Witchcraft, Sorcery, Magic, and Other Psychological Phenomena and Their Implications on Military and Paramilitary Operations in the Congo

Price, James R.; Jureidini, Paul A.

doi:10.21236/ad0464903

Cited by 14 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The only two M-VICO reports that I have been able to locate (Conley 1966, Price et al 1964 portray an ambitious project in its early stages. However, M-VICO was terminated not long after its creation.…”

Section: The M-vico Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Counterinsurgency and the M‐VICO System: Human Relations Area Files and anthropology's dual‐use legacy

Price

2012

Anthropology Today

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Over the past decade, ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY has published a number of features covering the relationship between anthropology and the security state. Here, David Price draws attention to an aborted counterinsurgency project, known as the M‐VICO project. Building on the categories and structures employed in the Human Relation Area Files (HRAF), this project relied on anthropologists to encode data cross‐culturally on all forms of behaviour in as many strategic localities as possible, which the security services subsequently scrutinize and probe for possible weaknesses that could be exploited. In this article, David Price shows that, in the secrecy that often surrounds the financing and precise purposes of its projects, anthropology is not all that different from many other disciplines, with some projects serving what he calls ‘dual‐use’ ends. Since civilian researchers are not supposed to have full knowledge of these ends, research into these semi‐covert purposes is particularly challenging.

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Section: The M-vico Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%