MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Event

Jul 27, 2023
Concepts of Time in the Anthropology of Knowledge

In this workshop, we will explore how recent anthropologists are experimenting with reintroducing historical time and temporality into their accounts of knowledge and culture. For the sake of demonstration, the workshop will focus on the concept of “survival” and its capacity to draw new links between past and present. First introduced by E. B. Tylor in the nineteenth century, the concept has been largely abandoned in anthropology because of its links with racist evolutionary models of human development. However, it has endured in the history of art and the history of science, though its connection to Tylor is often unremarked. Recent anthropological interest in the “heterogeneous” (Laura Bear) times of the contemporary, in which “the present is woven with multiple pasts” (Georges Didi-Huberman) suggests that the concept of survival may be in need of a revival. Crucial to such a project will be delinking “survival” from an evolutionary, Eurocentric narrative of human progress to focus on what Didi-Huberman has called the displacement of survivals. 

  • Discussion 1: Survival in the work of E. B. Tylor
  • Discussion 2: Survival in the history of art and science
  • Activity: Network map of a survival: experimenting with non-linear historicity of the present
  • Discussion 3: Anthropology of contemporary times 

 

Readings for discussion:

  • Edward B. Tylor. Primitive Culture : Researches into the Development of Mythology Philosophy Religion Art and Custom, edited by  (J. Murray: London, 1871): 1-144 (Ch. 1-Ch. 4).  – Some of this is skimmable. Use your judgement.
  • Georges Didi-Huberman, “The surviving image: Aby Warburg and Tylorian Anthropology.” Oxford Art Journal 25.1 (2002): 59-70.
  • Georges Canguilhem, "What is a scientific ideology?" in Ideology and Rationality in the History of the Life Sciences. Trans. Arthur Goldhammer (1988).
  • Laura Bear, “Time as Technique,“ Annual Review of Anthropology 45 (2016): 487-502.
  • Laura Bear. “For Labour: Ajeet’s Accident and the Ethics of Technological Fixes in Time,” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2014): 71–88.

Recommended to see also:

  • Ludwik Fleck, Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact ([1935] 1979).
  • Paul Rabinow, Ch. “The Anthropological Contemporary,” in: French DNA (1999).
  • Lyle Fearnley, Ch. "Pathogenic Reservoirs," in: Virulent Zones (2020).
Organizer(s)
Address
MPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Room
Room 265
Contact and Registration

This event is open to all at the Institute. A limited number of places is available.

For further information and registration, please contact: IMPRS Office (imprs-office@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de).

About This Series

The Methods Intensive Master Class @ MPIWG is organized as part of the International Max Planck Research School “Knowledge and Its Resources.” The Master Class series offers a forum where participants from a spectrum of disciplines can critically compare, confront, and combine their specific methodological skills and training in scientific, practical, or humanistic analysis. It serves as a creative platform to explore agendas, discuss limits, and expand the cross-disciplinary boundaries of the history of science. 

For more information, please visit https://imprs.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/ or contact imprs-office@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Go to Methods Intensive Master Class 2023 Report
2023_MasterClass_Fearnley-Lyle.pdf
2023-07-27T09:00:00SAVE IN I-CAL 2023-07-27 09:00:00 2023-07-27 14:00:00 Concepts of Time in the Anthropology of Knowledge In this workshop, we will explore how recent anthropologists are experimenting with reintroducing historical time and temporality into their accounts of knowledge and culture. For the sake of demonstration, the workshop will focus on the concept of “survival” and its capacity to draw new links between past and present. First introduced by E. B. Tylor in the nineteenth century, the concept has been largely abandoned in anthropology because of its links with racist evolutionary models of human development. However, it has endured in the history of art and the history of science, though its connection to Tylor is often unremarked. Recent anthropological interest in the “heterogeneous” (Laura Bear) times of the contemporary, in which “the present is woven with multiple pasts” (Georges Didi-Huberman) suggests that the concept of survival may be in need of a revival. Crucial to such a project will be delinking “survival” from an evolutionary, Eurocentric narrative of human progress to focus on what Didi-Huberman has called the displacement of survivals.  Discussion 1: Survival in the work of E. B. Tylor Discussion 2: Survival in the history of art and science Activity: Network map of a survival: experimenting with non-linear historicity of the present Discussion 3: Anthropology of contemporary times    Readings for discussion: Edward B. Tylor. Primitive Culture : Researches into the Development of Mythology Philosophy Religion Art and Custom, edited by  (J. Murray: London, 1871): 1-144 (Ch. 1-Ch. 4).  – Some of this is skimmable. Use your judgement. Georges Didi-Huberman, “The surviving image: Aby Warburg and Tylorian Anthropology.” Oxford Art Journal 25.1 (2002): 59-70. Georges Canguilhem, "What is a scientific ideology?" in Ideology and Rationality in the History of the Life Sciences. Trans. Arthur Goldhammer (1988). Laura Bear, “Time as Technique,“ Annual Review of Anthropology 45 (2016): 487-502. Laura Bear. “For Labour: Ajeet’s Accident and the Ethics of Technological Fixes in Time,” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2014): 71–88. Recommended to see also: Ludwik Fleck, Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact ([1935] 1979). Paul Rabinow, Ch. “The Anthropological Contemporary,” in: French DNA (1999). Lyle Fearnley, Ch. "Pathogenic Reservoirs," in: Virulent Zones (2020). MPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany Room 265 Lisa Onaga Lisa Onaga Europe/Berlin public