Programme de bourses "Echanges Universitaires"

Visiting Scholar Dr. Michel Razafiarivony, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar

Social anthropology is a discipline that specialises in understanding cultural differences and similarities across the globe. Although anthropologists also analyse various aspects of societies in the North, empirical field research in countries of the South remains a central part of the anthropological agenda. However, despite the discipline’s global and intercultural orientation, anthropologists in the North know relatively little about the work of anthropologists in the South and the latter’s work is often not sufficiently taken into account. The exchange programme between the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Zurich and the Institut de Civilisations/Musée d’art et d’archéologie at the University of Antananarivo (capital city of Madagascar) has contributed towards addressing this problem and towards strengthening the ties between anthropologists in the North and in the South.

During his three-week visit to Switzerland in November 2009, Dr. Razafiarivony – research director at the Institut de Civilisations/Musée d’art et d’archéologie in Madagascar – has given talks at the Department of Social Anthropology in Zurich, at the Centre for African Studies in Basel and at the Department of Social Anthropology in Bern. The topics addressed in these talks ranged from the situation of researchers in Madagascar to the implications of the Millennium Goals for countries in the South. 

Dr Razafiarivony also conducted extensive literature research during his stay in Switzerland. Of particular importance was the use of the electronic data bases of the University of Zurich providing access to a great variety of publications that are not available in Madagascar. Of similar importance was a visit to a private library in Zug that holds up to 4,000 items on Madagascar including full collections of very rare old journals which are not available in Madagascar itself.

His stay in Switzerland also enabled Dr Razafiarivony to establish contact to a number of scholars who work at Swiss universities as well as to the Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève where a big Madagascar exhibition is planned for 2013.

Partner Institutions

in Switzerland:     
       
Universität Zürich
Ethnologisches Seminar
Dr. Eva Keller
Andreasstrasse 15
8050 Zürich
E-mail: e.s.keller@bluewin.ch
Tel.:  +41 52 222 95 35

in Madagascar:      
      
Université d’Antananarivo      
Institut de Civilisations / Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie
Dr. Michel Razafiarivony
17, rue du Docteur Villette
Isoraka
Antananarivo
E-mail: mrazafiarivony@yahoo.fr