Teaching Anthropology: Remarks from a German Perspective

The Bologna Process opened a new chapter in the German higher education system, starting in 1999. Many new degree programmes have been implemented since then. It is nearly impossible to obtain an overview of the content of the more than 20,000 individual programmes thus far. Twenty-five years ago, this diverse offer of degree programmes would have been unthinkable. At that time, students specialized in Archaeology, German Studies, or Musicology; today, universities offer these subjects within such hybrid degree programmes as ‘Comparative Studies in Culture and Reli-gion’, ‘Health and Society in South Asia’, or ‘Literary and Cultural Theory’. However, not only degree programmes di-versify increasingly. The groups of students attending the courses have also continuously become more heterogeneous. Future archaeologists sit next to students of Transcultural Studies, and students of the teaching degree programme sit next to students of Global History. This raises such questions as ‘What does anthropology stand for?’, ‘How is anthro-pology conceptualized today?’, and ‘What does “teaching anthropology” mean?’.The paper will touch on these questions and give an idea of my understanding of ‘teaching anthropology’, which is closely linked to my own academic biography. Consequently, this contribution is more of an essay-like attempt to prompt a discussion on today’s teaching of anthropology

New Sequencing Methods: New Data and New Challenges

Die Sequenzierung von DNA gehört heute zum Standardrepertoire der biologischen und medizinischen Forschung. Das um die Mitte der 2000er Jahre etablierte Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) war der wichtigste Auslöser für diese Entwicklung. NGS führte zu großen Erkenntnisgewinnen in den molekularen Biowissenschaften. Die neue Technologie liefert allerdings Daten, die Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft vor neue Herausforderungen stellen. Schon jetzt lässt sich in diesem Feld eine technikgetriebene Eigendynamik feststellen, die zu Transformationsprozessen in der Wissenschaft führt, wo sich neue Forschungsfelder herausbilden, aber auch in der Gesellschaft, in der Fragen von Identität zunehmend anhand von genetischen Analysen verhandelt werden. Today, DNA sequencing is part of the standard repertoire of biological and medical research. Next generation sequencing (NGS), established around the mid-2000s, was the main catalyst for this development. NGS has led to major knowledge gains in the molecular life sciences. However, the new technology provides data that pose new challenges that both science and society still must learn to deal with. A technology-driven dynamic can already be observed in this field, leading to transformation processes in science, where new fields of research are emerging, but also in society, where questions of identity are increasingly being negotiated based on genetic analyses

Aesthetics and/as Public History: Entanglements

Artistic-aesthetic forms of expression and history in the public sphere are interlinked in more or less obvious ways. In historical cultures, a specific approach to these networks of relationships is still dominant, one that – retrospectively – examines existing material representations in search of historical evidence. But the manifold entanglements can be analysed more precisely if, e.g., the focus is shifted to perspectives of the artists involved

Schlachtfelder als touristische Destinationen: zum Konzept des Thanatourismus aus kulturwissenschaftlicher Sicht

Im Jahr 1921 geißelte der österreichische Publizist Karl Kraus den Tourismus zu den Schlachtfeldern des Ersten Weltkriegs als „Reklamefahrten zur Hölle“. Einhundert Jahre später sind die Originalschauplätze der Schlachten des Ersten Weltkriegs immer noch beliebte touristische Orte, an denen an die vielen tausend Toten dieses verheerenden Kriegs erinnert wird. Seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre haben der Begriff des Thanatourismus und die Beschäftigung mit diesem Phänomen eine rasante Entwicklung erfahren. Dies gilt allerdings – bis auf wenige Ausnahmen – nur für die anglophone Tourismusforschung. Am Beispiel des Schlachtfeldtourismus soll dieses im deutschsprachigen Raum noch recht junge und wenig beachtete Konzept kritisch diskutiert und sein Erkenntnispotential für die kulturwissenschaftliche Tourismusforschung ausgelotet werden. In 1921 the Austrian publicist Karl Kraus decried tourism to the battlefields of the First World War as “advertising trips to hell”. One hundred years later, the original sites of the battles of the First World War are still popular tourist sites, commemorating the many thousands of dead during this devastating war. Since the 1990s, the concept of thanatourism and the study of this phenomenon have undergone rapid development. However, this applies – with few exceptions – only to Anglophone tourism research. Using the example of battlefield tourism, this relatively young and little-noticed concept in Germanspeaking countries will be critically discussed and its knowledge potential for cultural tourism research will be explored

Die nationalsozialistischen Thingstätten nach 1945: Zwischen Verfall, Aneignung und Umdeutung

This chapter focuses on the so-called Thingstätten or Thingplätze (amphitheatres) that were built during the Nazi era in the 1930s. About four hundred sites were planned, but in the end, only about fifty were finished. Different from many other Nazi structures, the Thingstätten are nearly forgotten today. This is surprising, since some remained in use after the Second World War and others ‘survived’ as modern ruins. The chapter explores this special and failed form of architecture through three case studies, and focuses on how these structures were dealt with after 1945. Thus, the main objective lies in showing how they were neglected, reused, and reinterpreted, as well as any associated social negotiation processes. The author concludes that Thingstätten are visible-invisible remnants of the Nazi era that were appropriated often inconspicuously and silently

Why archaeologists, historians and geneticists should work together – and how

In recent years, molecular genetics has opened up an entirely new approach to human histo- ry. DNA evidence is now being used not only in studies of early human evolution (molecular anthropology), but is increasingly helping to solve the puzzles of history. This emergent re- search field has become known as »genetic history«. The paper gives an overview on this new field of research. The aim is both to discuss in what ways the ascendant discipline of genetic history is relevant, and to pinpoint both the potenti- als and the pitfalls of the field. At the same time, we would like to raise the profile of the field within the humanities and cultural studies. We hope that the opportunity for communication between representatives of different disciplines will contribute to loosening up the wides- pread monodisciplinary method of working and, in particular, bring together the relevant scientific and cultural streams of research

Historical Culture and Popular Culture

Both historical culture and popular culture play an important role in our understanding of the past, as well as in the ways in which we remember and use that past. In disciplinary terms, however, the two are still largely kept separate. The aim of this issue of PHW is to explore some of the varied links that currently exist between history, public history, and popular culture