Sale

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Verkafferung is a term that was adopted from Afrikaans during the German colonial rule in South West Africa . It describes a loss of distance that was undesirable at the time and the "over" assimilation towards the local population, or general neglect. In a figurative sense, the term is known as going native in social science and ethnological field research .

German colonial history

German colonial rulers in German South West Africa understood the term “Verkafferung” to mean getting involved in the way of life and thinking of the local Bantu-speaking population, whom they referred to as Kaffirs . This was conveyed in the "German Colonial Lexicon" in 1920 as the "descent of a European to the cultural level of the native". The constant contact with locals, but especially the " mixed marriage ", according to the opinion of the time, favored this "regrettable degeneration of white settlers". However, under-selling was also understood to mean a “disorderly” farm, excessive alcohol consumption, impoverishment, and the integration of indigenous word elements into one's own language. This process was referred to as going native in the British colonial administration . France and Portugal trained Europeanized elites in their colonies. See assimilation (colonialism) (for Portugal see also Assimilado )

See also: acclimatization , acculturation , assimilation (sociology) .

Transferred importance in social research

In social science field research (literally) “Verkafferung” applies as the result of an overly committed “ participatory observation ”, namely as taking over the values ​​and attitudes towards life of the observed group. If (for example) a prison sociologist spends years in prison for research purposes, he can adopt the ways of thinking and acting either of the prisoners or the guards and thus loses his scientifically distant perspective.

On the other hand (according to Ronald Hitzler ), field research requires a certain degree of approximation, otherwise participatory observation would not be possible at all (see also ethnomethodology ).

literature

  • German Colonial Lexicon , Volume III, 1920
  • Paul Willis : "Profane Culture". Rockers, hippies. Subversive styles of youth culture . Syndicate, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-8108-0195-X
  • Thomas Feltes : Criminological (practical) research: Some general thoughts on the dependencies and barriers to the recognizability and changeability of criminologically relevant reality . In: Thomas Feltes, Helmut Kury (Ed.): Criminology and practical research . Forum, Bonn 1988, ISBN 3-927066-04-4 , pp. 55-101
  • Daniel Joseph Walther: Creating Germans Abroad: Cultural Policies & National Identity in Namibia: Cultural Policies and National Identity in Namibia. Ohio University Press, Athens 2002, ISBN 978-0-8214-1459-0
  • Birthe Kundrus: Modern Imperialists. The empire in the mirror of its colonies . Böhlau 2003, ISBN 978-3-412-18702-6 . Habilitation thesis.
  • Felix Axster: The fear of the seller - politics of cleaning in German colonialism . In: Werkstatt Geschichte , 39, 2005, werkstattgeschichte.de (PDF)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon (1920), Volume III, p. 606
  2. ^ Katharina Walgenbach: The white woman as a bearer of German culture. Campus 2006, ISBN 978-3-593-37870-1 , p. 193 ff.
  3. ↑ Hitzler's theses on ethnography (PDF; 93 kB)
  4. ↑ Review. Hsozukult