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- Convenors:
-
Diana Espirito Santo
(Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)
Anastasios Panagiotopoulos (Department of Social Anthropology, University of Seville)
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- Formats:
- Workshops
- Location:
- R10 (in V)
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 11 July, -, -, Thursday 12 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Paris
Short Abstract:
This panel seeks to understand the role of 'trickster' ontologies in anthropological analysis, namely, by exploring how ambiguity, transgressiveness and uncertainty in social and religious life can point to novel ways of treating 'disorder' as an analytical, and not just epistemological, object.
Long Abstract:
Anthropology now talk of flows, communities of practice, and mobile cultural geographies in what appears to be a radical shift of object, from social structures and a standardizing view of collectivities, to individuals, processes, entities and agencies. But if the myth of the universality of order results more from the institutional anxieties of the anthropologist than those of the societies studied, disorder, malleability and ambiguity, as ontological - as well as epistemological or social - facts, have only rarely been the subject of analytical interest. Anthropologists of religion have long grappled with the figure of the 'trickster' - the playful, shape-shifting archetypical spirit whose resistance to categorical stasis and ontological certainty is a reminder that cosmology can often escape human determination and containment. Through diverse ethnographic instances and contexts, we explore the idea of 'anthropological tricksters' and their dividends more generally - not only in their 'religious' forms, but also (and as we understand the word ontology) in the more encompassing domains of politics, kinship, and social identity, where ambiguity may not be just transitive but indeed constitutive. We wish to focus on ethnographic accounts of ontological uncertainty that would challenge what has arguably been an anthropological bias towards ontologically 'ordered' ethnographies. In this way we call for papers that can provide insight into 1) instances of disjuncture between the analyst's expectations and the 'behavior' of the various 'entities' (metaphysical, social, political, etc) of his field; or 2) field methodologies suggesting novel ways of recording and theorizing ontological transgressiveness and transformation.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 11 July, 2012, -Paper short abstract:
Symbolic thought is a trickster as it imposes categorical thought on the anthropologist and may blind her to the reality of the social world under scrutiny. Deleuzian alternative semiotics offer a way to disentangle the work of this trickster.
Paper long abstract:
A trickster is a "symbolic type," as conceptualized by Don Handelman; she unwaveringly sticks to her own behavior, while disregarding changing conditions, and thus forces the social scene to abide by her own logic; she determines the social unfolding and molds it. Moreover, the trickster is a fantastically successful fraud, since she makes everyone believe that reality conforms to her ways. The symbol and other representations in anthropology do the same, they impose categorical thought on the fuzzy, living, ever transforming social world under scrutiny, and thus too they determine the anthropologist's analysis and interpretation. This deceptive logic instills an illusory ontological gap between the world-we-live-in, and our cultural construction and understanding of that world. While the world itself is made of one sort of material, the trickster tells us, its representations are made of radically different stuff. With the help of Deleuzian semiotics I would like to unmask the trickster and propose an alternative way of looking at cultural constructs, one that does not impose its logic on anthropological observation, and that does not assume a gap between doing and making sense, because no unequivocal distinction exists between the two, but rather a smooth passage.
Paper short abstract:
This paper seeks to describe the Aikewara's (Indigenous people from Lowland Amazonia) analytical thinking, specially, what we would call "mythical translation process".
