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Im institutionellen Feld der Erziehungshilfe besteht ein großer Bedarf an Fortbildung bezüglich der sozialen und kulturellen Vielfalt von Fürsorge und Erziehung. Am Institut für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie der Freien Universität Berlin wird derzeit ein entsprechendes Fortbildungsangebot für Fachkräfte erarbeitet und erprobt. Der Beitrag analysiert den zugrundeliegenden Bedarf, stellt die Lernziele der Fortbildung vor und skizziert deren Struktur und Inhalte. = In the institutional field of educational assistance, there is a great need for training on the social and cultural diversity of care and education. The Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin is currently developing and testing a corresponding training program for professionals. The article analyses the underlying need, presents the learning objectives of the training and outlines its structure and content.

Using the examples of three recent songs (and the discourses surrounding them) from Germany and the UK – DJ Robin & Schürze’s „Layla“, Frank White and Bass Sultan Hengzt’s „Cancel Culture Nightmare“ and FKA Twigs’s „Don’t Judge Me“ – this chapter investigates how pop musicians comment upon and contribute to discussions of today’s cultural and sociopolitical „cleavages“ with implicit or explicit statements about the role that morality should play in popular entertainment and politics. It argues that contemporary pop culture is characterized by a tension between the habitual anti-moralism of informal life and a critical politicization of the seemingly private and mundane. Situating these matters within a neo-Gramscian „war of position,“ this chapter shows that the often-described opposition between anti-moralists and moralizers is too simplistic. Rather, we find different types of pop-cultural anti-moralism implying different ethical and political positions with radically different consequences: The traditionalist (often hedonistic, sometimes sociological and self-described „realist“) variant opposes critique and interventions based on „universalistic“ morality, ethics or politics, whereas the anti-traditionalist (antiracist, feminist) version detects and scandalizes sedimented moral normativity. Both forms of anti-moralism share traits and have specific ambiguities, as this analysis shows, but they contribute to different hegemonic projects and draw different „frontier“ lines (Laclau). On a conceptual level, this chapter shows that the notion of the popular (in its different German translations as popular and populär) is indispensable because it contains the tensions that come to the fore in conflictual cultural negotiations like these.

2023 wurde das Plastikmädchen Barbie als Film zum meistdiskutierten Popkulturphänomen des Jahres. Doch sie ist nur die Spitze des Eisbergs: In einer Zeit, in der die „alten weißen Männer“ als politisch-moralische Antifigur der Gegenwartskultur fungieren, versprechen Mädchen*-Figuren vielfach eine bessere, gerechtere, jugendlichere Zukunft – oder ist das nur eine Fantasie? Und können Fantasien nicht auch die Welt verändern? Die 15 Beiträge dieses Bandes befassen sich mit Mädchen*- Alltagen, mit ihrer medialen Repräsentation, mit ihrer Geschichte und Theorie. Welche Bedeutung haben die Mädchen*fantasien der Populärkultur, wie werden sie angeeignet und wie werden hegemoniale Bilder herausgefordert? Wie sind Figurierungen des Mädchenseins in gesellschaftliche Konjunkturen verstrickt? Die Beiträge regen zum Nachdenken darüber an, wie sich kulturwissenschaftliche Begriffe, Gegenstandsbestimmungen und Methoden verändern müssen, um Mädchen* im Kontext von Forschungen über populäre Unterhaltung und Vergnügung nach eigenen Maßstäben zu verstehen und zu beschreiben.

