Vike

Question 1

Hva er tittelen på Vikes doktorgradsavhandling, og når leverte han den?

Answer 1

Conquering the unreal

Politics and Bureaucracy in a Norwegian Town

(1996)

Question 2

Cirka hvor lang var Vikes doktorgradsavhandling?

Answer 2

Ca. 345 sider.

Question 3

A congitive approach to what?

What is it that Vike (2011) in the opening lines says that cognitive anthropology, in general, is seen as trying to understand?

Answer 3

The mechanisms of the mind

Question 4

Six sections

Name the six sections of Vike’s article Cultural Models, Power and Hegemony (2011).

Answer 4

• Introduction: The problem of power and ideology
• Cognitive anthropology, and practice
• Political ecnonomy, power, and ideology
• Internalization
• Resistance and knowledge
• Cultural models and power reconsidered

Question 5

What approach does Vike criticize in the section “congnitive anthropology and practice”?

Answer 5

Bourdieu’s approach.

Question 6

What approach does Vike criticize in the section ‘Political economy, power, and ideology’?

Answer 6

• Wolf (1999)
• Envisioning Power: Ideologies of dominance and crisis*
• Roseberry (1989)
• Anthropologies and histories: Essays in Culture, History and Political Economy*

Question 7

Internalization
What perspective does Vike evaluate in the section ‘Internalization’?

Answer 7

Strass & Quinn (1997):

A cognitive theory of cultural meaning

Question 8

Limited analytical range
Why is it that the analytical range of cognitive approaches in anthropology (according to Vike 2011:376) have been seen as limited?

(Cue: General answer, plus four dots.)

Answer 8

Its traditional foci

Because of cognitive anthropology’s tendency chose foci that create limitations when it comes to understand larger contexts:

• the individual
• systems of classification
• small-scale social contexts
• ideal test cases

Question 9

What the core idea in Vike’s text Cultural models, Power, and Hegemony (2011)?

(Cue: Two points.)

Answer 9

When it comes to understanding power…

1. …cogntive anthropology has much to offer to the understanding of power
2. …explanations relying on the notions of ideology and hegemony have little to offer

Question 10

The two generalizations

In what two generalizations does Vike (2011:376-377) moor his belief in the ability of cognitive anthropology to contribute to the understanding of power?

Answer 10

1. The idea that power is legitimated through hegemonic ideas is not well founded - but applied as explanatory default
2. The falure to understand individual subjectivity and practice relating to systems of domination

“Put bluntly, it seems that we have a tendency to reify both ideology (as “hegemonic”) and individual consciousness (as “agency” or “subjectivity”). (2011:377))

Question 11

1. As what is it that Vike (2011:377) argues that many forms of hierarchy can be fruitfully understood?
2. What is the alternative understanding that he wants to move away from?

Answer 11

1. As systems of distributed sanctions (and anticipated sanction)
2. Hierarchy as systems of shared meanings which serve to legitimize power.

Question 12

Fill in the missing word:

“The fact that the opressed and dominated to some extent embrace, or seem to embrace — —– —– ———- —– ————- (1) cannot be taken as evidence of the existence of ——– (2).”

Vike 2011:277

Answer 12

(1) …the values which legitimate their subordination…
(2) …hegemony

Question 13

Fill in the missing words:

“Conforming to offical norms is often a highly ———(1) affair, and does not exclude knowledge of ———– ————- – ———- (2), or the will to —— —- (3).” (Vike 2011:377)

Answer 13

(1) pragmatic
(2) alternative possibilities and strategies
(3) pursue them

Question 14

Conservative culture - the example

Vike (2011:377) argues that in all societies, most people will to some extent have a pragmatic interest in trying to control the actions of their releavnt others and thus take part in dominance - wihch makes it possible to see culture as having a ‘conservative effect’ while the notion of hegemony becomes less relevant.

Which is the example Vike uses to illustratellustrate this point?

Answer 14

• Workers may be well aware of the fact that some of the value they produce is reified and fetishized as surplus value and capital etc.
• The workers failure to destroy this logic, have reasons other than a twisted consciousness that

Question 15

What power does
What is it that power does (among other things)?

(Vike 2011:377)

Answer 15

Power defines the limits of what is pragmatically possible.

