Studia Etnologiczne i Antropologiczne

Soba Expedition: Preliminary Fieldwork Report (2022–2023)

Mariusz Drzewiecki — 2023-05-25

The program of fieldwork in 2022-2023 was developed to meet the largest group of residents, in this case, these were school-age children as well as the persons who are considered to be holding the vastest knowledge about the past and cultural traditions – the oldest women. Moreover, a field school for students and graduates from Sudanese universities and a workshop for experienced researchers were organised to discuss various methods of archaeological research, data creation, and processing as well as to present the results of the most recent research in Soba.

Publishing activity of the German minority in the Silesian Voivodship as an example of its continuity

Agnieszka Gołda — 2023-06-29

This article presents the effects of the editorial activity of organisations representing the German minority in the Silesian Voivodeship – the German Community “Reconciliation and Future”, the Social-Cultural Association of Germans of Silesian Voivodeship and the Upper Silesian Eichendorff Culture and Meeting Centre. Since the
1990s, they have been active in publishing, resulting in magazines, publishing series and, less frequently, books. The aim of this type of output – as the content analysis has shown – is to maintain knowledge of the achievements of minority representatives, their contribution to the development of the region (literature, science, art) and to indicate current needs and aspirations. All publication undertakings characterised in the text allow the ethnos to persist in Silesia and to build its identity.

Heritage as a process of cultural and social negotiation based on the example of Oran in Algeria

Anna Barska — 2023-03-07

The article refers to the difficult and complex history of the colonial and postcolonial times of Oran, a city in western Algeria, located on the Mediterranean Sea. A spatial and temporal perspective captures the nature of heritage creation and its role in reading the past, grappling with the present and imagining the future. The spatial and temporal inseparability, as well as the socio-cultural link between past and present, is clearly evident in the case of Oran.

“It’s happening!” – memes as vehicle for online extremism based on an example of narratives from 4chan’s /pol/ (politically incorrect) board in the wake of Christchurch terrorist attack

Patryk Wojciechowski — 2023-06-29

Online spaces, discussion boards, social media or open forums provide currently active generations of netizens with places to openly discuss ways in which they perceive the world, from their views on entertainment to political sympathies. Memes play an important role in that process as symbolic representations of emotions, humour and supported or opposed values. However, they may also present often inappropriate content in accessible way, hidden under the guise of irony or innocent fun. This article
presents a discourse analysis conducted on a sample of 40 discussion threads posted on 4chan’s /pol/ board after the Christchurch terrorist attack. It aims to look into how through the use of memes and ironic posting such acts might be used to desensitize users to violence and extremist ideologies, while briefly covering core characteristics of memes and describing the notion of chan culture. It also touches on the matter whether such discourses, grounded in board users’ linguistic practices and the socio-cultural environment of /pol/, could be (re)producing (symbolic) violence.

Fanfiction, coping mechanisms, and shifting the realities

Kaja Rokicka — 2023-06-22

The development and popularization of social media have increased social anomie, as exemplified by dissemination of fake news, stereotypes, hate, ostracism, social isolation, and ubiquitous fear of missing out. As a result, members of society are more exposed to witnessing and reading of tragedies than previously. The youth of today try to find some methods to “drown out” the reality, even if the methods they use were to be effective only temporarily. That is how, in some cases, people become addicted to and dependent on any form of mass media: social media and fiction (such as video games, books, TV shows, movies or cartoons, etc.). The present article attempts to answer the question of why the young people seek closure aided by fiction, and to provide examples to illustrate it.

Go woke, go broke? On black elves, anthropological perspective, and critical approach to “culture wars”

Tomasz Raczkowski — 2023-06-27

The text reflects on the issues of wokeness and culture wars in regard to mainstream cinema and its reception. Building on the author’s own ethnographical fieldwork within film industry, it addresses the question of desired anthropological approach to the discourse about representation in popular culture. The case of backlash against certain elements of popular fantasy live action series The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power and The Witcher is used by the author to argue for intersectional analysis rooted in economic perspective that exceeds identity-oriented, binary discursive setup, in search of more nuanced social knowledge, which is something that should constitute anthropological presence in public debate.