Im Zentrum der vorliegenden Arbeit steht die praxeographische Betrachtung von Kreislauf- und Nachhaltigkeitskonzepten im Kontext von Aquaponik. Aquaponik ist ein als nachhaltig und innovativ propagiertes Nahrungsmittelproduktions-System, das Aquakultur (Fischzucht) und Hydroponik (bodenunabhängiger Pflanzenanbau) in einem ‚geschlossenen Kreislauf‘ kombiniert. Dabei werden die Nährstoffe aus den Fischexkrementen genutzt, um Pflanzen zu düngen, während die Pflanzen das Wasser reinigen, bevor es zurück in die Fischbecken gelangt. Die Untersuchung basiert auf einem konzeptionellen Grundverständnis, welches in Anlehnung an Sheila Jasanoffs Konzept der sociotechnical imaginaries und Prämissen der (Post-)Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie, davon ausgeht, dass das Phänomen Aquaponik als ein soziotechnisches Netzwerk interagierender Entitäten zu verstehen ist, in welchem Imaginationen von Zirkularität und zukünftiger Nachhaltigkeit verhandelt werden, sich artikulieren und materialisieren. Der Schwerpunkt meiner Feldforschung liegt auf Praktiken und Prozessen, aus welchen multiple Seinszustände von Aquaponik-Anlagen hervorgehen. Im Sinne einer methodenpluralen Herangehens-weise, nutze ich neben praxeographisch orientierten teilnehmenden Beobachtungen auch informelle Gespräche, semistrukturierte Interviews und Methoden der Bild- und Textanalyse. Die Untersuchung verdeutlicht, dass soziotechnische Imaginationen des Zukünftigen bereits in der Gegenwart wirksam sind, zukünftige technologische Innovationen plausibilisieren und je nach Handlungskontext, aus welchen sie hervorgehen, heterogene Kritik an einer als umweltschädlich wahrgenommenen Agrarwirtschaft formulieren.

Collective land titling often drags on for decades, while private land concessions and holdings do not face the same problem, creating ‘leftovers’ of land available for Indigenous peoples to attempt to collectively title. In two ethnographic case studies in Cambodia and Paraguay, we analyse community‐based Indigenous land titling by focusing on the on‐the‐ground dynamics of property relations, Indigenous livelihood shifts and ecological change. In both countries, large agricultural players implemented a staggering change in local landscapes through deforestation, configuring new realities that in turn feed into local environments and titling processes. Adapting their livelihoods to living in the leftovers, in Cambodia, the Indigenous Bunong shifted from rice to rubber as they navigated the slow titling process. In Paraguay, some Indigenous Guarani shifted from corn to cattle by renting out their collectively titled land. The case studies show that the liberal titling approach to secure Indigenous lands overestimates the ability of title to remove land from capitalist logics such as the push to rent or sell, while some spaces of autonomy are opened. We critique the liberal approaches to formalising title, where Indigenous struggles for their ways of life are funnelled into fighting for collective property.

At a time when rights are increasingly placed on the humanitarian agenda, this book provides a unique ethnographic account of the dynamics of aid to disabled people in a Ugandan refugee camp. By unraveling the complexities of social, material and institutional interdependencies, the author invites us to rethink conventional notions of dependence and vulnerability. Exploring issues of personhood as they relate to the exchange of material goods and care, the book offers a thought-provoking perspective on the seemingly promising shift towards a rights-based approach. A compelling read for anyone seeking to reshape the humanitarian agenda.

Based mainly on multi-temporal fieldwork in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the chapter explores the contingent co-constitution of urban environments in Central Asia by material, economic, social, affective and other facets from the Soviet era until today. Following key transformations of the 1990s, especially the privatization of real-estate markets, the informalisation of urban governance and the demographic changes due to strong rural in-migration, I document how single neighbourhoods and courtyards have lost much of their previous significance as spatial entities where residents used to socialize and be socialized, exchanged mutual support and strongly identified with. In contrast, present-day community-making among long-term city dwellers and urban newcomers in Bishkek, as elsewhere in Central Asia, appears to be less narrowly ‘territorialized’, and is instead inspired by interest-based practices that are spread across a broad spectrum of digital, commercial, or activist spaces.

This contribution aspires to bring into conversation Judith Schlehe’s work on Indonesia with the Anthropology of Central Asia (my field of interest). My starting point is Schlehe’s single encounter with Central Asia, a research trip to Mongolia in 1999/2000 to explore the nexus of (neo-)Shamanism and tourism. I suggest that this brief regional digression created a relevant academic impulse that Schlehe carried over to her ‘home turf’ in Indonesia, particularly in regard to her subsequent work on ‘paranormal practitioners’. From there onwards, I outline how Schlehe’s post-millenial contributions resonate well with anthropological debates about Central Asia. These include the commercialization and politics of spirituality and Islam, as well as the significance of public spectacle for the performance and experiencing of nation-building. In conclusion, I argue that an emphasis on ‘the hybrid’ and ‘the transitive’ could be regarded as the common thread in Schlehe’s conceptual positioning—one that might have even been inspired by exactly those Javanese emic notions that she always so carefully sought to capture throughout her career.

