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- Convenors:
-
Andrea Boscoboinik
(University of Fribourg)
Hana Horakova (Palacky University Olomouc)
Carole Lemee (Université Bordeaux UMR 5319)
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- Formats:
- Workshops
- Location:
- V313
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 11 July, -, -, Thursday 12 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Paris
Short Abstract:
The aim is to discuss expressions of fear in various contexts, dealing with what people are afraid. We must learn to live with uncertainty, and learn to tame our fears. Which are the strategies and mechanisms used by groups or societies to reduce fear, to face it, to cope with it, to overcome it?
Long Abstract:
Fear, an individual feeling, is also a social experience. Besides, fear is expressed socially and leads to socio-cultural constructions. Although a feeling can be shared, it is not always easy to approach it anthropologically. Despite the difficulty of making an "ethnography of fear", according to the term of Jeudy-Ballini and Voisenat (Ethnographier la peur, 2004), it is still possible to read into collective fears, through their sociocultural demonstrations, the major concerns of a society and its cultures.
Collective fears are not the sum of individual fears. Risks perceived as threatening society as a whole may lead to collective fears. Some 'big issues' favour the development of collective fears: an uncertainty of the future turned into a fear of disaster; technological progress and the major risks it brings; a sense of insecurity; threats to the future of the planet and of humanity; and a spread of diseases; among others. Some contemporary events trigger off fears, such as the debt crisis in Europe and the threat of another economic recession. Moreover, since anthropology has been traditionally concerned with Otherness we can find, unsurprisingly, the fear of Other that so many times has led to ethnocides and genocides.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 11 July, 2012, -Paper short abstract:
Narratives of fear are not uncommon in Iceland. In this paper I build on Marcel Mauss´s concept of total social fact and Arjun Appadurai observation that fear is a major factor in contemporary social and cultural life. I will discuss methodological difficulties in doing research on fear as a total social fact and ways in which anthropologists can address such difficulties by using reflexive strategies, the film medium and public screenings of films.
Paper long abstract:
Narratives of fear are not uncommon in Iceland. Many of them are to be found in the Western Fjords but between two small villages is the road Óshlið. Many lives have been lost on the road and people been injured after been hit by landslides, avalanches, and cliffs that have rolled down the mountainside. The road connected the people from the village Bolungarvik to the world but two years ago a tunnel through a mountain replaced the unsafe road. The tunnel was considered a blessing from the totalizing fear of Óshlíð. Other similar narratives are not uncommon, narratives of fear and measures against them like: imminent volcanic eruptions and other natural catastrophes, industrialization and environmental consequences, and national politics and fear of the other. In this paper, which is based on an ethnographic research, I build on Marcel Mauss´s concept of total social fact and Arjun Appadurai observation that fear is a major factor in contemporary social and cultural life. In order to explore this argument I will discuss methodological difficulties in doing research on fear as a total social fact and ways in which anthropologists, and others, can address such difficulties by using reflexive strategies, the film medium and public screenings of films.
Paper short abstract:
The uncertainty in front of the future brought about by numerous transitions within one generation experienced by a small islander population of the borderland from Northern Croatia with the integration of to socialist Yugoslavia led to mass emigration to Northern America between 1948 and 1956, following the previous path of economic migration.
Paper long abstract:
Through storytelling of islanders from Northern Croatia living in North America this ethnographic research explores the experience of transition and migration, and its effects on the feeling of ethno-national belonging. The "islanders" originated of a small island community were a peripheral minority population of the borders, at the time divided between pro-Italians and pro-Croatians, who experienced a transition 1- of State and politics (from the Austro-Hungarian empire to the Italian Republic - 1919, and to Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia - 1945), 2- of culture (a relative freedom in the Austro-Hungarian period, Italianization with the Italian period and Yugo-slavization under Tito's regime) 3- of economy (from relative auto-subsistence to socialist auto-gestion).
The storytellings have revealed two fundamental emotions, uncertainty and fear, that played a key role in the individual and collective strategies to "survive" : uncertainty in front of the economic crisis of the post-second world war, and fear in front of the borders closing in a South-Slavic Socialist State, in an insular community used to cover up the auto-subsistence system by a temporary labor migration of men in the USA, since the beginning of the XXth century. The consequences of the transition have been the appearance of survival strategies to cope with uncertainty (Levi, Giovanni, 1989, Le pouvoir au village, Paris, Gallimard), and especially the transformation of a temporary masculine emigration to a family definitive emigration, following the old migration paths and melting with the mass refugees of Italian minority from Istria and Dalmatia from the second world war to the 1950's.