Question 16

Fill in the missing parts:

“Even when arguing that people we study take part in the production of meaning of a kind which serves to undermine their own interests, anthropologists must of course know that when their opportunity to break out is very limited, they are not necessarily interested in ——- —- —– —– ————- (1) or —— —- —- (2).” (Vike 2011:377)

Answer 16

(1) talking much abouth these opportunities
(2) acting upon them

Question 17

Opening question

What is the opening question in Cultural Models, Power, and Hegemony (Vike 2011)?

Answer 17

“To what extent do theories of ideology and hegemony contribute to our understanding of power?”

Question 18

To what extent does Vike (2011) think that theories of ideology and hegemony contribute to our understanding of power?

Answer 18

Surprisinly little.

Question 19

Shortcomings of political anthropology

Which publication by J. Scott is it that Vike (2011:387) considers one of the best commentaries to the shortcomings of political anthropology to help us understand what people know, what they do with their knowledge and how what they do generates systems of power?

Answer 19

Weapons of the Weak (Scott 1985)

Question 20

Weapons of the Weak (1985)

What is it that Vike (2011:387) argues that Scott’s Weapons of the Weak is successful in demonstrating?

Answer 20

The shortcomings of political anthropology in highlighting:

1. what people actually know
2. what they do with their knowledge
3. how what they do generates systems of power

Question 21

What kind of theory is Bourdieu’s, according to Vike (2011:378)?

Answer 21

“…a theory of internalized dispositions; the habitus.”

Question 22

What is, according to Vike (2011:378) the shortcomings of Bourdieu’s theory of internalized dispositions?

Answer 22

• It is hard to grasp what the habitus is
• Differences between different forms of knowledge (and of motivation and action) are ignored

Question 23

What unfortunate consequence of Bourdieu’s influence in anthropology is it that Vike points out (2011:378)?

Answer 23

A tendency to reify both:

• systems (as “objective structes”)
• consciousness

Question 24

Which belief is it that Vike (2011:378) argues that has been strenghtened by the tendency to reify consciousness implied by the focus on internalization in Bourdieu and others?

Answer 24

The belief that most forms of power must be legitimated in order to exist

• by forms of knowledge that are:
• not fully conscious and/or
• not possible to articulate

Question 25

A theory of practice able to grasp power

Having pointed out an unfortunate consequence of Bourdieu’s influence on anthropology, what is it that Vike (2011) argues that is needed in order to develop a sound theory of practice that may enable us to understand power?

Answer 25

Knowledge and motivation as part of a system

A better grasp on knowledge and motivation, as part of a single, but yet differentiated, cognitive system.

Question 26

What to negative attributes does Vike (2011:378) assign to habitus?

Answer 26

It being:

• mystifying
• reifying

Question 27

Stability of hierarchy

From where is it that Vike (2011:379) argues that the relative stability of any hierarchy of power is likely to result?

Answer 27

Non-planned patterning

From complex forms of aggrefation and non-planned patterning of pragmatic and/or institutionalized action.

(More so than from hegemonic beliefs and values.)

Question 28

The significance of culture

According to Vike (2011:379), what is the significance of culture, if it is not how it makes us follow rules and prescriptions and provide automatic responses?

Answer 28

The significance of culture is rather:

How it makes us able to adapt knowledge in ways that are:

• relevant, but
• not too cosly

Question 29

Culture as a stack of what?

What is it that Vike (2011:378) argues that culture is (or represents)?

Answer 29

A stack of knowledge

organized so as to make it possible to adapt knowledge in ways that are relevant but not too costly.

Question 30

One function of culture

What function of culture is it that Vike (2011:379) highlights in the discussion of knowledge and motivation he lets follow his critique of Bourdieu’s influence on anthropology?

Answer 30

To enable us as humans to to make contextual shifts.

Question 31

Underestimation
What is it that the idea that culture is internalized and becomes deeply embedded in dispositions which generate behavior underestamate (according to Vike 2011:379)?

Answer 31

The complexity of culture and the way it is used as a reservoir rather than as prescriptions.

Question 32

Memory palace

Where did I place the different sections of Vike’s text Cultural models, power and hegemony (2011)?

Answer 32

At Liebling.