Zakat giving or mutual aid is a sacred practice in Islam. Where government and public safety nets fail, zakat serves as a form of social security in Muslim communities. In Divine Money, Emanuel Schaeublin shows how zakat institutions and direct zakat donations function in contemporary Palestine. Based on his ethnographic fieldwork in the city of Nablus, Schaeublin traces zakat flows as they provide critical support to households living under military rule and security surveillance. In the neighborhoods of Nablus, the Islamic tradition shapes public life. Many enact simple gifts of money of food as an expression of God's generosity and justice. How do such invocations of the divine enable people to negotiate responsibilities and tensions arising from differences in wealth in Palestinian society? What is the role of zakat in confronting political repression and economic instability?

This Element explores multi-faceted linkages between feeding and relationship formation based on ethnographic case studies in Morocco, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Costa Rica. Research demonstrates that there are many culturally valued ways of feeding children, contradicting the idea of a single universally optimal feeding standard. It demonstrates further that in many parts of the world, feeding plays a central role in bonding and relationship formation, something largely overlooked in current developmental theories. Analysis shows that feeding contributes to relationship formation through what we call proximal, transactional, and distal dimensions. This Element argues that feeding practices can lead to qualitatively distinct forms of relationships. It has important theoretical and practical implications, calling for the expansion of attachment theory to include feeding and body-centered caregiving and significant changes to global interventions currently based on 'responsive feeding.' This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Im Beitrag werden die langjährigen Erfahrungen der Autor:innen in der kritischen, antirassistischen Bildungsarbeit an diversen Bildungseinrichtungen in Österreich theoretisch reflektiert, um der Frage nachzugehen, wie Bildung gestaltet sein sollte und welche Aspekte sie berücksichtigen muss, um effektiv gegen rassistische Überzeugungen vorgehen zu können. Ausgegangen wird dabei davon, dass sich Rassismus als komplexe Ideologie verstehen lässt und vielschichtig auf Subjekte wirkt, wonach antirassistische Bildung gleichermaßen vielschichtig gestaltet sein sollte und als Ideologiekritik angelegt sein muss. Diese These wird in fünf Schritten ausgearbeitet und erläutert: Zu Beginn wird beschrieben, weshalb und wie sich Rassismus als Ideologie verstehen lässt. Darauf aufbauend wird die diesbezügliche Spezifizität Österreichs während der Fluchtbewegungen ab 2014 besprochen. Danach wird ausgeführt, inwiefern politische Bildung als Ideologiekritik bezüglich rassistischer Ideologien fungieren kann. Als praktisches Beispiel für ein solches pädagogisches Konzept wird sodann ein von den Autor:innen konzipiertes und durchgeführtes Workshopformat diskutiert, dessen Grenzen schließlich in einem letzten Schritt ausgewiesen werden.

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.

Der Begriff „Volkspoesie“ ist grundlegend von Johann Gottfried Herder geprägt und nachfolgend von den Brüdern Grimm „vielfältig und vielsinnig“ weiterentwickelt worden (Bausinger 1968: 9-27, hier: 18). Jedoch haben diese Ideengeber keineswegs eine durchweg einheitliche Argumentationslinie zur Begründung und Würdigung von „Volkspoesie“ verfolgt. Vielmehr handelt es sich einerseits (bei Herder) um anthropologische, andererseits (bei den Grimms, vor allem bei Jacob Grimm) um ästhetische Argumentationshorizonte. Diese Horizonte sind es, die im Folgenden ausgelotet werden sollen. Das geschieht nicht zuletzt in dem Bemühen, dem Diktum „Volkstumsideologie“, wie es in unserem Fach immer noch anzutreffenden ist, abermals zu widersprechen. In kollegialer Verbundenheit widme ich diesen Beitrag Ingo Schneider, dessen großes Thema zwar das heutige „Erzählen im Alltag“ ist (Schneider 2009 und 2020), bei dem aber ein wissenschaftsgeschichtliches Interesse vorausgesetzt werden darf, nicht zuletzt weil es Aufschlüsse im Hinblick auf anthropologische und ästhetische Aspekte heutigen Erzählens zu geben vermag. Der Text ist zweigeteilt: Zunächst geht es um Herders anthropologische, dann um Grimms ästhetische Begründung der „Volkspoesie“, wobei auch Seitenblicke auf Aristoteles und Platon sowie auf Rousseau, Kant und Schiller vorgenommen werden. Am Ende geht es, wie sollte es bei Grimm anders sein, um Märchen und Sagen.