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyzes collective dynamics and individual strategies unfolding amongst Eritrean migrants residing in Switzerland that nurture or overcome anxieties related to the power and the reach of the Eritrean transnational authoritarianism.
Paper long abstract:
Anxiety is pervasive in migration and exile: uncertain journeys and insecure settlements generate significant unease and fears but disquiet may also relate to homeland powers. In some cases, migrants figure out that they have fled only apparently a boundless authoritarian regime.
Since years, Eritreans in exile have reasonable concerns about surveillance, control and threats exerted by Eritrean state agents dispatched abroad. Eritrean migrants fear about the consequences their disloyalty toward the demanding regime may have at home for their families. They fear about denunciation and feel obliged to comply with state requirements (taxation, attendance to meeting, etc.). Many anticipate future risks or they worry about arbitrary state measures taking place at home or in the diaspora. At the same time, however, active political opposition have recently gained impetus in most European countries: increasingly, dissents dare to challenge the current Eritrean state and to oppose their fellow citizens loyal to the regime. In Switzerland, this overt opposition has recently been engaging Eritreans to reflect on their fears about the regime.
We argue that fears related to the current Eritrean state are central to understand how homeland politics unfolds transnationally. We analyze how Eritreans living in Switzerland, who condemn the current regime, imagine state power, how they avoid troubles with state agents and how and why they commit (or not) in homeland politics. Thus, in examining emotional and representational repertoires as well as political activities, this paper seeks to highlight the various collective dynamics and individual strategies that nurture or overcome anxieties related to transnational Eritrean political powers.
Paper short abstract:
L'objectif de cette communication est de montrer la logique du sentiment de peur dans la migration kabyle en République tchèque de point de vue : du l’immigré qui craint de ne pas pouvoir réussir à émigrer; des inquiétudes de leurs familles et de la peur de la société d´immigration ou l´immigré est perçu comme une source de trouble à l’ordre de la société.
Paper long abstract:
L´immigration est souvent connecté avec la peur - l'immigré étant perçu par la société d´immigration comme une menace. Or les « peurs » de l´immigré sont souvent ignorées et impensées. Sur la base de la recherche du terrain en Algérie et en République tchèque, j'essayerai de montrer la logique du sentiment de peur qui saisit le candidat à l'émigration ainsi que sa famille depuis la conception du projet jusqu'à sa concrétisation. Plus même, ce sentiment de peur et d'insécurité augmente encore au moment de l'arrivée et du séjour dans le pays d'immigration. Le fait migratoire croise en effet trois sentiments de peurs : (1.) celles de l'immigré qui craint de ne pas pouvoir réussir à émigrer (la peur de ne pas avoir son visa, de se faire renvoyer, la peur de ne pas réunir le dossier de demande de carte de séjour, etc.) auxquels il faut connecter (2.) toutes « les peurs » et les inquiétudes de leurs familles, bien qu'elles soient souvent « mêlées » de satisfactions, d'espoirs et de rêves et (3.) la peur de la société d´immigration ou l´immigré est perçu comme une source de délit, d'insécurité et de trouble à l'ordre moral et social de la société. Analyser ces « peurs » nourries par les deux ordres nationaux des sociétés d'émigration et d'immigration me semble important à comprendre afin « d'extorquer » l'illusion d'insécurité et de la notion d'intégration qui sert toujours de masque à ces « peurs ».
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I want to discuss a form of collective fear which occurred in some of Romania's postcommunist contexts of the 1990's: xenophobia. Later on, as a result of people's anxiety generated by the current economic crisis, this type of collective fear was replaced by xenophilia.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper I want to discuss a form of a collective fear that could be found in Romania's postcommunist contexts: the xenophobia. As xenophobia is a factor both for constructing and maintaining social and cultural boundaries, it entails the misrecognition of the "otherness" of various cultures. This type of collective fear was epitomized in the infamous slogan that appeared in the 1990's: "We don't sell our country!". Even though this slogan lost most of its acuity by the middle of the 2000's, it still perpetuated some influence. However, as the risks associated with the current economic crisis loomed over various facets of Romanian society, by 2011 a process of metamorphosis occurred. From government's leasing of valuable mineral resources towards foreign organizations, to individuals' searching jobs abroad, many Romanians seem to have abandoned the prejudices associated with xenophobia in favour of its opposite: xenophilia. Therefore, paradoxically, the anxiety generated by the economic crisis is one of the main reasons why the process of transition from xenophobia to xenophilia occurs in certain contexts. My paper contains the results of a qualitative research based on interviews.
