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Paper short abstract:

Exploring "surprising" bodily movements that arise from crossing boundaries, I argue that such moments cannot be fully understood within the framework of habitus. Instead what ontological possibilities emerge, and how do these inform experiences of gender, marginalization and contingency?

Paper long abstract:

Why does the crossing of certain boundaries, whether visibly demarcated, imagined or culturally constructed, change the movement of bodies? What gives certain boundaries the agency to alter behaviour and how are these changes manifest in bodily expressions? In this paper, I examine the lived experiences of Old Delhi's Muslim residents by observing the changes in bodily movements when certain boundaries are crossed, such as between New and Old Delhi, between different neighbourhoods in the old city, and from the home sphere to public spaces. The concept of habitus could be a useful analytic frame to capture the bodily expressions of feelings of discomfort and dis-ease when crossing over into unfamiliar terrains - the sensorium of "existential risk" as anthropologist Michael Jackson has called the varying experiences of bodily ease and dis-ease in different contexts. For residents of Old Delhi, there are certainly experiences of boundaries that, when crossed, separate a confident body from an out-of-place body; however, I suggest that some moments of crossing defy the logic of habitus as the embodiment of structural conditions. I read these moments of crossing, where bodies undergo observable changes, as the conscious dislodging of habitus in order to create seemingly new ontological possibilities. I examine these new possibilities arising from moments of crossing boundaries - these "surprising" performances of bodily movements - and how they inform experiences of gender, marginalization and contingency.