Prof. Lorraine Aragon (Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina) wird am Donnerstag, 10. Juni 2010, 16:00 Uhr c.t. einen öffentlichen Vortrag zum Thema

“Traditional Cultural Expressions and Copyright in Indonesia”

im Institut für Kulturanthropologie/Europäische Ethnologie Friedländer Weg 2, Graues Haus, Seminarraum PH06 (1. Stock) halten. Nach dem Vortrag wird Gelegenheit zur Diskussion geboten. Veranstalter sind das Institut für Kulturanthropologie/Europäische Ethnologie und die interdisziplinäre DFG‐Forschergruppe zu Cultural Property.

The 10th Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival (GIEFF), May 12–16, 2010, will feature a symposium on “Future Past - Cultural Heritage and Collaborative Ethnographic Film Work”. From the announcement:

Cultural heritage, collaborative ethnographic work, and ethnographic film work are discussed theoretically and methodologically again and again. However, this happens mainly separately from each other. In the context of intangible cultural heritage its documentation with film is of particular value. Nowadays, archival film material is sought after by the members of the respective cultures. New material is created by many people, amongst others by anthropologists and people of the respective cultures themselves. Having these diverse sources of material at hand the question of validity immediately arises. Which contribution can anthropology make? How important is the collaboration with local representatives, how does it work, and with which results? Which contribution can “indigenous filmmaking” offer in this context? And, who decides whether or not an event, an expression, or a performance is an element of the cultural heritage?

Different examples of collaborative ethnographic film work from various parts of the world will be examined in the context of the contemporary culture heritage discourse. The aim is to achieve a deeper insight into the processes of creating cultural heritage, in using film, and in thus documenting intangible cultural heritage.

The symposium is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (Volkswagen Stiftung) and the Wenner Gren Foundation. It is organised by the University of Göttingen and the Förderinitiative Visuelle Ethnographie e.V. (FIVE). Intervention Press will publish the papers of the conference.

The symposium is organised by Prof. Dr. Regina Bendix (University of Göttingen), Prof. Dr. Peter Crawford (Intervention Press), Dr. Rolf Husmann and Dr. Beate Engelbrecht (both University of Göttingen, Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival GIEFF and FIVE).

The symposium will take place from May 15 to May 18, for the preliminary programme and registration see http://www.gieff.de/history/conference2010.html.

Terminänderung: Der Vortrag von Jason Jackson findet nicht am 16.3.2010 um 16:15 Uhr, sondern am 18.3.2010 um 18:15 Uhr statt.

Prof. Jason Baird Jackson (Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University, Bloomington) wird am Dienstag 18.03.2010 um 18:15 Uhr einen öffentlichen Vortrag zum Thema

“Transformations of Heritage and Property in Museums”

im Seminarraum der Kulturanthropologie/Europäische Ethnologie im Friedländer Weg 2 (Graues Haus, 1. Stock) halten.

Das Institut für Völkerrecht und die interdisziplinäre DFG-Forschergruppe zu Cultural Property laden am Freitag, 19. März 2010, 18:15 Uhr, zu einem öffentlichen Vortrag zum Thema

“The Fragmentation of International Law”

von Dr. Nele Matz-Lück (MPI Heidelberg) ein. Veranstaltungsort ist das Institut für Völkerrecht und Europarecht, Seminarraum der Bibliothek im Blauen Turm, 13. Stock, MZG 2314. Nach dem Vortrag wird Gelegenheit zur Diskussion geboten.

Arnika Peselmann, M.A. und Stefan Groth, M.A. werden am 27.01.2010 im Rahmen des Institutskolloqiums (PDF) des Instituts für Kulturanthropologie/Europäische Ethnologie der Universität Göttingen einen Vortrag zum Thema

„Cultural Property als kulturanthropologisches Forschungsthema“

halten. Veranstaltungsort ist der Seminarraum PH05 (Herzberger Landstraße 2), Beginn der Veranstaltung 18:00 c.t.

