Kültürel form olarak metin: Antropolojide paradigma değişimi

Year 2022, Issue: 44, 20 - 25, 31.12.2022

Mehmet Ali Sevgi

https://doi.org/10.33613/antropolojidergisi.1130910

Abstract

Antropologların, kendi disiplinlerinin tarihsel ve kavramsal çerçevesini eleştirel bir değerlendirme ile ele aldıklarında, disiplinlerini inşa eden kültür kavramlarına şüpheyle yaklaşmaya başladıkları ve etnografik metinleri özünde metinler hakkında metin inşası olarak tartıştıkları gözlemlenmektedir. Özellikle edebiyat kuramından devşirilen yöntemler ve okuma pratikleri ile etnografik metinlerin saha çalışmaları ile desteklenmiş otoriter metinler olma özelliği sorgulanmaya başlanmıştır. Böylece, tıpkı edebiyat kuramcıları gibi antropologlar da kültür eleştirisinde temsilin politik oluşu üzerinde çalışmalar yürütmüşlerdir. Bu çalışma, antropolojide temsilin politik oluşuna dair benzer yaklaşımlar sergileyerek disiplinin kendini yeniden sorgulaması adına kuramsal girişimlerde bulunan Clifford Geertz ve James Clifford’un eserlerinden yola çıkarak antropolojideki bu paradigma değişikliğinin izlerini sürmektedir. Bu bağlamda, bu iki antropoloğun klasik etnografileri yeniden okumaya tabi tutarken disiplinin geleneksel olarak temel aldığı otoriter öz ve naif öteki söylemlerine yaptıkları itirazlar ele alınacaktır.

Keywords

James Clifford, Clifford Geertz, Levi-Strauss, Malinowski, Metinsellik, Etnografi

Text as cultural form: Paradigm change in anthropology

Abstract

It is observed that when anthropologists approach the historical and conceptual framework of their discipline with a critical evaluation, they begin to discuss the concepts of culture that constructs their disciplines with suspicion and re-read ethnographic texts as text constructions about texts in essence. In particular, the methods and reading practices borrowed from literary theory and the feature of ethnographic texts as authoritative texts supported by field studies have begun to be questioned. Thus, just like literary theorists, anthropologists have also worked on the political nature of representation in cultural criticism. This study traces this paradigm shift in anthropology, based on the works of Clifford Geertz and James Clifford, who have made theoretical attempts to re-examine the discipline by displaying similar approaches to the politicalness of representation in anthropology. In this context, the objections of these two anthropologists to the authoritarian self and naive other discourses, on which the discipline is traditionally based, while rereading classical ethnographies will be discussed.

Keywords

James Clifford, Clifford Geertz, Levi-Strauss, Malinowski, textuality, ethnography

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