Paper short abstract:
In the context of a postsocialist multicultural society social fears are manifold and reflect tensions between globalising and localising tendencies. I will discuss boundary making strategies and the search for cultural authenticity of Tatar youth scenes in Tatarstan.
Paper long abstract:
If we see emotions such as fear in an interpretive tradition more as a socially validated judgment than as an internal state, then anthropologists may be able to make certain statements about collective social phenomena such as boundary making mechanisms and power relationships between social groups and networks by studying articulation and bias of social fears in a certain society.
Such fears may be shaped by contemporary global events and tendencies, but they are embedded in a cultural and historical background without the understanding of which the articulation of fears as well as social answers cannot be adequately analysed.
I would like to discuss the articulation of social fears in the culturally diverse postsocialist Republic of Tatarstan (Russia) such as the fear of alien "external forces" (e.g. fear of Westernisation, Islamic fundamentalism) as well as the fear of the internal or neighboring Other (fear of Russification resp. Tatarisation, as well as of immigration). With a focus on youth identities, basing on fieldwork conducted in Tatarstan periodically from 2007-2010, I will make some reflections on how such fears influence and shape boundary making mechanisms (e.g. between ethnic Russians and Tatars, between 'nominal' ethnic Muslims and 'practising' religious Muslims etc.). In the discussion of the social answers of youth on such predominating fears I will give an insight into processes such as actualisation of history in overcoming perceived cultural hegemony, the rooting of elements of a 'globalised youth culture' into an ethnonational context etc.
Paper short abstract:
This paper deals with the social fear during the economic crisis in Greece, and the process of otherizing minorities. Focused on the Greek island of "Irini", the paper explores the roles played by the island's dogs in the process of otherizing the Afghani and Pakistani immigrants on the island.
Paper long abstract:
The recent economic crisis in Greece shakes the foundations of contemporary Greek society. One of the social expressions of the anomaly is social fear. This paper examines the process of otherizing during this spread of collective fear, and the different cultural and social strategies devised so as to manage it. While most anthropological literature concerning social crisis focuses on relations among humans, this paper highlights human-animal interaction as a theoretical and methodological lens. Based on an ethnographic research conducted since 2010 on the Greek island of "Irini", I study the roles played by the island's dogs in the conflict between the Greek community and Afghani and Pakistani immigrants on the island. The main claim is that the island's dogs, usually perceived by the Greek rural community as secondary working tools, now conceptualized as the main "gatekeepers" of the human society. Rumors spread among the Greek "Irinians" about Muslim immigrants eating the island's dogs have led to a moral panic. The immigrants were socially constructed as "the wild others", motivated by their "animal instincts" in order to survive and to occupy the island. The will to manage the "animal threat" has led to different practical actions, as well as to the emergence of new political agents from the Greek radical right wing. Dealing with the process of otherizing during a period of social turmoil, while focusing on human-animal relations, could be insightful for the field of anthropology of fear as well as the reexamination of the theories of otherness.
Paper short abstract:
The paper, based on ‘anthropology at home’ aims at description of the forms (resources) of social fear in contemporary Lithuania as well as at identifying the responses to and strategies of reducing those fears via analysing the dominant (majoritarian) perceptions of the particular groups in a society perceived as radical Other( immigrants, new ethnic minorities, new religions).
Paper long abstract:
Lithuania after entering the EU in 2004 is facing an influx of newcomers as immigrants (in particular from Africa), there is also significant grow of new ethnic minorities (in particular from East Asia) and as well as new religions. In many ways such new pluralism is marked by social uncertainty which is a feature of post-socialist Europe. Social fears are vivid expressions of the emotions of uncertainty, pictured by the postsocialist encounter with broad ethnic and religious diversity and otherness. As the emotion of fear is expressed socially it leads to a variety of its socio-cultural constructions. These socio - cultural demonstrations tackle on the major concerns of a society in a form of risks perceived as threatening to the society in general and can lead to collective societal fears.
