Paper Short Abstract:

What do Germs and Ghosts have in common? How do they intersect in times of crisis? This paper explores how pandemics and spiritual landscapes intersect in post-conflict Timor-Leste. Building on recent fieldwork it explores how we might investigate the ethereal through audio collaborations.

Paper Abstract:

What do germs and ghosts have in common? How do these ethereal yet sometimes tangible forces intersect in times of crisis? Anthropologists have long studied the way animistic beliefs connect health to the wider physical and spiritual environment. Ghosts, spirits, ancestors and supernatural forces contribute to the well-being of communities in Southeast Asia. With the threat of climate change and pandemics, global health institutions recently turned their attention to the intersections between health and the environment. How do we investigate the ethereal, the invisible, giving voice and atmosphere to things that often go unseen?

This paper draws on doctoral and recent postdoctoral research to investigate animistic encounters with ghosts and germs, alongside biomedical knowledge-making in Southeast Asia. It proposes using audio documentary-making with community radio stations to capture voices and soundscapes of customary events and health encounters. In Timor-Leste, community radio stations document important customary practices and events about spiritual well-being. At the same time, these radio stations are a key source of disaster management and recovery, as well as health promotions for national and global health interventions in rural communities. Many health messages however come top-down from global health institutions and NGOs and do not reflect local realities or concepts of health and environment.

This project is in the process of to co-producing a radio documentary podcast with community radio journalists and local health advocates to communicate situated environmental health knowledge to communities and inform global health professionals and policymakers about community approaches to health and the environment.