Paper long abstract:
What is a myth? As Lévi-Strauss once said, this is not a simple question. For the Aikewara (Indigenous people from Lowland Amazonia), every existing thing - the sky, the society, the animals, their own bodies, etc. - has its own myth. The thing-in-itself and its se'eng-kwera (the native word for myth) have a complex relationship: as the Aikewara shaman teachs us, the myth is more than an origin - in a "historical" sense, it is something like an original experience: here, everything happens as if nothing had ever happened and everything is still to come. Thus, this kind of narrative is not a story, nor History, but a genuine philosophical effort to tease out the living world from an Outside (sensu Blanchot). Taking this as a hinterland, this paper seeks to describe the Aikewara's analytical thinking, specially, what we would call "mythical translation process". If the main subject here is Translation and Myth, the narrative focus is on the relationship between these people and the non-indigenous population, namely, with their (our) science - a central theme in their mythology. In other words, this presentation is about a mythical translation of our own Science - Anthropology included.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the continuities and discontinuities in the different forms occupied by the "trickster" principle among rural Mapuche people in southern Chile. I argue that the mythical trickster, Fox, contemporary ritual clowns, and stereotypical "whitemen", all occupy a place of simultaneous creation, destruction, and inversion in Mapuche thought.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper I attempt to trace the continuities between mythical accounts of Fox, the paradigmatic Mapuche trickster, ethnographic accounts of contemporary ritual clowns (koyong), and stereotypical narratives of white people. I explore how each of these figures manifests a particular "trickster" principle of simultaneous inversion, creation, and destruction. I use this continuity as the basis for engaging with one of Radin's overlooked insights - that tricksters are as much a commentary on their audience as they are upon themselves, and I thus suggest that they embody a very particular instance of what Roy Wagner termed "reverse anthropology'.
Paper short abstract:
This paper uses the story of a spirit medium who in 2007 famously courted public controversy and government ministers, to explore the uncertainties that surround the authenticity of mediumship and possession in Zimbabwe, the political consequences and dangers, but also opportunities for mediums.
Paper long abstract:
This paper uses the story of the so-called 'diesel n'anga' - a spirit medium who in 2007 famously courted public controversy, and government ministers, with her claims to be able to procure refined diesel from rocks - to explore the multi-faceted uncertainties that surround the authenticity of mediumship and possession in Zimbabwe, and the serious political consequences and dangers, but also opportunities that these can have for spirit mediums. The claims of Rotina Mavhunga ('diesel n'anga) were unusual, as was the government's apparent incredulity, and her subsequent fall from grace extreme, once her fraud was finally uncovered. But spirit mediums and ancestral cults have long been implicated in Zimbabwean politics, dating back to the early rebellions against colonial rule in the 1890s. Because their authenticity, legitimacy and authority as mediums, as both representatives and vessels of ancestors, exists beyond the limits of political control - their very presence pointing to other ancestral or divine sovereignties - Zimbabwe's postcolonial government has often treated spirit mediums with a great deal of ambivalence, even as some spirit mediums have sometimes become deeply imbricated in political scandals. The case of Mavhunga and other less well known examples, illustrate how the ambiguities, ambivalences and uncertainties of performance, agency and authenticity, that lie at the heart of mediumship, offer both opportunities and risk; making spirit possession in Zimbabwe an inherently precarious occupation.
Paper short abstract:
For Colombian Amazon Indians, Maloca is the espace sacred par excellence. This paper demostrates how through all musical practices all Humanity from Uitoto indian community is taking place to recreate dance after dance the meaning of their identity.
Paper long abstract:
Maloca is the tradicional house of Amazon indian communities. In the past, it was a house where some families lived, currently it represents a life space for their sociocultural and ritual activities. Having a Maloca is a sign of prestigie because it is a place in where all meeting, musical performace, dances and important ceremonies with itention to prevent diseases, propicie good Harvest and clannes integration.
In the Maloca, the indian community N+ma+ra Na+meke +b+r+ from ethnic Group Uitoto, They run different types of musical practices which can be grouped in two big divisons. The first one is Uitoto Universe Group, Its music is addressed to human beings, nonhuman and owner-spirits that conform the humanity Uitoto ethnic Group.
The second one is non Uitoto Universe Group, its music is addressed tothe human beings that do not belong to this ethnic Group. These two divisions integrate the Uitoto musical system. In the same way, these groups are integrated by three musical groups which work as dialogic entities and are determined by the musical gender.
According to above, It can be enevidenced that in order to define the Uitoto musical environment, it is necessary to describe and analize their musical practices with special attention to the song make by human voice or by Manguare musical instrument (Percussion musical instrument that allow the Communications between different communities); since the song is interpreted in the sacred space of the Maloca is gender cohesive whole "humanity" Uitoto, becuase it is the lenguage that interact between whole men, women, child, animals and plants that constitute the collective imagination of this community.
