Gendering Princely Dynasties: Some Notes on Family Structure,Social Networks,and Communication at the Courts of the Margraves of Brandenburg‐Ansbach around 1500

The paper presents princely dynasties and families of the late middle ages as complex subjects of historical‐anthropological gender research. It sketches some basic characteristics of aristocratic families and their structure, of their networks of relations and communication. The dynamics of family networks in connection with life course and family life cycle are discussed with particular attention to the consequences of aging and age. The perspective on the family includes the court. Its architecture and its personnel, in particular the female entourage, are examined in relation to members of the princely families. The dynasty of the Margraves of Brandenburg‐Ansbach has been chosen as the main point of reference because their family correspondence offers rich material to exemplify these aspects.     

From ethnographic knowledge to anthropological intelligence: An anthropologist in the office of strategic services in Second World War Africa

This article explores the overlapping modalities and practical purposes of anthropological ethnographic knowledge and political–military intelligence gathering – the commonalities as well as the boundaries between them – through an analysis of the career of the anthropologist Jack Sargent Harris (1912–2008), a secret operative for the United States’ Office of Strategic Services during the Second World War in Nigeria and South Africa. Calling upon archival and oral historical sources, the article relates Harris’s training in Boasian cultural anthropology and as a professional ethnographer of African societies and cultures to the ways he recruited informants, conducted surveillance, related to foreign Allied officials, utilized documentary evidence, and worked to establish authority and credibility in his wartime intelligence reporting. The article argues that political purpose is a central artefact of anthropological ethnography as it is in other ethnographic modalities even if the justifications for these endeavours remain distinct.