This lecture discusses the "crisis of representation" in anthropology and ethnography. It explores how anthropologists have traditionally represented other cultures and the critiques of these representations as being androcentric, eurocentric, or supportive of colonial ideologies. It examines ongoing debates around who has the power to represent whom and the effects of different representations. The lecture argues anthropology must be practiced more reflexively and considers how representation issues relate to gender, ethnicity, and power dynamics.

1. SC2218: Anthropology and the Human Condition Lecture 10: Anthropology, Ethnography and the Crisis of Representation Eric C. Thompson Semester 1, 2011/2012

15. INTERMISSION…

18. Woman the Hunter?

19. Did Women ever Evolve?

20. Ever?

27. Ethno… (a group of people) graphy… (writing about or of) Revisited and Revised…

28. “ These peoples (foragers) , despite their cultural and geographic diversity, have a core of features in common , and this core of features represents the basic human adaptation stripped of the accretions and complications brought about by agriculture, urbanization, advanced technology, and national and class conflict – all of the “advances” of the last few thousand years .” (Lee 2003: 3) Echoes of 19 th Century Social Evolution in Lee’s Dobe Ju/’hoansi

30. “ I no longer believe that studies of contemporary hunter-gatherers are primarily a tool for understanding the evolution of human behavior . Understanding hunter-gatherer ecology, however important, is not enough. One has to both build on it and transcend it by looking at adaptation in a much broader sense, including the internal dynamics of foragers and their articulation with wider political economies .” (Lee 2003: 195) Lee Revised (in response to criticisms)