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Paper short abstract

Liminality in the Mackenzie Delta emerges through combined sociocultural and material/spatial relations, where these combinations are historically specific and can make life in the same physical space more or less liminal.

Paper long abstract

Geographically speaking, river deltas are liminal spaces par excellence - in between land and sea, saltwater and fresh water, wet and dry, upstream and downstream, sedimentation and erosion. The very existence and continual transformation of river deltas as landforms derive from this in-betweenness as they are shaped by the contrary forces of land turning into water and water turning into land. But are river deltas also liminal spaces anthropologically speaking? Does social and cultural life in river deltas afford experience of liminality, perhaps more so than in other places?

This presentation discusses instances of liminality in the Mackenzie Delta in the Canadian Arctic. It argues, first, that where people's lives are indeed liminal, this state emerges through simultaneously anthropological and geographical relations, i.e. it is grounded in sociocultural as much as material/spatial in-betweenness. Second, the presentation reviews some of the delta's history to indicate that these links between anthropological and geographical liminality must not be taken for granted. Instead, it traces how economic marginality, widespread substance abuse, but also flat hierarchies, ubiquitous humour, and ample improvisation have emerged in particular configurations of social and material relations. Depending on these historically shifting configurations, the same river delta can become a hub in a world market and a forgotten periphery, a space of lawlessness and of state focus, or an area of ethnic distinctions and a melting pot.

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Paper short abstract

Rivers embody multiple realities at any one time and the spaces they move through can be classed as liminal. Rivers are conduits for One Health issues: in this liminal space the river can be a creator and a destroyer, a cleanser and polluter. This paper explores a Kenyan river using ethnography.

Paper long abstract

The rivers which flow through Ongata Rongai, Kenya, traverse different environments and contains multiple states of being along their course: urban, peri-urban, rural and national reserve. Many different activities happen within this space: subsistence and commercial farming, livestock keeping, hotels, shops, businesses, factories, domestic life, tourism, washing, laundry, fishing and swimming. Different people live and work in these spaces too: rich and poor, indigenous and migrant. There are multiple implications for One Health within this liminal context along the river - liminal in the sense that the space between the river and the land is fluid, mutable and fluctuating depending on the season, and contains multiple realities: the river can be life-giving, life-taking; cleansing and polluting; creating and destroying. It can provide water to farms; it can wash away crops and land. It can quench the thirst of humans and livestock; it can poison and cause sickness. Drawing on the stories of people living and working alongside the Mbagathi and Kandisi Rivers, I explore what a journey through this liminal space tells us about urban and rural lives, how these interact and intersect and how this affects the health of humans, livestock and wildlife living in this liminal zone. By utilising multiple voices and media to narrate the life of the river, as well as walking as ethnographic practice, I aim to shed light on the meanings and practices influencing One Health at the heart of these riparian communities, which are currently sparse in existing literature.

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Paper short abstract

Through the lens of 'Total Institutions', this paper aims to show how the complexity of seafarers' employment on board ships can resemble 'liminal' spaces. The cargo ship as a secluded space surrounded by the limitless sea, can often lead to conflicting experiences of 'imagined freedom'.

Paper long abstract

The shipping industry has existed for hundreds of years, whereas ships have been the main means of distributing commodities worldwide. Cargo ships have been compared to 'total institutions' (TIs) and have been found to be similar to TI in some ways and different in others. The ship is considered a place of habitation and employment, where seafarers are isolated from the shore for extended periods of time. However, the ship is not a TI in its entirety, as some accounts of the concept stipulate how TIs are never completely cut off from the outside world. In this regard, the cargo ship can be seen as a 'moving world' or as Michel Foucault calls it, a 'heterotopia par excellence', strongly linked to the outside world.

In this backdrop, through the lens of 'Total Institutions', this paper aims to show how the complexity of seafarers' employment on board ships can resemble 'liminal' spaces.

The paper focuses on four main themes, including space, family, time and interaction. The findings show how the cargo ship as a secluded space surrounded by the limitless sea, can often lead to conflicting experiences of 'imagined freedom'; how seafarers' work-life balance constitutes a mixture of traditional and new family configurations; how time is experienced differently by seafarers working on board and how interactions are shaped by the different spheres on board.

The paper draws upon two Ethnographic projects involving interviews with over 100 seafarers as well as shipboard observations, exploring seafarers' experience of life and work at sea.

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Paper short abstract

This paper concerns perception of geographical objects in the Mari folklore. The author analyzes personalization of landscape, it's role in human interaction with nature and reasons for sacralization and demonisation of geographical objects. The study is based on analysis of folklore narratives.

Paper long abstract

Mari folklore tradition often associated with narratives about spirits of geographical objects. During my expeditions to the Mari Republic and the Kirov's region I analyzed memorates and fabulates regarding the cases of mysterious experiences. Landscape in the Mari folklore is the topic that concerns both folklore and geography,because it influences human attitude toward the local ecosystem.

Demons and ghosts are often associated with certain geographical odjects. People can see strange objects, hear unknown sounds there. At the same time, the locals also describe these objects as divine places where mythological ancestries and heroes have been buried. According to the narratives, there are six typical places with superstition reputations: 1) forests, 2) groves, 3) hills,4) roads, 5) rivers and lakes, 6) ravines. Forests are considered to be full of ovda (forest witch), torgaltysh (demonic creation) and chodra oza (owner of forests). As for groves, some of them can be sacred and protected by spirits. Hills are related to ovda and white giants. The Mari people believe that roads are especially dangerous because of ghosts and iya (demon). Water objects are secured by vud oza (owner of water), but ghosts also can inhabit them. Ravines are known as gloomy places where evil demons can be seen.

There are some interpretations of these folklore images, which I am going to discuss in this paper. Moreover, I will analyze how these folklore beliefs produce specific rules of behavior of the Mari people.

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Paper short abstract

By exploring the phenomena of liminality, embodiment, and communitas, I propose a Neo-Marxist interpretation of religion, one which enables both human geographers and social anthropologists to investigate the cathartic and affective function of religious ritual for marginalised demographics.

Paper long abstract

This paper reflects my current PhD project in human geography and social anthropology. Specifically, I present an interdisciplinary investigation into how queer Jews negotiate spaces of liminality, oppression, and reconciliation through the articulation of both queer and Jewish identities. I develop Myerhoff (1974; 1978) and Turner (1996) to argue that the performance of religion, punctuated by prescribed rites de passage and rites d'intensification (van Gennep 1960; Davies 2011), enables queer Jews to navigate the liminal spaces of postsecular Britain via the construction of communitas. In other words, I argue that the embodiment of ethnoreligious-specific rituals results in the manifestation of domestic religion, thus connecting ritual subjects with the highest ideals of the collectivity and promoting intense feelings of camaraderie amongst them.

This results in a particularly intense and emotional manifestation of sacred identity politics, one which takes seriously the kinaesthetic, cathartic, and embodied functions of religion for marginalised peoples in liminal contexts (Myerhoff 1975; Hall 2016; Turner 2019). Thus, the performance of rites de passage and rites d'intensification in this context exemplifies a neo-Marxist interpretation of religion which endures and subverts increasing Antisemiticm and Queerphobia (Home Office 2018). This paper draws upon pilot ethnographic methods conducted alongside queer Jewish communities in postsecular British spaces. It is through ethnography, I argue, that both geographers and anthropologists can explore the spatial and affective dimensions of religion, a prospect which offers ripe opportunity for further qualitative and collaborative enquiry.