https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 20 Apr 2020 16:44:57 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 https://toarcheio.org/items/critical-reactions-the-ethnographic-genealogy-of-response/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:41 +0000 http://arc.local/items/critical-reactions-the-ethnographic-genealogy-of-response/ https://toarcheio.org/items/the-hypocrisy-of-european-moralism-greece-and-the-politics-of-cultural-aggression/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:41 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-hypocrisy-of-european-moralism-greece-and-the-politics-of-cultural-aggression/ Continued]]> In the current debt crisis, Greeks often stand accused of irresponsible borrowing, corruption, and laziness. In this article, I argue that the patently unfair way in which these stereotypes have framed the ongoing tensions between Greece and the other European countries is deeply grounded in the dynamics of “crypto‐colonialism.” German fascination with ancient Greece has combined with the needs of British, French, and, later, American strategic interests to produce a toxic brew of humiliation and contempt for the Greek people of today. Yet Greece, by escaping from the aftermath of military dictatorship under the unexpectedly benign guidance of the elder Constantine Karamanlis, is now – in marked contrast to at least one other crypto‐colonial state – giving the unelected leadership of the European Union and other creditors a lesson in democratic self‐sufficiency. Resolution of the residual tensions will nevertheless only be possible when both sides agree to cease trading insulting stereotypes and admit the errors of a shared and embarrassing past – a process for which anthropological perspectives can offer significant support.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/crisis-attack-impromptu-ethnography-in-the-greek-maelstom/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:09 +0000 http://arc.local/items/crisis-attack-impromptu-ethnography-in-the-greek-maelstom/ Continued]]> Assailed by mounting debt and increasing economic distress, Greece today is also the target of media representations that emphasize violence and disorder. Michael Herzfeld – who was mugged and tear‐gassed in Athens this past July – argues that these representations are misleading and indeed are part of the problem they seek to explain. The structural violence of an insistent barrage of negative media coverage as well as that of international financial pressures undermines a previously stable and relatively crime‐free country, encouraging new forms – including police and popular racism, physical violence at demonstrations, and acts of petty crime – of what had once been a largely codified and ritualized idiom of aggression. While many Greeks do feel that debts should be paid, increasing economic desperation fuels a different view, and one that can best be interpreted in light of the social values that anthropologists have long studied in Greece: that the country’s creditors are violating their own obligations toward Greece and thus deserve to face both default on the massive debt and the public hostility of the Greek people.

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