Manfred Kremser

Manfred Kremser ( born July 30, 1950 in Wiener Neustadt, † March 3, 2013 in meadows in Burgenland) was an Austrian ethnologist and consciousness researcher and from 2001 until his death associate professor at the Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, where he previously since 1980 was scientifically active.

When his specialties were the religious culture of Africa and the Caribbean and the Religions-/Bewusstseinsforschung, where he presented here the practical experience in the ritual at the center of his research. In addition, he worked on cyber anthropology and applies here as in the Religions-/Bewusstseinsforschung initiated by him as a pioneer at the Vienna Institute. He was also responsible for the development of scientific publication at the Institute in collaboration with Karl R. Wernhart and Wittigo cellar with the study of Afro-Caribbean Diaspora.

• 2.1 Austrian Society for Parapsychology and Border Areas of Science
• 2.2 Other activities

• 4.1 esoteric critique of society for the scientific study of para-science ( GWUP )

Career

Initial research & thesis (1971-1978)

Kremser published in his time in the then -alternative military service of the Austrian army reports, which reflected the gritty everyday life in the barracks. In order to escape a looming condemnation after the end of his service, he left Austria for a year towards South Africa. Nevertheless Kremser was a member of the Scientific Committee of the Social Science Commission at the Federal Ministry of Defence and Sports in later years.

Kremser began to study after his return in 1971 Ethnology (now Cultural and Social Anthropology ) and Psychology at the University of Vienna. He also attended courses in 8 other subjects. In 1972 he undertook together with Armin Prinz his first fieldwork among the Azande in Zaire. Based on these experiences, he completed in 1978 under Walter Hirschberg his dissertation on witchcraft, which he dealt with the culture-specific concept of disease, taking into account the phenomenon Mangu, a person " bewitched " which, when these social norms injured.

Assistant Professor & Habilitation (1980-2001)

Kremser 1980 became the first assistant of Karl R. Wernhart at the Vienna Institute of Ethnology and worked with this on a reformulation of Vienna ethnohistory, with his increased focus is attributed to the field research. He also participated in Wern Hart's research of Afro- Caribbean Diaspora, which was first treated at the Vienna Institute. This led to a ten-year interdisciplinary cooperation in St. Lucia ( 1982-1992 ). In this context, he was involved in the results, which were published in a series of book publications as co- author, editor or co-editor. In this project he worked on the Kele - cult.

A similar project on intergenerational relationships he pursued jointly with the sociologist Leopold Rosenmayr in Mali, where Kremser advised him with his knowledge of African cultures and supported.

In 2001 he habilierte to extraordinary professor at the Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna. In his two-volume Habilitationsschrift Shango transformations: from traditional thunder god of the Yoruba to digital lightning storm in cyberspace, he examined the relationship between spirituality and transcendent cultural Kreavitität the example of the Yoruba thunder god Shango. Here he lit Shango changes from the historical king of Oyo to the thunder god of the Yoruba as well as his reinterpretations in the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora (Atlantic slave trade ). He also studied the acquisition and the associated modifications of the deity in the digital diaspora.

Other activities

Austrian Society for Parapsychology and Border Areas of Science

Kremser dealt in addition to its research-based activities at the University of Vienna with the border areas of science, whereby he came in the early 1970s as part of his field research among the Azande in contact with the Austrian Society for Parapsychology, which greatly influenced his scientific work, without he had ever complained for yourself to possess psychic specialist knowledge.

1997 sparked Kremser the seriously ill from Hellmut Hofmann as president of the society.

At the same time was the time for the company, the words " and border areas of the sciences " was introduced, especially as Kremser always continued to seek an interdisciplinary approach. The highlight of his tenure, the company shall be designated as the " World Congress of Parapsychology " 47th Convention of the Parapsychological Association, the international professional association of working scientifically parapsychologists, which took place in Vienna in 2004.

Kremser remained until his death president.

Other activities

• Vice- President of the Society for Caribbean Research ( SOCARE ) ( 1988-99 )
• Chairman of the Association for Intercultural Work ( 1992-99 )
• Vice- President of the Society of Theatre Anthropology (1997-2002)
• President of the Austrian Ethno Medical Society (2005-2009)

Illness and death

2009 Kremser ill with cancer, which he was forced in the following years to endure numerous operations and chemotherapy about yourself. 2011/12 Kremser retired from teaching. On March 3, 2013, died in his home in Kremser meadows in Burgenland after nearly four years of illness.

Reception

At the Vienna Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology Kremser pioneered the Religions-/Bewusstseinsforschung which he coined by his approach to involve the self- experience of the researchers. Kremser this was very interested in the topic of healing in ritual, where he specialized in shamanic societies in India, Africa and the Caribbean. Likewise, he is considered a pioneer in the cyber anthropology. He also made ​​major contributions to the much acclaimed and ethnomusicology. He has documented the musical traditions of the Azande in the north of Central Africa in detail and examined.

For his 60th birthday, the University of Vienna Manfred Kremser honored on November 19, 2010 with the symposium Performance - Transformation - Aesthetics, which was dedicated to the central research approaches of consciousness research from an anthropological perspective and its spiritual dimensions in the meaning of his work priorities.

Esoteric criticism of the Society for the Scientific Investigation of para-science ( GWUP )

The end of June, 2013, three months after his death, Kremser was accused of pages of GWUP that under his leadership, " esotericism and mysticism not only explore students, but apply even esoteric methods in stark contrast to good scientific practice and esoteric mystical ideas of the accept them uncritically cultures studied and propagate "and that from these students " is even recruited young researchers ", creating a" Wiener Hogwarts " had arisen.

In a statement, the head of the Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology criticism of belonging to the skeptic movement GWUP was rejected because the criticism was referring not to the work Kremser, but only on student services and from the context cracked statements. Similarly, the GWUP was from their side as " positivist " and " ultra- rational" criticized since it is the task of the cultural and social anthropology, to be represented by ethnographies worldviews and practices without judging those as "true" or "false". Those criticisms were of Ulrich Berger, president of the Society for Critical Thinking ( GdK ), a regional group of the GWUP as " fantasies " and defense of " Humbug " rejected.

Selected Works

• Ay Bobo: Afro - Caribbean religions. 2 vols. Vienna 1996, ISBN 978-3-85114-175-7, ISBN 978-3-85114-559-5
• ADDR: African Digital Diaspora religions. Munster 2000, ISBN 978-3-8258-3998-7
• Caribbean Genesis II: Spiritual Work and ritual staging, in Hermann Mückler, Werner Zips & Manfred Kremser (ed.), ethnohistory: empiricism and practice ( Vienna Contributions to Ethnology and Anthropology 14). Vienna: WUV, 2006
• African American Religions in the Caribbean, Bernd Berger House & Gerhard Pfeisinger (ed.), The Caribbean: History and Society 1492-2000 (Edition 11 world regions ). Vienna: Promedia, 2005
• The shamanic work of art, in club Pacha Mama: Maresa Pirker et al. (Ed.), Health and Spirituality ( Documentation of the congress from 23 to 26 June 2005). Vienna: pro literature Verlag Robert Mayer - Scholz, 2005