Der Beitrag untersucht das Märchen der Brüder Grimm "Die Hochzeit der Frau Füchsin" (KHM 38). Die Hypothese lautet: Darin kreuzt sich die Gender-Frage mit der Alters-Frage, und beiderseits handelt es sich um ein Exempel für eine unkonventionelle Sexualmoral.

Pastoralists in Western Mongolia have experienced dramatic changes in recent decades, including the dismantling of the socialist economy, a series of natural disasters, and an emigration of roughly half of the local Qazaq minority to the newly independent state of Qazaqstan. Four aspects illustrate the chances and challenges that people face. First is the emergence of the market as the dominant mode of production and exchange, a thorny way full of uncertainties. Second is the individual household and its adaptation to the new economic system, creating new opportunities as well as precarities, and resulting in rapid social stratification. Thirdly, patterns of pastoral land allocation highlight problems of collective action and institutional fragmentation in the wake of a retreating state apparatus. Finally, social networks of mutual support and cooperation constitute a key component of pastoral livelihood but are under great pressure due to short time horizons and a lack of trust.

In Zeitdiagnosen der letzten zwei Jahrzehnte waren Tendenzen der Entpolitisierung ein analytisches Leitmotiv: Heutige Gesellschaften seien geprägt von der weit verbreiteten Behauptung genereller Alternativlosigkeit, von der Verdrängung konflikthafter Modi der politischen Auseinandersetzung und von der Verschiebung utopischer Energien in individualisierte Fragen von Lebensführung, Ethik und Moral. Dieser Essay zeigt am Beispiel von Reaktionen auf die Corona-Pandemie in New York City im Sommer 2020 auf, inwiefern eine Hochkonjunktur ethisch-moralischer Anrufungen solche Diagnosen bestätigen, legt aber andererseits dar, inwiefern städtische Akteur:innen sich implizit und explizit an der Dichotomie von Ethik/Moral einerseits und „harter“ Politik andererseits abarbeiteten, z. B. durch die Organisierung und Politisierung von mutual aid. In solchen Programmatiken zeichnen sich, so die These, neue ethisch-politische Landschaften ab.

As the story of the hipster has ceased to be a matter of hip knowledge, the politics of hipster derision and hipster hate may well be more relevant for cultural analysis than its object, the hipster him- or herself, who remains an elusive entity, loosely defined by taste, attitude, knowledge or sociological attributes – with shifting contours in different places and at different times. The critique of hipster culture is indicative of the ways in which (popular and sub-) cultural capital was and is being accumulated, recognised, (de)valued and converted. Ridiculing or confronting hipsters tends to have strong anti-elitist overtones: The common thread is that hipsters are believed to “think they’re better than others”, they are wannabe cultural elites and in that sense anti-democratic, anti-common sense, anti-common people. But, crucially, in that logic, their pretensions are easy to demystify for those they look down upon. Using examples from field research and other observations gathered in the US, the UK and Germany in the last 20 years, the chapter argues that the hipster figure’s objectification (its becoming-an-object of discourse and reflection within popular culture) has given rise to specific types of anti-hipster discourse in different circumstances which allows the problematisation of a variety of concerns, corresponding to broader conjunctural shifts, that coalesce in the hipster figure: distinction, privilege, consumerism, conventionalism, depoliticisation, gentrification, but also cosmopolitianism, transnational lifestyles and antitraditionalism. While hipster derision for quite some time was broadly a question of subcultural and/or intellectual, inner-left critique, its political articulations and cultural resonances are much less clear in the present moment.

