Historical anthropology and anthropological history : two distinct programs (original) (raw)

Eleven years ago, in 1985, Focaal was founded in the backyard of a student house in the university town of Nijmegen. It was the first of two anthropology journals in the Netherlands to be started by students and to subsequently become a prime outlet for anthropological writing in this country (the other is Etnofoor). This issue is meant to celebrate its first decade, to testify to its current vitality, and to set signposts for the next years. The present issue could not be devoted to anything but anthropology and history. This is easy to explain. The conjunction of anthropology and history was the principal intellectual thread that tied its supporters together during this demanding decade of institutional stagnation and enforced ‘mobility’ for younger researchers (downwards quite often, sideways more often than not, but upwards also). Its editors were initially based in Nijmegen, where under the direction of Anton Blok a strong historical and indeed interdisciplinary orientation had...