We are happy to announce and share the program of the conference, Exploring the Ethnographic Archive: Early Ethnographers in the Long Nineteenth Century.

The two day event will take place online, December 5th and 6th, 2024, at the following link: https://cnrs.zoom.us/j/94484479007?pwd=cTf7ZPWGp9nBpOA7g4gt4okgPioq4z.1

The Conference is part of the Research Project Early Ethnographers in the Long Nineteenth Century (2024-2026), coordinated by:

  • Han F. Vermeulen (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany)
  • Fabiana Dimpflmeier (Gabriele d’Annunzio University of Chieti – Pescara, Italy)
  • Maria Beatrice Di Brizio (Centro di Ricerca Mobilità Diversità Inclusione sociale, MODI – University of Bologna, Italy).

The full conference program, with titles and abstracts, is available in the PDF inserted below, and also at Flipbook, here. It is also online at BEROSE: 

https://www.berose.fr/article3786.html?lang=en

The event features scholars from the international community of the histories of anthropologies presenting critical cases from the ethnographic archive dating back to the Long Nineteenth Century and bringing in perspectives on early ethnographers from European and extra-European traditions. Among its guiding questions, pursued in diverse national and disciplinary contexts, are the following:

  • What characterized ethnography in various intellectual traditions and over time?
  • How was ethnography related to other fields of inquiry, including history, archaeology, geography, natural history, anthropology, law studies, statistics, and folklore studies?
  • Which intellectual traditions contributed to the development of ethnographic knowledge in various national or transnational contexts?
  • When was ethnography conceptualized as a separate field of inquiry?
  • To what extent were ethnographic accounts interlaced with ars apodemica, travel reports, and other literary genres?
  • How did ethnographers conceptualize data collection and what were their research methods?
  • Was fieldwork considered a defining criterion of ethnography in various national traditions?
  • Was ethnographic research prepared with the help of training, instructions, or questionnaires?
  • How was ethnographic research funded? Possibilities include funding by individuals, learned societies, academies of sciences, museums, other institutions.

The project is supported by the History of Anthropology Review (HAR), EASA’s History of Anthropology Network (HOAN), and BEROSE International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology. BEROSE is hosting the conference.

Authors
John Tresch: contributions / website / treschj@gmail.com / Warburg Institute, University of London