Hauptinhalt

Opening Keynote Lecture by Arjun Appadurai: Traces of the Future

Veranstaltungsdaten

Im Rahmen des Institutskolloquiums "Futures in/of Anthropology" des Instituts für Europäische Ethnologie der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, das in diesem Sommersemester digital stattfindet, wird Arjun Appadurai am 20.04.2021 als Keynote-Speaker einen Vortrag zum Thema "Traces of the Future" halten, zu dem Sie herzlich eingeladen sind.

Abstract

This lecture will look closely at the idea of the "trace" in modern Western assumptions about the archive, the document, and the craft of the anthropologist and the historian. If we re-examine the journey from Marc Bloch to Jacques Derrida, we can identify a buried history in the West, one which sees in many phenomena traces of the future, not of the past. Possibly the first great icon of this sort of trace is the star above the Bethlehem stable where Jesus was born, which is usually seen as one of many signs, symbols or portents of things to come. In fact, it is a trace or mark which marks the future in just the way that Derrida's "trace" is the absent part of the sign's presence. This angle allows us to identify a very different way in which to think about how Europeans have linked archive and anticipation. This rethinking of the trace has the possibility of opening a new perspective on the anthropology of the "not yet" (noch nicht) in Ernst Bloch's sense.

Anmeldung

Weitere Informationen zur Anmeldung finden Sie auf der Website des Institutskolloquiums:

• Institutskolloquium "Futures in/of Anthropology" des Instituts für Europäische Ethnologie der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin