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【醫療人類學研究群、歷史人口研究計畫演講】

講題："Unruly" Children: Re-discovering Arthur P.Wolf's Taiwan Fieldnotes in a New Framework

講者：Jing Xu（許晶） Affiliate Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington and Wenner-Gren Hunt Fellow

日期：2023-09-26（二）15:00-17:00

地點：中研院民族所後棟第二會議室R2420

主辦單位：醫療人類學研究群、歷史人口研究計畫

報名連結：https://forms.gle/HTuJ3BaGwzmbSpfp6

報名期限：2023年9月20日(三) 23:00止

聯絡人：助理呂函螢 

               02-26523431，medanth@sinica.edu.tw

演講摘要：

How do humans become moral? Centered on children’s active learning, my book explores this question through re-discovering the late anthropologist Arthur P. Wolf’s unpublished fieldnotes collected in Taiwan (1958-1960). Designed as an improved replication of the Six Cultures Study of Socialization (SCS), a landmark project in this history of anthropology, Wolf’s project was the first systematic, ethnographic research on ethnic Han children. I analyzed these materials (interviews, observations and psychological tests) using a cognitive anthropology approach distinguished from SCS’ behaviorist paradigm and a new methodology combining ethnographic interpretation, NLP (natural-language-processing) techniques, and SNA (social-network-analysis). Going beyond the trope of “obedience” and the “innocent child” imagery popular in Chinese studies, I discover “unruly” children who defy parental expectations and develop their own moral understandings. I highlight the role of peers (including siblings) in moral development, in contrast to prior focus on parenting. Moreover, I take inspiration from children to interrogate the nature of ethnography, fieldnotes and meaning interpretation more broadly. Taken together, this re-analysis invites us to reflect on a core question of knowledge production, how do we know what we know?