The plural unification of sciences: the epistemological contributions of a perpetually dissatisfied discipline

Abstract The article discusses the contributions of anthropology to the interdisciplinary dialogues on the scientific status of knowledge and on the relationship between the sciences. It attributes to the discipline a privileged position, founded on the distinctive character of ethnography: the development of a scientific discourse on humankind based on a personal experience. The intense involvements of the ethnographers in the research process and in the relations with their interlocutors - as well as the relativizing and cross-cultural disciplinary outlook - question the neutrality that other sciences idealize or can more easily take for granted and challenge the ideals of objectivity. The paper intends to contribute to the epistemological debate and to the understanding of the social role of science. It proposes the notion of objectivation (i.e. the study of the condition of the constitutions of scientific objects) to think the relations among the sciences and to propose a unifying perspective, albeit open, plural and contingent

Identitarian Politics in the "Quilombo" Frechal: Live Histories in a Brazilian Community of Slave Descendants

Based on an extended fieldwork, the paper discusses the construction of identity in a Brazilian quilombo - a term originally used by the Portuguese authorities to juridically define the flights of the Brazilian slaves. Appealing to a Constitutional Article granting the property of the land to the descendant of the fugitive slaves, the people of Frechal (Maranhão) obtained - after complex events overshadowed by tension and violence - the expropriation of the land bought by an entrepreneur of São Paulo with the precise intent to forcibly expel the local population. Founding their right on an idea of cultural authenticity and mobilizing a symbolism capable of legitimating their claims and of giving them a legal weight, they transformed themselves from object of slavery, discrimination and racism to ethno-political subjects. Proceeding from the analysis of this paradigmatic case, the article shows how the term quilombo can be "re-semanticized" in order to be applicable to the contemporary situations of the Afro-Brazilian population. The actuality of the word, transferred from its original juridical meaning of colonial matrix, is founded on the idea that the quilombos are not isolated survivals of the past to honor in the memory of the heroes that fought against slavery. Rather they represent true projects of a new political order, nuclei of the contemporary resistance founded on the collective property of the land. As such the quilombos are considered as real counterpoints to the neoliberal expansion in the rural areas

Biopolitiche di eccezione e pratiche di resistenza nelle favelas di Rio de Janeiro

The paper discusses the biopolitical strategies of marginalization founded on the proclamation of the state of exception and on the exercise of violence as an instrument of power. It invites to consider Rio de Janeiro favelas as paradigmatic cases to probe into the practices of resistance to the policies of inclusive exclusion managed by State governmentality and by criminal normation. It considers the favelas as laboratories of new forms of subjectivity, which rethink the relations among the individual, the State and the Nation and promote new models of citizenship based on the participation to redesign the economical, political and social system.Il paper discute le biopolitiche di marginalizzazione fondate sulla proclamazione dello stato di eccezione e sull’uso della violenza come strumento di potere. Invita a considerare le favelas come luoghi paradigmatici per riflettere sulle pratiche di resistenza alle politiche di inclusione escludente gestite dalla governamentalità statale e dalla normazione criminale. Considera le favela come laboratori di nuove forme di soggettività che ripensano i fondamenti delle relazioni fra individui, Stato e Nazione e promuovono profili di cittadinanza basati sulla richiesta di partecipazione a ridisegnare il sistema economico, politico e sociale

ETNOGRAFIA E TRABALHO DE CAMPO: autor, autoridade e autorização de discursos

Só recentemente a escritura apareceu central na práxis antropológica. O trabalho do etnógrafo fez-se sinônimo de inscrever os diversos conteúdos dos discursos orais e dos materiais escritos nos códigos científicos do texto final e nas varias formas de estratégias textuais que dão forma à experiência de pesquisa e a legitimam. ublinhando a natureza construída e artificial do objeto antropológico, este artigo mostra como o etnógrafo, embora funda seu trabalho sobre perspectivas dialógicas e polifônicas, não pode renunciar à própria autoridade, que inexoravelmente se manifesta na escritura e lhe funda a função de autor. Palavras-chave: Etnografia. Trabalho de campo. Escritura. Antropologia interpretativa e dialógica. Círculo hermenêutico.ABSTRACTOnly recently the process of writing has become central to the anthropological praxis. Fieldwork has become synonymous of inscribing the different contents of the oral discourses and of the written materials in the scientific codes of the final text and in the various forms of the textual strategies that shape and legitimate the fieldworkexperience. Stressing the artificial and fictitious nature of the anthropological object, this article shows how the ethnographer, although basing the work on dialogical and polyphonic approaches, cannot renounce to her or his authority which inexorably manifests itself in writing and grounds her or his function of author. Keywords: Ethnography. Fieldwork. Writing.Dialogic and interpretative approaches. Hermeneutical circle

Antropologia pela Educação. Notas por uma descolonização do pensamento

O artigo analisa comparativamente os mecanismos do pensamento colonial e as suas resistências nas políticas públicas contemporâneas através das fragmentarias ideologias e práticas multiculturalistas. Mostra como agindo seletivamente sobre os mecanismos indenitários, promovem ações especiais e emergenciais que superam o Direito e fagocitam as contradições políticas e econômicas estruturais. Discute a centralidade dos grupos marginais para ultrapassar as epistemes dicotômicas de matriz colonial (identidade/alteridade, homogeneidade/diferença, hegemonia/subalternidade, centro/periferia, desenvolvimento/subdesenvolvimento). Convida a individuar como os povos colonizados e escravizados, migrantes e refugiados, prófugos e clandestinos, indígenas e indigentes possam articular a superação das dramáticas desigualdades socioeconômicas e da aquisição formal de direitos já definidos com a redefinição e o reconhecimento de novos direitos