1. TK Bulletin on Traditional Knowledge and Climate Change

Following up on our last post on the climate summit in Copenhagen, the TK Bulletin has some recent entries (see here, here and here) on the connection between traditional knowledge and climate change as well as on the role of Indigenous People’s involvement in the UNFCC negotations. Maintained by the United Nations University, the TK Bulletin is alway a good resource to stay up to date with international developments related to issues of traditional knowledge.

2. WIPO Traditional Knowledge Meeting Stalls, But Begins To Breach ‘Trust Gap’ — Kaitlin Mara (IP Watch)

After an auspicious beginning on substantive issues, the World Intellectual Property Organization traditional knowledge committee stalled on matters of procedure at the end of its meeting last week. With no mandate, a committee working group will not meet in early 2010 as planned, and the full committee will move meet again sooner than scheduled to try to agree on process.

3. Traditional Knowledge Action Plan Launched — Voxy.co.nz

The Traditional Knowledge Action Plan for Forum Island Countries (FICs) has been launched marking a milestone development for the region. The Action Plan was launched at a Traditional Knowledge workshop convened by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and World Intellectual Property Rights Organisation (WIPO) last week in Nadi. The meeting was attended by Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights experts and senior government officials from across the region.

4. India Needs to Develop Strong Legal System Against Bio-Piracy — Peethaambaran Kunnathoor (PharmaBiz)

A concrete legal mechanism should be in place to protect and sharing of India’s biodiversity knowledge of indigenous communities, or else it will become the property of somebody else as per the provisions of existing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), according to professor K V Krishnamurthy, president, Foundation for the Revitalization of Local Health Traditions, Bangalore. The usurping of indigenous knowledge or traditional knowledge, including medical knowledge, without any benefit to the owner-society is called bio-piracy or gene robbing. There are more than 250 recorded cases of bio-piracy relating to traditional knowledge systems. As far as Indian cases are concerned, the cases related to Neem, Basmati and Turmeric are the popular ones. The existing legal systems and International Conventions such as Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) cannot protect traditional knowledge and traditional medicinal systems, Krishnamurthy asserted.

5. Archives Dept on a Hunt for Ayurveda Manuscripts — Asha P. Nair (Express Buzz)

For a change, the State Archives Department will shed its scholarly image and take a step closer to people. The department is all set to launch a hunt for the ancient manuscripts and records on ayurveda and traditional knowledge, probably lying dusty and moth-eaten in a large number of Kerala homes. A survey will be launched on November 13 to ‘collect, preserve and digitise records and manuscripts related to ayurveda and traditional knowledge of Kerala’. Though the department can boast of a solid collection of State’s past in political, social and historical arena, there isn’t much data available with it when it comes to traditional medicine or way of life in the State ages ago.

6. Protection of Traditional Terms and Expressions - Changes to the Trade Marks Act (South Africa) — Adams & Adams

The IP Laws Amendment Bill is currently the subject of a process of consultation in cabinet between relevant ministries. According to the Director of Commercial Law and Policy at the DTI, Mr. MacDonald Netshitenzhe, the Bill should be placed before a parliamentary portfolio committee by early October with a view to being passed by early December. The proposed legislation could have wide ranging implications for the law governing a broad range of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in South Africa, including performer’s rights, copyright, designs and Trade Marks. However, this article highlights aspects of the Bill that are most pertinent to the law of Trade Marks.

The recent climate summit in Copenhagen has given way to widespread disappointment: a global audience had high hopes for a breakthrough. Yet the preliminary results from our research group’s participant observation at WIPO in Geneva would indicate that the climate summit, preceded by preparatory intergovernmental meetings beforehand, certainly did achieve what Barak Obama called “meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough.” For unlike many international negotiations, there *is* an outcome.

