Ethnologie und Science Fiction

Begegnungen mit der Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft

Abstract

Since the 1960s, the relationship between social and cultural anthropology and science fiction has been a regular topic of scholarly discussion. In this article I take up important elements of this relationship and try to show which aspects of science fiction are or could be interesting for anthropologists today. I focus on the subgenre of anthropological science fiction but also refer to works of so-called ‘hard’ science fiction, paying special attention to Russian authors. I am particularly interested in how science fiction and ethnology deal with the topic of the future and how they use ethnological materials and ethnological theories. I conclude by comparing the forms of literary representation they employ.