"Must Democracies die?
Fieldnotes from the Wild West"

Michael E. Harkin
Professor of Anthropology, University of Wyoming

interpretation: Vassiliki Chryssanthopoulou & Elly-Maria Papamichael

Wednesday 11 April 2018 - 7:30 p.m.

Papagos-Holargos Town Hall - "Melina Merkouri" Hall
55 Perikleous Avenue, Holargos

organized by: Research Centre for Greek Singing

open to the public & entrance free

MICHAEL E. HARKIN

Michael E. Harkin is Professor of Anthropology at University of Wyoming and editor of Reviews in Anthropology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and has taught at Emory University, Montana State University, Shanghai University, and Karl Franzens University of Graz. He was the 2016 William Evans Fellow at the University of Otago. He has published on the ethnology and ethnohistory of Northwest Coast First Nations in Canada, on the history of anthropology, tourism, and environmental anthropology. He has lectured around the world, including to the Greek Ethnological Society in 2013.

LECTURE'S ABSTRACT

In the era of Trump and Brexit, not to mention the ongoing political difficulties in countries such as Greece, Italy, and Hungary, it is often said that we are in an era in which the decline of democracy is inevitable. This lecture will explore the anthropology of comparative political forms, including democracy, a theme first appearing in Plato’s Republic. To what degree are the challenges faced today unique? What are the roots of right-wing populism? Is democracy in fact the best form, or, as Winston Churchill reportedly said “the worst form of government except for all the others”? What is the connection of democracy to “liberalism,” and how can we define the latter? Anthropology has been held out by some practitioners as a technology of democracy. Is this a feasible and adequate response to the crisis?

uploaded to

video: Michael Demetrius & Paraskevi Kanellatou