Paper short abstract:
Izinganekwane are histories that had been narrated for almost two hundred years in the KwaZulu-Natal region, South Africa. This work proposes a comparison between history analysis and its influence on everyday life. The connection between trickster strategies and empowerment paths will be analyzed.
Paper long abstract:
Izinganekwane's narration corpus is one of the most important outcomes of isiZulu language literature. Since a few years ago, it has been both an entertainment instrument and a tool for education. Historical and ethnographical accounts demonstrate also that those narrations have been very influential in Zulu history. The rigid structure of Zulu Kingdom compared with the fluid trickstering strategies of Izinganekwane characters is a clear example. If transmission authority was clearly regulated by strict succession rules, almost all Zulu kings have been trickster-usurpers. Nowadays, Izinganekwane are one of the few 'olden time' symbolic objects still remembered by the people.
Nevertheless, bibliographical research evidences the lack of analysis on the influence of this history on everyday life. This paper will try to grasp connections between story analysis and people´s interaction. In particular, the main narration´s character, Hlakanyane, seems to be a recognized 'model' for men. The term 'hlaka', nowadays translated as 'cleverness', appears as a key for individual empowerment strategy and a required feature for a male youth to become adult. In connection with today's huge spread of neoliberal influence, the trickstering strategies seem to be useful to justify some life story moment. Accumulation of economic or symbolic capital, often require actions on the limit of morality, and Hlakanyane´s actions sometimes seem to be a framework to accept it. On the other side, this process seems to be morally accepted only if linked to redistribution process that can empower not only the individual but also his whole social network.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, three anthropologists grapple ethnographically with the notion of ontological ambiguity through a methodological shift towards ‘idiocy', characterized by naivety and reflexive deceleration, inspired by Isabelle Stengers.
Paper long abstract:
This paper is a conversation between three anthropologists grappling with the notion of ontological ambiguity through a methodological shift towards 'idiocy'. Following Isabelle Stengers's conceptual character of 'the idiot', summoned in her Cosmopolitical Proposal, this paper suggests that the anthropologist's challenge in the face of asserted unity and certainty is to slow things down and resist the "consensual ways in which the situation is presented" (Stengers 2005: 994), in order to account for ethnographic ambiguity and transgression. Whereas the trickster is the shape-shifting ontological negotiator, always one step ahead, the idiot makes a virtue of naivety, and is always one step behind. To follow this 'idiotic method' one must allow the ethnography to slow the anthropologist's analytical thinking and one also needs to 'stumble' into others' work, so that the ontological uncertainty of one field may 'slow down' the theorisation in others. We exemplify this ethnographically by showing how the figure of the emigrant in rural Morocco, the encantado in Amazonia and the Global Climate Model in the Brazilian Space Institute, may be brought "in the presence of" (ibid: 997) each other and result in a radical reflexive deceleration, permitting us to catch our breath analytically. The paper suggests that allowing ethnographies to 'spill over', or 'trip each other up', in this way, does not only constitute 'comparison' but also a methodological tool for testing the limits of our analyses.
Paper short abstract:
I argue that anthropology has always been in the middle of an ontological ambiguity: can an intellectual system based on abstract concepts (that is anthropology) grasp and describe an intellectual system based on metaphysical entities (religion)? My answer to this question is: it cannot.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper I use my own ethnographic and meta-ethnographic experiences in south-western Ghana and in London as an illustration, and I explore the anthropological controversy and ambiguity deriving from the following suggestion: one cannot understand anything unless one becomes the other. But if one truly becomes the other, there is no way back to the "self". Therefore, becoming the other entails losing academic authority, quitting objectivity (modern or post-modern), and accepting the disappearance of the constitutive distance between the (academic) self and the other. In the paper I describe what happens when the anthropologist becomes the other, to him/her personally, as well as, to his/her academic career (the dire consequences of professional treason), and I discuss the question of whether anthropology, as we know it, is still possible when one escapes the prison of western intellectual superiority.