Universität Wien

240190 PR Feldpraktikum: Life in a "Living Museum" (P1) (2013W)

The Cultural Marketing of San Communities in Northern Namibia

Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung

Participation at first session is obligatory!

2-week fieldtrip in January in Namibia. Details will follow.
Students who want to participate need to register for the course "From Bushman Land to Community-based natural resource management in Namibia"!

An/Abmeldung

Hinweis: Ihr Anmeldezeitpunkt innerhalb der Frist hat keine Auswirkungen auf die Platzvergabe (kein "first come, first served").

Details

max. 20 Teilnehmer*innen
Sprache: Englisch

Lehrende

Termine (iCal) - nächster Termin ist mit N markiert

Mittwoch 09.10. 13:15 - 16:30 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock

Information

Ziele, Inhalte und Methode der Lehrveranstaltung

The field practice shall take place in Northern Namibia in two locations: Grasshoek and Nyae Nyae Conservancy. Meeting point will be Windhoek, where preparatory meetings will take place and connections to NGOs will be used to disseminate local research and NGO activities related to San communities. With the alternative option of conducting field research in Vienna or Basel (BASLER AFRIKA BIBLIOGRAPHIEN Namibia Resource Centre Southern Africa Library) Klosterberg 21-23, PO Box 2037, CH 4001 Basel, Switzerland (www.baslerafrika.ch <http://www.baslerafrika.ch>) on the theme of 'Namibia, Cultural Tourism and Indigenous Communities in a Historical Perspective'.

Date: introduction and admission on October 9, 13h15 16h30 2013 (Übungsraum), actual field practice: 7th of January (departure) until 24rd of January 2014

Special notice:
Self-organisation of adequate flights is expected, Meeting place will be Windhoek, Camping equipment will be needed. Since camping will partly take place in natural environments, participants should to be prepared for some inconveniences and possible risks in such circumstances and therefore take adequate precautions as indicated by the organiser. Since the group will be divided at 2-3 different locations, the organisers will not always be present and measures of caution are part of the self-responsibility of participants.

Requirements for admission: 2 pages letter of motivation with special reference to individual BA and / or MA plans.

Requirements for successful participation: interview transcriptions, written chapter of 12-15 pages on a particular subject.
Estimated costs per student: minimum € 1.000

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel

Mindestanforderungen und Beurteilungsmaßstab

The Field Practice shall be open for CREOLE Master students. It will therefore be held in English and offer the alternative possibility to work empirically in Vienna and Basel in cooperation with the students conducting research in Namibia. The Vienna and Basel (?) groups will accordingly focus on historical foundations of cultural tourism that forms a good deal of the overall touristic marketing in Namibia. Furthermore the field practice in Vienna will particularly focus on the visual anthropology aspects of the 'Ethno-marketing'. See for instance : http://www.jelldragon.com/theoldways/grashoek.htm The following quote comes from this webpage and gives an accurate image of what to expect when visiting Grashoek: 'There are no communications of any kind at Grashoek, therefore it is not possible to arrange a visit in advance, but the bushmen there are well organised and ready to receive visitors at any time of the day. Simply turn up at the village and a guide will come out to meet you. You will then have to wait half an hour while the bushmen get dressed up in their traditional attire and walk through the bush from their village.' Key questions will focus on the strategies of (self-)marketing cultures that Jean and John Comaroff have coined 'Ethnicity Inc.' (2009).

Apart from Himba communities in the Kaokofeld-Ovamboland many San villages and settlements in Namibia use concepts of community-based natural resource management for ecotourism projects. With its headquarters in the small town of Tsumkwe (close to the Botswana border) the Nyae Nyae Conservancy Board consists of 6 women and 13 men. It has entered into joint-ventures tourism agreements with the private sector and has turned at least some of the villages in the 9000 square kilometres area of the Conservancy into local collective entrepreneurships. They may thus serve as an interesting community-based form of commodification of 'ethnic cultures' that Jean and John Comaroff brilliantly describes as 'a new moment in the history of human identity'. The planned field practice in Namibia seeks to study comparatively this community-based organisation of Nyae Nyae Conservancy and its actual activities and forms of cooperation with the communities inside this large area with another culture commodification initiative, namely the Living Museum of Grasshoek about 80 kms away from Tsumkwe. Both areas lie within the historical Bushmen land and offer rich historical material to look into the genesis of today’s cultural marketing.

Prüfungsstoff

Methodologically, the field practice in Namibia will also emphasize audio-visual methods. Manuela and Werner Zips have been filming in both communities and used some footage in various documentaries on contemporary living conditions of San communities in Southern Africa. The students will be trained to conduct interviews with a video camera and use the equipment of the Department in the process. Finally, the field practice aims at motivating students for further research in this highly interesting area and facilitate MA and possibly PhD supervisions in this regard. Along with the concomitant seminars (regional and material culture) the field trip aims at sustainable results in the form of further research. All locations were already visited several times by the instructor and local contacts do exist which should enable the accommodation of about 15 students.

Literatur


Zuordnung im Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Letzte Änderung: Mo 07.09.2020 15:39