The introductory chapter lays out a framework for conceptualising the recent wave of anti-elite rhetoric and sentiments in different arenas. It suggests analytical distinctions between a variety of forms of anti-elite articulations – which allows a better understanding of how they interacted and resonated – and also between egalitarian and non-egalitarian forms of anti-elitism. It situates the recent interest in these matters not only in responses to the populist wave of the mid-2010s but also in more general dynamics of societies structured in dominance, discussing the ways in which cultural politics in different fields have been shaped by anti-elitism at different conjunctures, including the spread of extreme conspiracy theories about hidden elites – and it poses the question how different forms of anti-elitism may have contributed to multiple and interconnected crises. Furthermore, particular attention is paid to anti-elitism as an argument in explanations of the populist wave, as well as the role and the epistemological status of diagnostic narratives of different types and the notion of conjunctural analysis and its purchase. Overall, the chapter discusses anti-elitism not only as an ambiguous pattern in cultural politics but also as an object of normative reflection from which academics – who are targeted by anti-elitism, but may hold egalitarian views themselves – should not refrain. In closing, the chapter asks what happened to anti-elite articulations and what their role might be after that specific historical “moment”.

In Oceania, as elsewhere, power relations in knowledge production have been highly debated for many decades. Oceanian anthropologists have developed challenging proposals to decolonise anthropology and academia in Oceania at large. Nevertheless, insights from this region do not figure prominently in recent theoretical discussions about coloniality and decolonisation “about the subaltern” (Grosfoguel 2007, 211). By focusing on the long-lasting Oceanian discourse in a Swiss peer-reviewed journal, this article aims to contribute to the decolonisation of Swiss academia by proposing an anthropology “with and from a subaltern perspective” (Grosfoguel 2007, 211). Drawing on recent online research, and experiences with teaching the anthropology of Oceania, this article familiarises a European readership with Indigenous anthropologists from Oceania, and their struggles with our discipline. It looks at Indigenous scholars’ reflections about and propositions for different ways of knowledge production and Indigenous research methods. The article concludes with suggestions to further the decolonisation process within (Swiss) academia.

What might it mean to strive for well-being and a viable life in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)? What are the temporal rhythms of urban life for government-employed Tibetan women in their mid-twenties? This article engages with these questions by foregrounding seemingly mundane activities related to fitness and sport as they are experienced by Yangkyi and Tselha, two highly educated government workers in their mid-20s. It draws on seven months of ethnographic research, followed up by communication on social media, to examine the everyday routines and concerns of the two women, exploring how “Sunlight Happiness Gym,” a high-end fitness studio catering to the city’s growing middle classes, emerged as significant in their efforts to be well. The article shows how working out created its own temporal rhythms for Yangkyi and Tselha and opened up potentials for self-making that were more difficult to create in other domains of their lives. By demonstrating that, for Yangkyi and Tselha, ideas and practices of well-being, self-care, and fitness get intertwined through going to the gym, I argue that working out plays an important part in their attempts to create joy, meaningful relationships, and in an environment characterized by often overwhelming structural.

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.

Drawing on theories of moral exemplarism and ethnographic research with an atheist movement in South India, this article explores how narratives of idealism and the Telugu concept of ‘ādarśam’ signal a distinct register of moral experience. By foregrounding the role of concrete interpersonal and affective relationships, the article complicates methodological approaches to the ethics of nonreligion that concentrate on forms of moral reasoning based on semiotic or ontological distinctions between religion and nonreligion. Rather than positing idealism as an intrinsic attribute of nonreligion, the article investigates ethnographically how atheist activists draw on different moral registers and ambivalent investments in the making and policing of boundaries between religion and nonreligion for making moral judgments and working out what it means to lead an idealist life.

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.

In the last decades, the pressure on museums, especially on ethnological museums in the global North, has increased considerably. They are criticized for reproducing neo-colonial power relations and knowledge orders through common representational practices. The recent debate on colonial collections and the necessity of restitution has further fueled the discussion about the role and legitimacy of museums. Ethnological museums need to fundamentally rethink their practices. Since 2015, two museums in Uganda (Kampala and Mbarara) and one in Switzerland (Zurich) have begun an unusual collaboration. They are conducting joint research in both countries, pursuing an approach of “reverse” and “reciprocal anthropology”, and creating exhibitions together in dialogue. This article provides insights into the dynamics of the cooperation process between the three museums. It addresses the challenges of collaborating on an equal footing, striven for in a transcontinental project framed by structural inequalities. Is it possible to integrate all points of view, orders of knowledge and interests? Each of the three museums involved is entangled in specific historical, economic, and political contexts that influence and limit their respective scopes of action, interests, and possibilities for assertion. Furthermore, there is always the danger that historically grown, internalized and unconscious relations of dominance come into play. Special attention is paid to the conditions and processes of knowledge creation.