Commodifying magic: cyber shamans and neoliberalised culture in Korea

This paper explores cyber shamans in the neoliberalised Korea. As new media technologies evolved, Korean shamans leaped at an opportunity of the new media technologies in ways to redeem themselves. I used the term ‘redeem’ here because historically shamans in Korea have been demonised by the ruling power for more than 500 years and therefore even in the modern times they were perceived as ‘weird money suckers with false magic’. For this reason, the inherited dynamics of shamanism embedded in the culture were not appropriately considered. In the process of becoming cyber shamans, Korean shamans have cleverly utilised the new media and started making their presence known. Articulation of the inherited shamanic dynamic in response to the neoliberal media environment can help us to assess the various influences of the neoliberalised economic and political environment on Korean society.     

Evaluation in the private sector: Evolution and professionalization of quality management

This article reviews different approaches to quality management in the private sector from an evolutionary perspective. Two dimensions of this evolution are crucial: the scope of evaluation (“product” versus “system”) and the objective versus intersubjective orientation. Experiences within the private sector can be relevant for the public sector, with adaptation for public sector characteristics. Complexity of both object and process of evaluation has implications for the professionalization of the evaluation function.     

The role of history of anthropology in the anthropology curriculum

The practitioners who teach anthropology are usually ethnocentric with regard to their own specialization. In the history course, in contrast, there is no right or wrong answer–only the search for context.     

Simone de Beauvoir and the Graying of American Feminism

Simone de Beauvoir's study on age and aging can be read as an example of feminist scholarship presenting the contradictions and the ambivalence inherent in any topic dealing with women and society. Beauvoir's work both applauded and criticized by feminist scholars offers an important document for addressing the double discrimination based on gender and age, and has been influential in defining a feminist approach to the discussion of gender and age. With the graying of American feminists in the 1990s, age became a concern and Beauvoir's contribution to the area of age studies received recognition as an early contribution to the humanist exploration of the topic of aging. This article surveys interpretations of Beauvoir's work on aging by literary critics, feminist historians, and a gerontologist.     

Michael Polanyi: the anthropology of intellectual history

Scientific and political developments of the early twentieth century led Michael Polanyi to study the role of the scientist in research and the interaction between the individual scholar and the surrounding conditions in community and society. In his concept of “personal knowledge” he gave the theory and history of science an anthropological turn. In many instances of the history of sciences, research is driven by a commitment to beliefs and values. Society plays the role of authority and communicative backdrop that presupposes individual liberty. As a system of beliefs science is rooted in community and also in history. However, as soon as fellow humans become the objects of research, their appeal transcends the researcher. Consequently, the history of human endeavor reveals a “firmament” of standards and obligations which represent an ontological reality, for which Polanyi invokes Teilhard de Chardin’s notion of noosphere.     

Therapeutic wilderness programs: Issues of professionalization in an emerging field

With the rapid increase in therapeutic wilderness programming, issues of professionalization have arisen. This article discusses the movement toward increased professionalization, with particular attention to staff qualifications for the provision of service, the distinction between therapeutic and therapy, and the ethics and consequences of therapeutic wilderness programs. It is concluded that increased credibility necessitates elevated standards for staff credentials and the provision of therapy within programs.     

Cabinets and culture: Victorian anthropology and the museum context

Collections of material artifacts played a central institutional and intellectual role in Victorian anthropology. Ethnological theory argued that evolution in material technology recapitulated broader patterns of social evolution. Arrangement of artifacts into developmental typologies thereby provided heuristic exemplars by which theorists could chart the path of broader institutional change. Museums, in consequence, became centers for professional research and advancement. The central theoretical and disciplinary role of collections was tied to evolutionary theory. As the latter lost its preeminence in the first quarter of the twentieth century, so did museum settings decline in significance.     

A nice arrangement of heterodoxies: William Mcdougall and the professionalization of psychical research

Joseph Banks Rhine (1895–1980) is usually considered the founder of modern professional parapsychology. Through his work at Duke University in the 1930s, he established a working research program (in the Lakatosian sense) for the controversial discipline, setting down various methodological standards and experimental procedures. Despite Rhine's clear and important influence on modern parapsychology, this article argues that he came to a stage that had already been set. Adopting recent theoretical advances in the study of scientific professionalization, it is argued that Rhine's mentor, the controversial British psychologist William McDougall (1871–1938), has a stronger claim to the parenthood of modern parapsychology than is typically recognized. Following McDougall's attempts to carve out and establish an institutional space for professionalized psychical research in 1920s America, furthermore, takes us to little explored connections between psychical research, Lamarckism, neo‐vitalism and policies of eugenics. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Unconceived alternatives and conservatism in science: the impact of professionalization,peer-review,and Big Science

Synthese - Scientific realists have suggested that changes in our scientific communities over the course of their history have rendered those communities progressively less vulnerable to the...