CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

For Norwegian anthropologist Fredrik Barth ethnicity is not just based on a group with its culture. Ethnicity is based on its contrast with the Others. Thus Ethnicity is organized and focused on Cultural Differences. For the American anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod Anthropology from its inception was directed towards the study of external Others where every Culture is an Ethnography of the Particular (because Cultures are all Ethnographies of the Particular). The notion of Culture reinforces the distinction between Cultures and clarifies the distinctions between the Self and the Other (Self/Other). The distinction between the Self and the Other is central to the anthropological paradigm. Finally the American anthropologist Sherry Ortner has observed that although there is no link between issues of Subjectivity and issues of Power (which trigger issues of Subordination) we must put aside the thinking that considers that Subjectivity must be neutral (and start to see a link between Subjectivity and Power).