Hans Peter Hahn

Mobile phones and the transformation of society: talking about criminality and the ambivalent perception of new ICT in Burkina Faso

Global impacts on Africa have been widely discussed regarding their consequences for development and poverty reduction. Development seems to work as the concrete implementation of road networks, markets, communication networks and so on. Although mobile phones have not been implemented by development agencies, they count among the most efficient tools for development in Africa. Anthropologists, however, quickly started to point out some ambivalent aspects of the new ICT in general and mobile phone usage in Africa in particular. Based on fieldwork in Burkina Faso, this contribution goes beyond the present criticism. It links the logic of implemented and well-established structures representing global impacts, i.e. tarred roads and the booming mobiles, with everyday usages. In particular the sometimes malicious entanglements between road networks and mobile networks play a crucial role in public awareness. Road networks as well as mobile networks count among the most popular adaptations of western knowledge. Although everybody uses both network structures and consequently public opinion is highly affirmative of these innovations, public awareness is strongly focussed on new kinds of highway hold-ups which seem to be out of the control of police, politicians and the public in general. This contribution presents an extended interpretation of these problematic entanglements. Media awareness is approached as a comment on the network logic of these two major structures. Thus, the publics concern about the uncontrollable intermingling appears to be a mode of expressing sharp criticism of the promoted ideologies of developmental use of these networks.

Handbuch Materielle Kultur

Handbuch Materielle Kultur. Bedeutungen Konzepte Disziplinen. Stefanie Samida / Manfred K. H. Eggert / Hans Peter Hahn. 2014 J.B. Metzler 379 S. 10. Juni 2014 Stefanie Samida/Manfred K. H. Eggert/Hans Peter Hahn (Hrsg.): Handbuch Materielle Kultur. Bedeutungen Konzepte Disziplinen. Stuttgart: Handbuch Literatur & Materielle Kultur. [Handbook of Literature and Material Culture]. Ed. by Scholz, Susanne / Vedder, Ulrike. Series:Handbücher zur Westafrika (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo); Materielle Kultur; ethnologische 2014 (zusammen mit S.Samida und M.K.H. Eggert) Handbuch Materielle Kultur. Materielle Kultur bei Jean Paul, Aby Warburg und Walter Benjamin. Berlin 2015. 15 x 23 cm. 2 . HANDBUCH MATERIELLE KULTUR. Bedeutungen, Konzepte

Dinge als unscharfe Zeichen

Der Streit uber die Rolle der Museen in der Offentlichkeit ist so alt wie ihre Etablierung als Orte der gesellschaftlichen Artikulation. Auf der einen Seite wird die Forderung erhoben, Museen als Orte der Kommunikation aufzufassen, an denen wichtige Aussagen uber die Gesellschaft und die von den jeweiligen Museen vertretenen Wissensgebiete getroffen werden. Auf der anderen Seite steht ein klares Bekenntnis zur Autonomie der in Museen und Ausstellungen prasentierten Kunstwerke (Scheffler 1921).

Einleitung: Materielle Kultur in den Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften

Wir sind in unserem Alltag von Dingen umgeben. Manche nehmen wir uberhaupt nicht wahr, zu anderen stehen wir in einem besonderen emotionalen Verhaltnis, das — stets abhangig von Objekt und Kontext — zwischen Zuneigung, Verehrung und Ablehnung schwankt. Dinge besitzen nicht nur einen praktisch-funktionalen Sach- oder Nutzwert, sondern sie haben auch eine Bedeutung — sie sind oft Zeichen und Medium. Der Mensch wird in eine Dingwelt hineingeboren; erst allmahlich wachst ihm das unbewusste Wissen uber Normen und Werte zu, das in seiner sozialen Umwelt als kulturell verbindlich gilt. Die Materielle Kultur gibt uns Auskunft uber uns selbst, aber auch uber andere — die Autooder Computermarke ›erzahlt‹ uns etwas uber die Besitzerin; im Museum erfahren wir etwas uber den Gebrauch bestimmter Objekte in der Vergangenheit oder in fur uns fremde Kulturen. Dinge sind also ein wesentlicher Teil unserer Existenz und damit zugleich ein Indikator dessen, was wir sind.

