23 December 2024
Our other Others: on perpetration, morality, and ethnographic unease
Assistant Professor Trine Mygind Korsby and Professor Henrik Vigh have published the article ‘Our other Others: on perpetration, morality, and ethnographic unease’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.The article critically assesses the impact of political and moral positions within contemporary anthropology, and argues for an alternative political anthropology that focuses on perpetration rather than victimhood, offenders rather than the offended. In this way, the article investigates the study of people that ‘we don’t necessarily like’. Based on an analysis of political and moral positions in the history of the discipline, it asks how we can ethnographically approach people who transgress bodily, legal, and moral boundaries, and why this is not more commonly done.
The article suggests that anthropology engages more fully in the study of perpetration and approaches the issue by clarifying how (mis)dynamics are anchored within shared social worlds and historical becomings.
The article is open access and can be accesses on JRAI’s website.