Social Anthropology

In this paper I explore ways in which anthropologists can and have approached life‐histories. I consider some of the theoretical background to this and discuss life‐writing, biography and autobiography. In conclusion, I see the life‐history as grounding anthropological analysis. As a model for future work I introduce the idea of an ‘anthropological silhouette’: less complete than a biography, and partial, but demonstrably based on an individual, and honest about its limitations and incompleteness.

The mountain or shore‐side cabin () represents a common leisure form for a significant proportion of the Norwegian population. Its roots can be traced to the decline of farming society, growing urbanisation and an emphasis on the outdoor life as part of 20th‐century state modernising projects. Throughout this modern history, and through periods of accelerated social change, the cabin has represented an ‘other’ form of domesticity. This paper makes the argument that far from representing an escape from post‐industrial consumer society, the prompts evaluation, comparison or negation of normative domesticity for its occupants. Many priorities such as getting back‐to‐nature and living the simple life are achieved best, paradoxically, through their material manifestation. Routine and rupture, and discourse surrounding farming culture artefacts are central in evoking contrast.

Scholars have emphasised the importance of Africa as a counter‐identification in shaping European identity, and stressed the multiplicity of categories of ‘us’ and ‘other’. My discussion focuses on images of Africa in Iceland during the 19th century, when Iceland was seeking independence from Denmark. I suggest that by repeating clichés of European representations of Africa, Icelanders situated themselves within the space civilisation, culture and progress in contrast with earlier representations of Icelanders as lazy, childlike and ignorant. The paper shows shifting categorisations of ‘us’ while also emphasising the changes that followed growing nationalism and racialisation of diversity in the 19th century.

‘No pizza without migrants.’ This kind of slogan was used in a campaign in Switzerland in which people of migrant background fought for facilitated access to Swiss citizenship. By emphasising their contributions and their ‘cultural’ belonging to Switzerland, the political activists essentialised ‘the second generation’ as well integrated young professionals. Their campaign was countered by right‐wing parties with posters showing Swiss identity cards with photos of Osama bin Laden to demonstrate what kind of people might become Swiss citizens if the laws changed. This article discusses the kind of culturalist discourse used by both, those who struggle against political exclusion and those who promote this exclusion. It takes a historical perspective and shows that culturalist discourses against migrants have been there for a long time, but the content and the arena of contestation change over time.

The claims of the so‐called ‘constructionist’ position in kinship studies are examined with reference to a recent article by Susan McKinnon. McKinnon's analysis is shown to be deeply flawed, primarily because she pays no attention to the phenomenon of focality, now widely established in cognitive science. Instead, she is trapped in unsupportable collectivist models of human kinship. It is argued that these models are part of a misguided critique of the Western European Enlightenment.