This event features Edward J. Linenthal, Professor of History at Indiana University
When: November 4, 2013, 7 PM
Where: Jack Morton Auditorium, School of Media and Public Affairs
Edward Linenthal’s residency at The George Washington University is made possible by the Program in Judaic Studies and the generosity of Dr. Munr Kazmir and by the Museum Studies Program, the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences.
• Battle for Ground Zero
Boston’s NPR reported on the political and emotional struggles over what the site of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City should represent.
In a new book, Battle For Ground Zero: Inside the Political Struggle to Rebuild the World Trade Center, Harvard University cultural anthropologist Elizabeth Greenspan documents America’s most fought over public space.
She says that as the memorial was being designed, there was tension between commerce and remembrance: “This is one of the most valuable pieces of land in the world — it held the largest office complex in the country … But then you had all these other people who said this is a now historic piece of land where so many thousands of people were killed.”
The memorial includes One World Trade Center, which will be used as commercial space, and a memorial area with reflecting pools and the names of those who died. While some families are pleased with the design of the memorial plaza, others hoped that there would be artifacts from that day incorporated into the memorial.
“For many families, they felt like there needed to be more that remembered the day itself and the attacks, and not just the twin towers,” Greenspan said.
• On the future of the Occupy Wall Street Movement
Bloomberg BusinessWeek interviewed cultural anthropologist David Graeber on the future of the Occupy Movement. Here is an extract:
Q: Were you disappointed that the Occupy Wall Street movement didn’t accomplish more?
A: I’m personally convinced that if it were not for us, we might well have President Romney. When Romney was planning his campaign, being a Wall Street financier, a 1 Percenter, he thought that was a good thing. That whole 47 percent thing that hurt him so much was something the right wing came up with in response to our 99 percent.
Cultural anthropology is not, overall, an events-driven field of study as are journalism and political science. But if, in recent times, there was to be an event that would inspire cultural anthropologists to apply their research skills and analytical insights, 9/11 is high on the list. Cultural anthropologists excel at looking at the local and seeing the global connections, or vice versa. Cultural anthropologists are about connections — between people, ideas, states, policies, contagion, and more.
What follows is a mini-bibliography, the result of a quick search in AnthropologyPlus through my university library’s electronic resources. It is not comprehensive. It is just a sample. But it offers tantalizing and important insights into what a cultural anthropology perspective has to offer in understanding the 9/11 event. Please note that AnthropologyPlus does not pull books or reports — only journal articles.
Of the over 30 articles listed below, several are focused on New York City. A few examine social responses and reactions elsewhere in North America and in some other countries around the world. Only one article, in this sample, looks at women. Some examine expressive culture (music, art).
Kelly (2002) published the earliest article, in this sample, about 9/11. Then, there is a bulge of papers in 2004. This gap between the event and anthropologists’ ability to collect and analyze data reflects both the positives and the negatives of traditional cultural anthropology. It takes so long (the negative) to produce high quality data (the plus). Continue reading “Cultural anthropology of 9/11”
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