The pictures available from the Copenhagen summit (see for example here, here, here and here) are eerily familiar from our participant observation in Geneva. Other than the images showing world leaders addressing the summit or dining together in animated conversation, we get to see chairs and tables organized alphabetically by country names, all facing forward and delegates whose bodies signal boredom and exhaustion.

Protesters outside the summit halls and commentators near and far spend no time thinking about the culture of international negotiations, manifest in the meeting spaces, communicative rules and their traditionalization, the linguistic diversity and corresponding need for countless interpreters, the equally traditionalized open and latent groups and subgroups with their complex agenda. These are just some of the factors contributing to the nature of what anthropologist William Fisher called some time ago the “chaotic, public spectacle” of international meetings and conferences. Within these parameters, the IGC we have been studying has, in eight years of twice annual meetings made practically no headway concerning its actual mission – negotiating regulations for GRTKF.

One of its few breakthroughs has been the establishment of a voluntary fund for delegates from indigenous groups and NGOs to travel to attend the IGC. We have observed speeding and stalling practices, deep engagement in the collective micro-editing of potential negotiation texts – in short, repeat engagements on the part of more than two hundred delegates where not speed but at best incremental movements are the rule rather than the exception.

Cultural property is a relatively young negotiation subject, tough it has arisen, globally, in quite diverse form over a long period of time. Similarly, climate change has unfolded over a century or more, but it has been a burning issue on the global agenda for at best a decade. While the result of the Copenhagen summit is also the decision for a “fund”, it is a fund that addresses the problem under negotiation directly. Judging by the outcome, climate change is regarded internationally as a far more crucial issue than the regulation of cultural property rights. Perhaps we should be thankful for that, as increased effort to address or even halt climate change will give us more time to work toward insights and solutions in the realm of cultural property right

Matthias Lankau, M.A. Int. Econ. und Doktorand im Teilprojekt „Recht und Ökonomik von Cultural Property: Eine institutionenökonomische Analyse der Regelbildung“ wird bei der Postersession zum Forschungstag „Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Forschung“ zwei Poster zur laufenden Forschung in der Forschergruppe vorstellen.

Die Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen lädt herzlich zum Forschungstag „Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Forschung an der Georgia Augusta – aktuelle Projekte und Trends“ am Dienstag, 24. November 2009, ein. Im Rahmen dieses Tages stellen die Professuren der Fakultät ausgewählte Forschungsprojekte und -themen vor (in Vorträgen, multimedial oder als Poster) und diskutieren ihre aktuelle Arbeit.

Die Veranstaltung richtet sich an die Mitarbeiter aller Fakultäten und weiteren Einrichtungen der Universität – insbesondere auch die wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiter und Doktoranden, an alle Studierenden sowie an Wirtschaftsvertreter und die interessierte Öffentlichkeit.

Wir laden Sie herzlich ein, die Forschungsprojekte und -themen der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät näher kennenzulernen!

Ort: Aula im Waldweg, Waldweg 26, 37073 Göttingen
Zeit: 9.00 bis 16.00 Uhr

Die Poster-Session beginnt um 13:00 Uhr, das Programm kann auf den Seiten des Forschungstages eingesehen werden.

Das Göttinger Zentrum für Theorie und Methodik der Kulturwissenschaften (ZTMK) veranstaltet im Rahmen der Reihe “Featured Thinker” einen Workshop mit dem Anthropologen Arjun Appadurai. Besonders der von Appadurai behandelte Themenkomplex um “Culture, Value & Commodities” (so zum Beispiel in dem von Appadurai herausgegebenen Band “The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective”), der auch im Rahmen des Workshops behandelt werden wird, ist für die Forschergruppe zu Cultural Property von Interesse. Der Workshop findet am 28. Januar 2010 von 11-16 Uhr im Seminarraum des Lichtenberg-Kollegs statt und wird in englischer Sprache abgehalten.

