the conflation of the dramatic and social character in any person. By focussing on the idea of the will as an immanent feature of the modern person, it is shown how he or she is both cough caught up in a drama beyond control and contributing to its – unforeseen – course. In this sense the modern person is like Hamlet or Macbeth, whose destinies were partly a function of a larger unfolding drama, and partly of their own decisions to act upon and within it. &nbsp

ANTROPOLOG VED TIDENS RAND: Om Thule, tøvejr og tyrefægtning

KIRSTEN HASTRUP 60 Å

MINDEORD: NIELS FOCK (1927-2020)

Mindeord: Niels Fock (1927-2020

Świadomość mięśniowa. Wytwarzanie wiedzy w Arktyce

Hastrup omawia proces wytwarzania wiedzy w antropologii, wskazując, że choć opiera się ona na badaniach terenowych, to nie można jej do nich sprowadzać. Swój wywód konstruuje wokół pojęcia „umiejętności” (skills), zapożyczonego od Ingolda (2000), który kładzie nacisk na specyficzny charakter umiejętności, nie będących jedynie technikami ciała, lecz także zdolnością do działania i percepcji, rozwijaną przez czynne uczestnictwo w otoczeniu i relacje z jego składowymi. Umiejętności opisane w artykule to te, za pomocą których myśliwi wchodzą w relacje ze swym światem: umiejętność wędrowania, przewidywania i określenia dobrej pory; te właśnie umiejętności antropolożka rozpoznaje podczas badań terenowych towarzysząc myśliwym. Ostatnia część artykułu poświęcona została umiejętności abdukcji, którą autorka uznaje za kluczową z perspektywy wytwarzania wiedzy, zarówno dla myśliwych, jak i dla antropologów.Hastrup discusses the process of knowledge-making in anthropology, as based on fieldwork, yet not reducible to this. She organizes her argument in terms of skills, a concept that is owed to Ingold (2000) who stresses that skills are not simply techniques of the body, but capabilities of action and perception, growing through an active engagement with the constituents of the surroundings. The skills identified here, and by which the hunters relate to their world, are the skills of wayfaring, of forecasting and of timing – skills that the fieldworker identifies when going along with the hunters. In the concluding section, Hastrup addresses the skill of abduction, which she see as the core of knowledge making, among hunters as well as anthropologists