Circulating Objects and the Power of Hybridization as a Localizing Strategy

The worldwide circulation of goods is one of the driving forces of globalization. This statement holds true in particular for the early globalizing phenomena like the widespread adoption of clothing, weapons and alcohol, whereas nowadays, electronic devices like mobile phones are perceived as having higher relevancy. Modifications of these and many other objects and the constitution of new contexts are at the core of the new cultural concept of hybridization. Rejecting the notion of purity, hybridity contributes to the understanding of mixing cultural phenomena, regardless of their origins, and refers to the transformation of objects, values and cultural institutions, but also to the unequal power relations in many cultural contacts. Historical and ethnographical examples show how hybridity helps to explain the subversive character of many of these changes. As indicated fifty years ago by Arnold Toynbee, Western culture in non-Western contexts undergoes a process of fragmentation. Although Toynbee did not use the term of hybridity, he was the first to hint at the sometimes problematic entanglements that are highlighted by this concept.

Praktiken und Transformationen

Weltweit ist der Umgang mit Dingen in zeitgenossischen Gesellschaften durch den Konsum dominiert. Im Kontrast zu weitverbreiteten Umgangsweisen in sogenannten ›vormodernen‹ Gesellschaften, bei denen die Einheit von Produktion, Distribution und Konsum innerhalb von Haushalten, Verwandtschaftseinheiten oder lokalen Gemeinschaften vorherrschte, hat sich heute eine weitgehende Auflosung dieser Einheit vollzogen. Menschen konsumieren, was sie nicht selbst hergestellt haben, und sie produzieren Guter, die sie nicht selbst konsumieren. Es ist dennoch nicht ohne Bedeutung, auf die zahlreichen Untersuchungen aus Archaologie und Ethnologie hinzuweisen, die Kontexte der Einheit von Produktion, Distribution und Konsum untersuchen und damit Alternativen zur dominanten Umgangsweisen der Gegenwart aufzeigen.

Consumption, Identities, and Agency in Africa

Introduction – Consumption, Identities and Agency in Africa Hans Peter Hahn The current popularity of the concept of “Cultures of Consumption” is related to the understanding that consumption is not only the fulfilment of needs, but also a means to express social identity. Consumption has up to now mainly been described with regard to achievements and specific problems in industrialized societies. There is an underlying assumption that in the “Less Affluent World” consumer culture is of little relevance, if not inexistent. Consumption in those societies seems merely to be oriented towards the fulfilment of basic needs. Furthermore, the studies on consumption in those countries have been criticized as falling short to explain economic constraints and unequal conditions of life. This introductory chapter retorts the criticism and shows how African contexts of consumption may prove to be particular useful in order to scrutinize simplifying concepts about consumption. Understanding consumption in Africa requires an awareness for historical and contemporary interactions of local, inter-regional and global forces. Consumers in Africa are highly creative in appropriating global goods. Cultural appropriation as a conceptual framework is therefore explained in some detail. A second theme of this introduction is the specificity of quantitatively smaller possessions in many African households. Although there is no “African culture of consumption”, the different modes of consuming and transforming globally circulating consumer goods do reflect a wide range of cultural practices. They indicate the agency of the consumers, which is both an expression of and a driving force for social change.

Consumption, Identities, and Agency in Africa: An Overview

Consumption in Africa has been an overlooked issue for a long time. In history as well as in sociology and cultural anthropology, African societies have been seen as providers of globally circulating raw materials, goods, and commodities (like rubber and ivory, but also art and slaves), but rarely has the role of consumers in these societies been considered. Even during the last years, when consumption in Africa became a major topic with regard to increasing fuel consumption and emerging environmental problems, individuals and households in Africa were still marginalized; they were not considered consumers with their own agency and culturally defined patterns and preferences. Although the level of consumption in Africa is quite low, it matters. Increased knowledge on the subject will probably not reveal a specific “African consumption pattern,” as different societies on the continent with different levels of wealth have quite divergent consumption preferences. The relevance of consumption in Africa is instead based on the extremely wide range of different needs and desires there, and on the necessity to adapt the goods available to local preferences. Perhaps the one and only particular aspect of consumption is the obvious refusal of producers worldwide to provide specifically adapted goods for markets in Africa. With few exceptions (cloth, beads) the localization of commodities in Africa has been realized through the consumers’ own agency. This agency can be linked to the most recent theories of “prosumers” and, as this chapter argues, the appropriation of goods in Africa may become a tool for the further development of current consumer theories.