SOU UM MINEIRO, TENHO TENDA MINEIRA E VIVO CUIDANDO DA RELIGIÃO: fusões de tradições nas palavras de um mineiro maranhense e dos seus guias

O texto solicita a reflexão sobre as complexasrelações entre modernidade e tradiçãoatravés das palavras de um mineiromaranhense. As narrações, recolhidas peloautor no decorrer das prolongadas conversaçõesem Guimarães durante o ano1996, foram inscritas por meio de um minuciosotrabalho de edição. Reinterpretandoradicalmente a colocação malinowskianada etnografia do ponto de vista do nativo,o artigo exibe a função do autor na autorizaçãoseletiva dos discursos e na fundaçãoda autoridade etnográfica. As narraçõesdo mineiro sugerem como as subjetividadeslocais, marcadas por tradiçõesmúltiplas, articulam, em modo dinâmico,pertenças multisituadas e identificaçõesmultiformes. Convidam a despedaçar asdicotomias dos discursos modernistas(modernidade-tradição, centro-periferia,global-local) em uma multiplicidade de articulaçõescomplexas, em configuraçõesnegociais produzidas pela fusão de modernidadee tradição, do global e local

Identitarian Politics in the "Quilombo" Frechal: Live Histories in a Brazilian Community of Slave Descendants

Based on an extended fieldwork, the paper discusses the construction of identity in a Brazilian quilombo - a term originally used by the Portuguese authorities to juridically define the flights of the Brazilian slaves. Appealing to a Constitutional Article granting the property of the land to the descendant of the fugitive slaves, the people of Frechal (Maranh&atilde;o) obtained - after complex events overshadowed by tension and violence - the expropriation of the land bought by an entrepreneur of S&atilde;o Paulo with the precise intent to forcibly expel the local population. Founding their right on an idea of cultural authenticity and mobilizing a symbolism capable of legitimating their claims and of giving them a legal weight, they transformed themselves from object of slavery, discrimination and racism to ethno-political subjects. Proceeding from the analysis of this paradigmatic case, the article shows how the term quilombo can be "re-semanticized" in order to be applicable to the contemporary situations of the Afro-Brazilian population. The actuality of the word, transferred from its original juridical meaning of colonial matrix, is founded on the idea that the quilombos are not isolated survivals of the past to honor in the memory of the heroes that fought against slavery. Rather they represent true projects of a new political order, nuclei of the contemporary resistance founded on the collective property of the land. As such the quilombos are considered as real counterpoints to the neoliberal expansion in the rural areas.</p

The contributions of Chinese anthropology: A conversation between Roberto Malighetti and Yang Shengmin

This article is the product of a long-term relationship between Prof. Yang Shengmin (Minzu University of China) and Prof. Roberto Malighetti (University of Milano-Bicocca). It is the outcome of a scientific collaboration that started in 2012 in Beijing, continued with the conference Anthropologies From in China. The First Italian Conference (University of Milano-Bicocca, 13.12. 2013), and was consolidated by the didactic activities at the Minzu University of China. It took the present form in the course of a conversation in the offices of the Collaborative Innovation Center for Ethnic Minority Development (Minzu University, Beijing) on the 6th of June 2016. Transcribed and then revised by both authors, the text considers the importance of Chinese anthropology and its contribution to the international dialogue. It probes the possibilities open to Chinese anthropology to offer an original articulation of its tradition with the Western influences that accompanied, from the very beginning, the development of anthropology in China. The Chinese innovative proposals are synthetized under three approaches: the historical, the Marxist, the applied, and the study of minorities.Questo articolo è il prodotto di una relazione a lungo termine tra il Prof. Yang Shengmin (Minzu University of China) e il Prof. Roberto Malighetti (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca). È il risultato di una collaborazione scientifica iniziata nel 2012 a Pechino, proseguita con il congresso Antropologie dalla Cina. Primo convegno italiano (Università di Milano-Bicocca, 13.12. 2013), e consolidatasi con le attività didattiche alla Minzu University of China. Il testo ha assunto la sua attuale forma nel corso di una conversazione che ha avuto luogo nello studio del Prof. Yang presso il Collaborative Innovation Center for Ethnic Minority Development (Minzu University, Beijing) il 6 giugno 2016. Trascritto e rivisto da entrambi gli autori, il paper considera l'importanza dell'antropologia cinese e il suo contributo al dialogo internazionale. Approfondisce le possibilità aperte agli studiosi cinesi per offrire una articolazione originale della loro tradizione disciplinare con le influenze occidentali che hanno accompagnato, fin dall'inizio, lo sviluppo dell’antropologia e dell’etnologia in Cina. Le proposte cinesi sono sintetizzate in tre approcci: storico, marxista, applicativo, e focalizzato allo studio delle minoranze