The paper, based on 'anthropology at home' aims at description of the forms (resources) of social fear in contemporary Lithuania as well as at identifying the responses to and strategies of reducing those fears via analysing the dominant (majoritarian) perceptions of the particular groups in a society perceived as radical Other. Our fieldwork data has revealed particular forms of socio-cultural constructions of fear shaped in: loosing purity/contamination; braking social order; re-distributing of economic and symbolic power. Fieldwork material also shows that ethnic nationalism as well as cultural and religious conservatism/fundamentalism are the most frequently used forms of responses to such framework of fears.
Paper short abstract:
The aim is to deal with the topic of fear in social memory related to violent past events and in current social reactions linked to the negation of otherness and to the resurgence of nationalism in Europe fighting amongst other things cultural and historical diversity. The intention is also to question the fear related to modes of projection in the future.
Paper long abstract:
Starting from ethnographic works conducted in several European countries, the paper proposes to consider the topic of the fear in the context of the current culture of memory in which social treatments related to violent past events like genocide, wars, colonization are pre-eminent, while a resurgence of nationalism occurs at the same time in Europe. The social actions dealing with these past times and also with xenophobe and/or racist current social situations confront us to the treatment of otherness and with several modes of fears. The aim is to question various form of fears involved in these socio-memorial actions based on processes of historization and that are oriented to the projection in the future starting from the present situations. Which are the fears feeding today's social memory phenomena at inter-individual and collective levels? Which are their effects in the current life inside the groups like the family, and largely inside the society and its institutions? Which are also their incidence(s) at supranational levels in the increasing of international modes of socio-memorial "governorship" in the framework for example of the UNO, Council of Europe, European Union, Unesco, Holocaust Task force, etc. ?
Paper short abstract:
My paper aims to offer an understanding of social fear,approaching the Jewish community of a Transylvanian city, Cluj, where I have been conducting fieldwork in the last years.
Paper long abstract:
My paper aims to offer an understanding of social fear, approaching the Jewish community of a Transylvanian city, Cluj, where I have been conducting fieldwork in the last years.
Being exposed to certain historical, social, cultural challenges, this community constructed different strategies to face and approach them. All these ended up in a process of internalizing and experiencing a sort of deep cultural/social/ethnic fear. Meanwhile, fear- in various forms of expression, individual or collective-is a key term, involved in producing responses to the various triggers that aggregated tragic,limit-experiences. I am going to explore how fear is assumed and approached in the very current context by the members of this community, which are the main responses to it, how the internal/communitarian fear is perceived by other groups of Cluj,which are their main reaction to it. As methods, life histories and semi structured interviews are of election.
Paper short abstract:
This paper deals with the sense of belonging in contemporary Warmia-Masuria (Poland). It is focused on the strategies of dealing with the effects of historical discontinuity (present both in the history of the land and of the people).
Paper long abstract:
Warmia-Masuria is a part of so-called "Recovered territories" - a considerable part of contemporary Poland that before 1945 belonged to Germany. Recent history of the region is marked by trauma of post-war massive population displacements which led to almost complete transformation of the region's cultural landscape. During the 40 years of Pepole's Republic of Poland state's propaganda was sustaining a mythology of "Recovered territories". Regional history was interpreted as an ages-old struggle between Polish and German ethnic forces that ended in the ultimate act of historical and social justice. Anti-German rhetoric (extremely powerful during the 1960s) served both as a mean of legitimisation of Polish administration in the region and as a tool of developement of the ideological construction of "the united Polish nation". Stereotypical "fear of the German" became the corner stone of the regional identity.
Year 1989 marks both political transformation and the collapse of the currently out-dated antagonistic interpretation of history. It also marks the beginning of multidimensional, mostly grassroot efforts to reconstruct the regional identity and sense of belonging, still overshadowed by the monuments of bygone era. My paper is based on the research conducted among the youngest post-war generation born in the region. I focus on the strategies of dealing with the historical discontinuity (present both in the history of the land and of people) and attempts to overcome the burden of the old ideological narration and contemporary social fears.