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You are cordially invited to participate in the next Inimkond seminar, on November 5th, from 6-8 pm in room T-415. The seminar will be given by Marek Tamm and is entitled "Toward an anthropology of historical research".

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Abstract:
This preliminary report of a research in potentia will take as its guideline an insight by British anthropologist and historian Alan Macfarlane: “The anthropology of historical research has still to be written, but it would be a fruitful area of study.” (“Anthropology and History”, in The Blackwell Dictionary of Historians, ed. John Cannon et al. Oxford: Blackwell, 1988)
To put it simply, the main aim of the anthropology of historical research is to analyse in ethnographic and anthropological terms the diverse means by which historians gain knowledge of the past, the ways by which they produce historical discourse, and the notions and practices that inform this production.
In the paper I will focus on some key notions (like ‘truth’ and ‘objectivity’) and key practices (like archival studies) of contemporary Western historical research, in order to offer a preliminary conceptual framework for future studies in anthropology of historical research.
After the already established historical anthropology and the history of anthropology, the anthropology of historical research can be considered as a next step in the long and complex relationship between history and anthropology. It also ties in well with the recent “practical” turn in science studies, where science is conceived not only as knowledge but also as practice.

About the speaker:
Marek Tamm is an Associate Professor of Cultural History at the Estonian Institute of Humanities and a Senior Researcher in Medieval Studies at the Institute of History, both at Tallinn University, Estonia. His primary research fields are cultural history of medieval Europe, theory of history and memory studies.

Seminar Series
Inimkond: Current Issues in Anthropology and Beyond
full program at

This seminar series features speakers from anthropology and related fields, and fosters discussion of their research with a transdisciplinary audience. It aims to contribute to the culture of academic scholarship and debate at Tallinn University. Speakers include both local researchers and guests from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and with various takes on anthropological theory and methods. Presentations in the seminar series will be of interest to staff and students in anthropology, cultural theory, sociology, and history, among others.