CALL FOR PAPERS
East Asian Anthropological Association
Research Center for China Study, Xiamen University of China
15-17 Nov 2013
“Cultural Realms and Boundaries Crossing ”
The East Asian Anthropological Association is a scholarly association of teachers and students of anthropology based in East Asia and engaged in anthropological work on East Asia. It has existed for several years now, and has had conferences in China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and last year in Hong Kong. The past five conferences have been very successful and we are inheriting the spirit of this undertaking. The theme of Hong Kong conference last year was “the world in East Asia/ East Asia in the world” and this year we would like to have further discussions of it so we set up the theme about “cultural realms and boundaries crossing”. Its upcoming meeting will be in Xiamen 15-17 Nov 2013, We hope that you will propose a panel or an individual paper for this conference, and will become a member of EAAA. You do not need to be a member of EAAA at present in order to submit a panel or paper.
English will be the lingua franca. However, as the primary aim of EAAA is to provide a platform to enhance dialogue between East Asian anthropologists without or beyond the language barrier of English, we would like to suggest that for those who are not familiar with English, can send a 1500-word abstract of papers in English alone with an English-language power point while presenting in local language.
Please fill out a EAAA panel proposal or EAAA individual paper proposal, which will require an abstract from you in English. You can submit either a panel proposal, which should have 3-4 participants speaking on a common topic, or an individual paper proposal, which is your paper alone. Individual paper proposals we will subsequently organize into panels. Panels for comparative studies across regions are encouraged.
Please send this completed panel or paper proposal form to eaaa2013xm@gmail.com by 1 July 2013. The program committee will make its decisions by 10 July, and will then send out acceptance notices, conference registration forms, and lodging forms to all participants.
The conference will be held on 15-17 Nov at the Xiamen University of China, followed on 17 Nov by a tour of interesting regional places. Registration will be US$50. We will arrange and pay for participants’ accommodations.
We welcome your participation and look forward to seeing you in Xiamen in Nov!
EAAA Conference, 2013
Cultural Realms and Boundaries Crossing
Theme
The modern world has stressed classification and absolutized boundaries. For instance, modernity is preoccupied with sincerity and dismissing of rituals. This is, as being pointed out, “a result of the strong role of Protestant Christianity in the making of our modern world and of contemporary culture”. (Seligman and Weller 2008) The concept of absolute boundaries is one of the root causes for conflicts among individuals, groups and cultures, which even lead to catastrophes in several regions in the world. The nation-state system has been changing our comprehensive intellectual maps which leads to a monotonous situation.
As anthropologists, we suggest an alternative approach. We have observed that on the one hand, humans have a deep need for boundaries, in order to distinguish self from others. These identified boundaries, on the other hand, are possible to be regarded as negotiable entities. There are key factors from various cultures which have shown capacities of playing roles of crossing geographical, social or cultural boundaries, and of mediating ambiguity or ambivalence. The dual aspects of these processes shape cultural realms that have been constantly formed, deformed and re-formed by the crossing capacity of key cultural factors.
The significance of cultural realm lies in the fact that it creates an imaginary world and it makes a shared social world possible. This is because key factors in a cultural realm play the role of framing people’s act and provide ways for people to interact with each other. As a consequence, the expanding cultural identities based on a “could be” space could help members to develop empathy and sense of coexistence in the world and pluralism becomes possible. In the contrary, political and racial identities based on clear-cut boundaries always fail to do so.
Secondly, compared with the imposed top-down political system, cultural realm is the creation of order bottom up. The world is inherently fragmented and the rapid speed of globalization dramatically increases the situation of chaos. The elements which are capable to cross boundaries provide symbols for members to use and reveal a process of meaning-making. These meaning-making processes help individuals and groups form certain kinds of autonomies in opposition to the world of heteronomy.
INDIVIDUAL PAPER PROPOSAL FORM
EAAA CONFERENCE XIA MEN 15-17 Nov 2013
Name__________________________________
Institution________________________________
e-mail address____________________________
PAPER TITLE:
PAPER ABSTRACT (2O0 WORDS):
PANEL PROPOSAL FORM
EAAA CONFERENCE XIA MEN 15-17 Nov 2013
Name__________________________________
Institution________________________________
e-mail address____________________________
PANEL TITLE:
PANEL ABSTRACT (200 WORDS):
PANEL PRESENTER 1:
NAME________________________________
INSTITUTION__________________________
ABSTRACT (200 WORDS):
PANEL PRESENTER 2:
NAME________________________________
INSTITUTION__________________________
ABSTRACT (200 WORDS):
PANEL PRESENTER 3:
NAME________________________________
INSTITUTION__________________________
ABSTRACT (200 WORDS):
PANEL PRESENTER 4:
NAME________________________________
INSTITUTION__________________________
ABSTRACT (200 WORDS):
PANEL PRESENTER 5 (OPTIONAL):
NAME________________________________
INSTITUTION__________________________
ABSTRACT (200 WORDS):
DISCUSSANT (OPTIONAL):
NAME________________________________
INSTITUTION__________________________
