Paper short abstract:

During the Second World War Otto Reche offered his services as an expert in the racial question in "settlement and resettlement of the former Polish East". Furthermore he tried to use the situation for his own research: he instructed to scrutinise Jews and other people who were sentenced to die.

Paper long abstract:

During the First World War, social anthropologists, physical anthropologists, linguists and musicologists in Germany and Austria took advantage of an unique situation: they had the opportunity to study and measure people of foreign countries without having to travel long distances. On their expeditions overseas most of the social and physical anthropologists behaved in a manner as if they were superior to the inhabitants. Now, in the prisoners-of-war camps the balance of power was clearly defined and without ambiguity. In the Third Reich scientists in both countries examined not only people in prisoner-of-war camps, but also people in occupied areas or of their own state who were persecuted.

The paper will focus on Otto Reche, director of the institute of ethnology and racial studies in Leipzig from 1927 until 1945, for whom race or racial affiliation was the base of all his explanations and his ethnological theories. He was one of the anthropologists who studied prisoners of war during the First World War. Later on he concentrated on the Slavs in particular - mainly for political reasons. When the Second World War began he regreted that he could not fight as a soldier - he celebrated his 60th birthday in 1939. He therefore offered his services as an expert in the racial question in "settlement and resettlement of the former Polish East". Furthermore Reche tried to use the situation for his own research: he instructed students and former students to scrutinise Jews and other people who were sentenced to die.

Paper short abstract:

My presentation will focus on some dilemmas that the anthropologist faces when studying survivors' biographies in the context of the Holocaust. Using documented interviews with my mother, I will try to combine between the anthropologist's "instinctive" suspicions and her professional and ethical training, while exploring narratives of Holocaust survivors.

Paper long abstract:

My paper examines the anthropologist's role in studying wars as a "post-factum" ethnographer. It will focus on Holocaust survivors' narratives, using documented conversations with my mother. I shall discuss some of the dilemmas with which the anthropologist is concerned in the context of the Holocaust, as a "survivors memories' witness". It will be argued that both, these dilemmas and the use of Holocaust survivors' narratives may have implications for the anthropological study of wars at large.

Documenting and analyzing survivors' recollections, the anthropologist often wonders about the connection between "historical facts" and survivors' narratives. She might also feel reservation in relation to some "forgiving" attitudes that the survivors express toward their oppressors.

Talking and listening to my mother, while documenting her fading memories, made me a companion to her emotional and intellectual narrative of the Holocaust. My puzzled reaction, or rather my latent suspicion, regarding my mother's descriptions and views about people and events that were part of her past, are the focus of my paper.

I suggest that suspecting my mother's story and interpretations is a reaction to the fact that her account departs from conventional thinking about the Holocaust. When I go beyond this "natural" skepticism, and accept what she says as true, valid and sincere, while colored by the present, I know that I am on the track of significant insights.

Paper short abstract:

Since the beginning of European imperialism, colonial interventions in Somalia were both a source for secular conflicts with neighbouring Ethiopia and created socio-political gaps within Somali society. Anthropological research provided key information to realize (post-) colonial interests in the Horn of Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Colonial intervention in Somalia began at the time of the Berlin Conference 1884-1885. Since that time anthropologists have acted as consultants for colonial governments to enhance imperialistic interests. That is why local realities could be exploited to recruit cheap labour and soldiers for the colonial army. Subversive Somali middlemen of the traditional socio-political system were used to superimpose national imperialistic structures in the area in order to gain control, power and to define hegemonies.

During the UN-trusteeship by Italy from 1950 to 1960 anthropological knowledge was again the background to conceptualising an independent Somali nation state based on a western pattern. During the time of scientific socialism between 1968 and 1989 anthropologists were frequently hired to develop strategies to realize a "modern" nation state neglecting traditional societal structures and values. It became at the very least a violent totalitarian regime and a society with numerous implicit conflicts.

In 1989 the civil war in Somalia began. International organisations commissioned research to a western anthropologist to develop an applicable model to re-build a Somali nation state. The proposal had no positive outcome. Somalia has still not developed a consolidated political system, which guarantees security.

Several peace conferences have been organised by the EU, peace studies have been complied, "anthropological" ways of conflict resolution have been researched.

I will share my own experience working as an anthropologist in Somalia, where I completed my thesis and did a research project on women's role in the peace process on behalf of the EU and UN.

Paper short abstract:

The anthropologist looks back on his advocacy work in a resettlement scheme of Negev Bedouin, and tries to understand why the project went through cycles of success and failure.

Paper long abstract:

The paper examines my advocacy work in connection with a 1980 government scheme to resettle Negev Bedouin and expropriate their land. The advocacy was only partially successful. As long as the advocates opposed the State's intentions and offered alternative plans, they made good headway. But when the State negotiated a deal with the team of advocates, they became dependent on the agents of the State, rapidly lost power, and the resettlement project stalled. I argue that these cycles of success and failure are inevitable, and try to explain them.

Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the NGO work with Iraqi war refugees. I will discuss the "microcosm" of multiple actors of an international Caritas project in Syria and highlight the manifold challenges and chances during the implementation of this humanitarian work, I was part of.

Paper long abstract:

In 2003, the whole world watched what would happen in Iraq. But five years later even the most compassionate readers had lost their interest in this humanitarian disaster; reports about war and conflict between the differing fighting groups were starting to go largely unnoticed. Recently there has been renewed interest in the (outcomes of) the persisting Iraq war though, not least because of the upcoming US-presidential elections and the collateral press release regarding the fifth anniversary of the war as well.

On the brink of this conflict zone in Syria and nearly unnoticed by the public, a project for Iraqi refugees was implemented under the guidance of international Caritas organisations. Manifold project actors negotiated needs and requirements for their target groups as well as for themselves. I was part of the project as team leader and researcher in 2003, and did participant observation during a restudy in 2007.

In my paper, I will reflect on the conflicting interests and synergies that arose out of my double role. I will particularly focus on the challenges and chances experienced during the implementation of this project. I will discuss ethical questions raised by Syrian staff as well as reports about Iraqis steering the activities of the NGO by acting and reacting to the "help" given to them.

The analysis of the "microcosm" of this NGO project touches the fields of refugee studies and the anthropology of organisations. Moreover, the results of this analysis may be of interest for the practical NGO work in general.

Paper short abstract:

Focusing the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) and a variety of community relations initiatives, this paper examines the influence of anthropological work in the development of technologies of government as part of the peace process in Ireland.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is concerned with the contribution of anthropologists and of anthropological work in the development of the peace process in Ireland. It is animated by a concern about the manner in which anthropological ideas of culture, particularly the 'old' idea of culture as the way of life of a distinct people, have been used in the development of technologies of government in the period before and after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in 1998. The paper traces the provenance of the notions of culture and identity implicit in the GFA. While people trained in anthropology have been involved in implementing community relations policy, other disciplines - notably law, history and political science - are found to have been more influential in their conception, though frequent reference is made to anthropological work for legitimation. Paradoxically, the influence of the old anthropological concept of culture is probably a sign of the relative weakness of anthropological influence in government circles. Ultimately though anthropological circumspection in this regard might be preferable to the hasty and vainglorious claims of other academic disciplines.