Photo by TheSilentPhotographer – This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Aus der Veranstaltungsankündigung:

Arjun Appadurai ist Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and Communication an der New York University. Ausgebildet als Social and Cultural Anthropologist hat Appadurai im Verlauf seiner bisherigen Forschung Themen aufgegriffen, die ein breites und innovatives Feld kulturtheoretischer Fragestellungen aufgreifen. Neben Werken wie Modernity at Large (1996) und Fear of Small Numbers (2006) umspannt das Oeuvre ein breites Spektrum von Arbeiten zur Moderne zwischen Globalisierung und Postkolonialität, Medien und Urbanität. Er ist Mitbegründer der seit 1988 publizierten Zeitschrift Public Culture.

Der eintägige Workshop bietet insbesondere Promovenden und Post-Docs aber selbstredend auch Lehrenden und weiteren Interessierten Gelegenheit, sich in semi-strukturiertem Format mit diesem einflussreichen kulturwissenschaftlichen Denker der Gegenwart zu unterhalten. Kleine Auszüge aus dem Werk von Prof. Appadurai werden durch Impulsreferate vorgestellt und danach mit deren Autor diskutiert. So werden im Lauf des Tages gemeinsam mit dem Forscher die Konturen seiner thematischen und intellektuellen Entwicklung herausgearbeitet.

Interessierte Doktoranden und Post-Doktoranden können sich auf den Seiten des ZTMK bis zum 8. Dezember 2009 zum Workshop anmelden und auch die Einführung in einen der zu diskutierenden Themenkomplexe übernehmen.

A quick editorial note: the new “Around the Web” category will feature news & articles related to cultural property that we stumble upon on the web. Their collection is intended to give an overview of developments in the area of research. They do not, however, reflect the views of the research group.

1. “Turning Point” At WIPO Pulls Traditional Knowledge Debate Out At Eleventh Hour — by Kaitlin Mara (IP Watch)

After a year of stalled deliberations on the issue of protecting traditional knowledge, genetic resources, and traditional cultural expressions, delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assemblies on 1 October found a compromise text that gives the committee its strongest mandate yet. The Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) “is alive,” General Assemblies Vice-Chair Mohamed Abderraouf Bdioui Raouf of Tunisia said afterward. The committee had come to the end of its two-year mandate and, despite devoting most of the last two sessions to future work, had not yet been able to agree on a new mandate. It had been meeting continuously on these issues for about a decade.

2. Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge: Can the New WIPO Mandate Deliver on Biopiracy? — by Sisule F. Musungu (IQsensato)

On 1 October 2009, the last day of the 47th Series of Meetings of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assemblies, a new mandate for its Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (commonly known as ‘the IGC’) was agreed by the Member States. The last minute agreement, following a year of wrangling, was hailed by many as a major breakthrough, particularly for the African Group. WIPO’s Director General called it “a real step forward”. The African Group, with the support of many developing countries, had insisted on a mandate that would deliver a ‘binding’ treaty on these issues in two years time.

3. Bridges Trade BioRes Review 3(2) (PDF) — International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)

The October 2009 edition of Bridges Trade BioRes features articles on the inclusion of biodiversity and traditional knowledge in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), biopiracy and the establishment of an ‘Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development’ unit within the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IGE).


4. To Catch a Looter — by Roger Atwood (NY Times)

In 1994, residents of eight villages in northwestern Peru — a region of deserts and oases that looks much like Iraq — organized citizens’ patrols. The patrols weren’t out to stop house burglars or cattle rustlers. They were looking for looters, who, for several years, had plundered the area to feed the robust international market for pre-Inca artifacts. I spent a few days with one of these patrols in the village of Úcupe in 2002. The members were unarmed and well organized, and they knew the terrain as well as you know your dining room. When they spotted looters digging up the overgrown ancient burial mounds that dot the landscape, they surrounded them and called the police. In this way, I saw the patrols apprehend three potential looters without firing a shot.