"Anthropology in Arabic"
Since I started my masters in
Social and Visual Anthropology in Uni of Kent
I decided to do short and engaging videos' series
that I will do regularly, where I will introduce you to
"The World of Anthropology"
That I think is very interesting and contains fascinating sub-worlds
In the beginning, I want to tell you what is Anthropology
and why I decided to make it fully in Arabic.
The word itself: Anthrop / ology means
"Anthrop" means the human
"ology" like the one found in biology and physiology
is the science of something
Simply it is "The Science of the Human"
Anthropology generally in many universities has different sub-disciplines
like Archaeology and Medical Anthropology, etc.
But these are irrelevant to our content here
We will be speaking about "Social and Visual Anthropology"
Social Anthropology is often confused with sociology
However as its name suggests,
Sociology studies Societies
While Anthropology studies Cultures
Also many people think that Anthropology
only studies "primitive" people.
There will be a separate episode about the names Anthropologists call their subjects,
especially those in tribes or seemingly "primitive".
Anyways, it is not only that. It is very relevant to our modern lives.
It helps us understand people's behaviours
not psychologically, but culturally!
Visual Anthropology translates these social anthropological researches
into visuals like Documentary films or Photography stories.
This widens the range of anthropology's audience
because not as many people will read academic papers as those who would like to see the visuals
We can consider the classical version of Anthropology
to have its Godfather be Malinowski
Usually he/they would look like these white explorers we saw in cartoons
Pun: They would usually wear beige and brown
and usually go to exotic places and study unstudied people
The milestone Malinowski did was
that the observational short vists done before are very inefficient to really know the subjects.
Instead, anthropologist should go and attempt to stay longer during his fieldwork and interact closely
He went to Papua New Guinea, and stayed for three years
And he did unprecedented work in anthropology at the time   -1914.
He lived with them, and studied their belief system, and in general their true culture
I would like to recommend a documentary called: "Savage Memory"
It is very interesting, about Malinowski's life
It also shows the notorious part of his life, as a white anthropologist studying the "savages"
But now, not all anthropologist go to exotic places or forests and
study "untouched" people,
Instead, anthropology can be done with modern people in developed cities
what is in stake is a group of people with a certain culture the anthropologist wants to study &understand
Some episodes will be that we are gossiping about some cultures
And other episodes we will speak about "concepts" in Anthropology
For instance, there is a very important anthropologist "Marcel Mauss"
He wrote a book called "The Gift"
It discuss the concept of exchanging gifts
To us, it sounds simple .. 'I get you a gift and you repay it next time'
But it turned out to have a culturally more profound meaning and explaination
When I knew it ..
it felt like "Owww!"
Oh, this "owww" was nice
We were born into a world that has its system this way already
So Anthropology tries to help us understand, since
we didn't participate in what makes the systems to be as such
So anthropology is an attempt to understand how and why it is the way it is
culturally.
And of course some episodes we will discuss "Visual Anthropology"
Joke: "I don't have #da7ee7's budget to eat an apple each eposide, apples are expensive in the UK, water is free"
[El da7ee7 is the most successful Arab Educational program]
"Oh am not envious of El Da7ee7's budget"
Why in Arabic?
Maybe later I can subtitle it,
But I really want it to be in Arabic because
Anthropology is very understudied in the Arab world
and generally in the third world countries
Prof. Joao Pina Cabral, my profesor
and a great anthropologist
He says this is because Anthropology had a negative reputation
during decolonisation period.
So when nations in Asia and Africa were
seeking independence from Western powers, they
also wanted to get rid of Anthropology because
at the time anthropology was "study of the other"
And we the colonized nations were "the other"
who are studied by white men.
So during independence movements, people had sentiments against anthropology.
"Please go and take your anthropology with you"
Ha, it started gaining its good reputation back in the region
Anyways,
Unfortunately, most of the readings and books of Anthropology are written in Western languages
So I wanted to share what I study
and read in foreign languages, with it you in Arabic.
And we together increase the Arabic content of Anthropology.
And we gossip together
In some episodes I will present to you case studies
and experiences of different anthropologists.
This was a quick introductory episode,
I hope you started to be curious about the World of Anthropology
And watch the next episodes;)
And we will try to understand our and others' cultures
Follow me, and I will get you the gems.
