INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2006

“ANTHROPOLOGY IN BANGLADESH:

ENCOMPASSING AND ENCOMPASSED”

December 2006 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 

 

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 21 July 2006.
 

Conference Sessions and Themes

 

Session – I: Lives and Living: Applying Anthropological Perspectives

The Department of Anthropology at the University of Dhaka believes that theoretical learning in the classroom is not adequate which is to be complimented by gaining firsthand experience through learning by doing. Therefore, the Department is persistently functioning to establish a research infrastructure in Bangladesh for an international community of scholars to facilitate the sharing of experience and information in anthropological research. Knowledge generated through anthropological enterprise needs to be integrated with the ongoing development processes as well as to be grounded in to pursue the Department's ultimate vision of evolving a new mode of behavior and relationship based on equity and respect by transcending all of our narrow confinements and dogmatism. This session theme would approach the problem of applying the anthropological perspectives to reiterate our task and priorities to 'think not merely of the world but on behalf of the world of which we are a very special part, and to which, therefore, we have enormous responsibilities'.

                                                          

Session – II: Indigenization of Modernity and Local – Global Continuum

Concepts like identity, ethnification, globalization, deterritorialization, modernity, transnationalism and so forth have gained obsessive acceptance in much of recent academic and development literature. But in most instances, these ideas remain enigmatic, mean different things to different people and, have been challenged for being limited in their theoretical underpinning. How do the global processes affect the local life-worlds? Mediated experience of the world at the local level significantly shape-up the making and the continuation of lives and livelihoods. Multiplicity of interests, pragmatics of purposes and power structures intervene the ongoing processes of negotiation between cultural traditions and transforming them for redefinition. The conference theme would focus on how people of different background relate to new streams of globally distributed cultural traditions through developing resistance and/or appropriation.

 

Session – III: Rethinking Gender, Empowerment and Development

Issues like gender discrimination, empowering the marginalized segments and developing the disadvantaged have conceived considerable attention and thus being discussed in national and international forum as well as policies and strategies have been adopted to ameliorate the condition of the underprivileged. Encountering the prevailing situation of today, we felt the need to reconsider the ongoing approaches to gender disparities. The conference session is intended to assess the present agendas concerning gender relations, sources of disempowerment, empowerment and development.

 

Session – IV: Anthropologists in Small–Scale and Traditional Societies

The inequality of the distribution of material and other resources between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples demonstrates that the indigenous people continue to be the most impoverished, marginalized and excluded sector among the poor. Their distinct cultural identity is threatened with extinction encountering global unifying processes while some of them tend to create defense as they attempt to re-embrace their traditional norms, values and practices by seeking refuse in isolated areas and forming enclaves as a counter to the conditions of the globalizing world. The interplay of micro level local processes (stigmatization, stereotyping etc.) and macro-level (regional, national and international) processes of different kinds (political values, education, market expansion, competition and cooperation among ethnic groups, migration etc.) would be analyzed to understand the asymmetric inter-ethnic relationships. The conference session would explore the processes of making boundaries that delimit indigenous interaction and communication with wider social networks as well as address the issues of indigenous development within multiethnic situation. 

 

Session – V: Assessing Anthropology: Concerns for Disciplinary Continuity 

In the recent years, the decline of positivism coupled with the emergence of postmodernism and interpretive critiques have challenged the theoretical and methodological underpinning of anthropological knowledge tradition. Rejection of absolutism has paved the way for understanding the separation of natural laws and constructed meaning, both of which condition our lives and livings. We ought to recognize that meanings are often causal, and at the same time, causes are also meaningful and they cannot be separated radically. Anthropologists, thus, now rarely feel the necessity to impose an idea on an external reality. This changing landscape has produced intellectual crisis in terms of theoretical and methodological contexualization, which is expected to be addressed in this session.

 

 

 

 

Guidelines for Abstract Submission  

  • Please limit your abstract within 150 words, in Times New Roman and Font Size 12.

  • The abstract must be submitted to the Conference Secretariat by July 21, 2006.

  •  The confirmation of acceptance by the Editorial Committee will be communicated to the presenting Author by August 10, 2006.

  • If no answer is received by September 10, 2006, please contact the Conference Secretariat.

Abstracts and papers should be marked “INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2006” and can be sent to the following address:

 

E-mail: Hasan.Shafie@sosantr.uib.no

Mailing Address: Postal delivery to the Conference Secretariat (It should be in a Floppy Diskette / CD in MS Word, along with a hard copy).

 

Department of Anthropology

Arts Building (2nd Floor)

The University of Dhaka

Dhaka - 1000, Bangladesh.

Phone: (+88-02) 9661900 - 73/ Extn: 4530.

Fax: (+88-02) 8615583