Alte Universität Rheinsprung 9
Veranstalter:
Katrien Pype
4th JJ Bachofen Lecture: Basic Questions of Anthropology
This year’s Bachofen lecture considers anthropological approaches to the relationship between human beings and the material world, especially the worlds humans create. Around the globe we are witnessing unprecedented forms of “making”, of people inventing, recycling and repairing, with or without highly advanced technological apparatuses. I am interested in the engagements between society and materiality in terms of belonging, representation and communication, but also want to pay attention to the moral panics that undergird collective and individual choices when confronted with man-made machines that become too smart, and at times, that appear beyond the control of their creators and/or users. The presentation will situate the “homo faber” of electronic modernity, or man who "makes", fabricates, in a world governed by high-tech devices, within a longue durée of scholarship on the socio-cultural contours of creativity and knowledge, and on the ever-changing configurations of nature and culture.
Katrien Pype is a research professor at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa at KU Leuven University and an honorary research fellow at the Department of African Studies & Anthropology at the University of Birmingham. Katrien Pype's main research interests include popular culture, media and technology in urban DR Congo. She co-founded the CongoResearchNetwork (CRN) and currently runs a comparative research project on technology and the city in DR Congo and Kenya. Among many other publications, she authored The Making of the Pentecostal Melodrama. Religion, Media, and Gender in Kinshasa (2012) and co-edited Ageing in Africa. Spaces and Practices of Care (2016).
The lecture will be followed by an apéro. Spread the word – we look forward to seeing you there!
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