Cenzus jako předmět antropologického výzkumu

Abstract

Censuses can be conceived as parts of the wider process of collective identity negotiations and as such become subjects of anthropologically-oriented research. The following study is focused on the theoretical underpinnings of anthropological research using censuses, as well as the relation between statistics and social reality. It shows some cases of censuses taken from different socio-geographical contexts (Rwanda and Burundi, USA, Brazil) and summarizes the history of Czechoslovak and Czech censuses. The most distinctive feature of a census in general is shown to be its use for the purposes of “identitary mobilization”. Various agents urge potential members of some category of general collective identity (e.g. nationality) to declare their “belonging” in a particular, desired form (e.g. “Roma nationality”). These efforts and the actual census data are critically viewed from the social constructivist position in order to uncover the nationalist discourse. At the same time, possibilities and also limits of anthropological research of censuses are discussed.