Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 2
·
November 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
93
class and élite Hindu women (Caplan 1985) and upward mobility (Srinivas 1984); still others
looked at ‘sex tourism’ (Phongpaichit 1982) and at the culture of
geisha
professional entertainers
(Dalby 1983), while demographic policies and the different position of women in urban and rural
areas became the object of ethnographies on China (Wolf 1985). Religious studies varied from
analyses of the work of Braham priests (Fuller 1984) to analyses of the relationship between class
and religion (Lewandowski 1980), ‘new religions’ in Japan (Davis 1980), Islamic revival (Nagata
1982, 1984; Nakamura 1983), the clash between religious institutions and legal colonial
institutions (Appadurai 1981) and the complexity raised by the ethnography of the ancient
pilgrimage city of Banaras (Parry 1994).
Also in the case of Asian ethnographies, most of the literature, perhaps with the exception
of the studies on sex tourism and on joint corporate ventures, was concerned with internal
changes, often overlooking external influences. Urban ethnographies on Latin America addressed
housing, urban restructuring and new settlements at the urban peripheries (e.g., Lobo 1983,
Logan 1984, Holston 1989), or focused on economic policies, women workers, local politics and
religion (see, for example, Chaney and Castro, 1989, on women factory workers and market
traders; Safa, 1986, on informality and state policy; Bank and Doimo, 1989 on social
movements). Many studies on Latin America were influenced by sociological works, such as
Castells’s
The Cities and the Grassroots
(1983).
Urban research in Europe appeared to be more geographically diversified. In Britain
urban research mainly focused on ethnic groups, especially on Commonwealth immigrants
(Burghart 1987, Cohen 1981, Wallman 1984, Werbner 1986). Exceptions to this trend were
represented by such works as that of Mars (1982) on workplace crime, Harris (1986) on power
relations in industry and Finnegan (1989) on hidden musicians. A few studies were carried out in
Southern Europe and almost none in Eastern Europe. Although research in South Europe
continued to be circumscribed to the Mediterraneanist tradition and its limitations (Pardo and
Prato 2010), refreshing theoretical approaches began to emerge, as exemplified by the work of
Murphy (1983) on generational change in Seville and Pardo (1989) on the relationship between
religious beliefs and practices and social dynamics in Italy, while urban France attracted the
attention of both British (Grillo 1985) and native anthropologists (among them, Zonabend 1981
and Segalen 1985). Interestingly, Sweden was the country where most urban research was carried
out in continental Europe, addressing also ethnic issues and focusing on welfare institutions, class
and culture.
We must point out that, although based on urban ethnographies, most of the
aforementioned publications were not presented as ‘urban anthropology’. Many were identified,
instead, as studies in the anthropology of religion and of thought, economic anthropology,
gender, political anthropology, material culture, environmental anthropology and so on.
Opposition to urban anthropology was still predominant in the mainstream academic world and,
as we shall see, it took some time and effort for anthropological research in the urban West, and
particularly in Europe, to develop and achieve recognition.
