Dead missionaries,wild Sentinelese: An anthropological review of a global media event |
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Authors: | MICHAEL SCHÖNHUTH |
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Affiliation: | Professor for Cultural Anthropology at the University of Trier, Germany. His research interests include religion, culture and modes of connectedness in both mediatized and at the same time localized worlds. |
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Abstract: | This article aims to shed light on the background to a media event that occupied the world press, and even more the digital media, for a few weeks at the end of last year. The trope of the violent ‘murder’ of a white missionary by one of the last ‘uncontacted tribes’ is likely to evoke a variety of Western projections. Ultimately, it is about power over images, interpretations and how we want to behave towards isolated groups of people in today’s world: leave them alone? Protect them from the culture of violence at the fringe of their territories or contact them now and support them in the long term? An anthropological reading of the case does not lead to a simple answer to this question, but it might help in getting a more informed perspective on a complex subject matter. |
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