CFP — The Problem of Human Knowledge
CFP: The problem of human knowledge – what a person employs to interpret
and act on the world – has been in the centre of scholarly attention for a
long time. Knowledge is shaped by culture and distributed in population in
certain ways; anthropological research has been directed to the
distribution of knowledge – its presence or absence in particular persons –
and the social processes influencing these distributions. Attention has
been paid in particular to so-called folk knowledge consisting of beliefs
and socially accepted rules corresponding to various spheres of life:
social relations, natural environment, reasoning and emotions, economic
relations, oral tradition, etc. These beliefs and rules are shared and
adapted to the particular local settings. Theoretical debates focused on
the models of natural and cultural environment in particular social and
cultural conditions, and the impact that those models have on human
behaviour.
The aim of this conference is to contribute to this focus by bringing
together scholars doing research in different cultural settings. A
comparative perspective on human knowledge allows us to unravel a number of
aspects of the cultural worlds which people construct.
Empirical research can demonstrate how established thoughts,
representations, and social relations to a considerable extent configure
and filter individual human experience of the world around us and thereby
generate culturally diverse worldviews which might include feelings and
attitudes as well as information, embodied skills, verbal taxonomies and
concepts: all the ways of understanding that humans use to make up a
reality.
We invite interested scholars and students to submit proposals for papers
which will explore:
* Folk knowledge and expert knowledge
* Material culture: material objects and their cultural meanings
* Religious beliefs and rituals
* Concepts of ethnicity and race
* Social learning: acquisition of knowledge by children and adults
* Children and their concepts
* Verbal concepts and models
* Taxonomy of concepts
* Representations of morality
* Gender relationships and representations
* Representations of economic relations and processes
* Visual representations: construction of meanings
Key lectures:
Prof. Anthony Good
Anthony Good is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the School of Social & Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Great Britain.
The lecture: Folk Knowledge and the Law
Prof. John Eade
John Eade is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Roehampton and former Executive Director of CRONEM (Centre for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism) which links Roehampton and the University of Surrey. He is also Visiting Professor at the Migration Research Unit, the University College London, Great Britain.
The lecture: Contested Knowledges: The Politics of Pilgrimage in a Changing Europe Dr. William (Lee) W. McCorkle William McCorkle is Director of
Experimental Research at the LEVYNA (Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion and Ritual). He is Associate Professor and Research Specialist at the Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University, Czech Republic.
The lecture: From Compulsion to Script: The Evolution of Ritual and the Rise of Religions
Submission details:
The language of the conference will be English only. The papers should last no more than 20 minutes. Abstracts (up to 350-words in Word doc.), with contact details and affiliation, should be sent to the conference e-mail
address (uet.conference@savba.sk) by 31st January 2013. You will be informed about acceptance or non-acceptance of your proposal by 15th February 2013.
Conference participation fee:
* scholars who will present their papers: EURO 50;
* PhD students who will present their papers: EURO 25;
* participants who will not present papers: free.
The participation fee includes all conference proceedings and daytime refreshments.
Accommodation is not included in the conference fee.
