Genealogy - 8 Nov 2007

Panel
Dr Tom Ernst, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics Programs, ANU
Dr Ian Keen, School of Archeaology and Anthropology, ANU
Dr John Burton, RMAP, ANU
Moderator
Dr James Weiner, RMAP, ANU
Debate: Methodology and Politics of Genealogy: What is the Fate of Anthropology’s Signature Technique in the 21st Century?
Thursday 8 November 2007, 4.30-6.30pm, Coombs Extension Theatre, ANU.

Anthropologists, conducting research among communities engaged in large-scale resource development projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea, realise that genealogy, once the definitive field technique, has been wholly appropriated by indigenous hosts, as they make claims on resource rents and landowner status. Anthropologists’ data now must be ranged against that of our hosts whose data is often independently gathered and driven by prospect of significant economic and social advantage. Early genealogies have become critical charter documents for some landowning groups to be contested by those disputing such statuses. Such documents have become an integral part of ‘local’ knowledge and its continuing production rather than an exogenous corroboration of such knowledge. How does anthropology as a discipline continue to theorise the place of genealogy in its technique and subject matter in the face of such developments?

The panel will discuss the current status of genealogy as a tool of social science research and evolving ethnomethodology of our hosts, and to comment on the relationship of these two phenomena for our future analysis of contemporary Australian-Pacific indigenous societies.

The Argument will be followed by the launching of the most recent in the Asia-Pacific Environment Monograph Series: Customary Land Tenure and Registration in Australia and Papua New Guinea: Anthropological Perspectives edited by James Weiner and Katie Glaskin. Refreshments will be served.

Panel Biographical Information.