Paper short abstract:

I will show the methodological potential of combining anthropology of sound, wet ontology, and multi-species approaches. I postulate the idea of hydroanthropology - a shift towards inclusive understanding of worlds. This inclusiveness is exceptionally clear in the practices of underwater listening.

Paper long abstract:

I will start from the turn of contemporary humanities towards global waters (seas and oceans). The paper is devoted to the methodological perspectives of hydro-anthropology. I will relate to underwater sound waves and vibrations and to the methodologically drifting anthropology project. My goal is to introduce hydro-anthropology focusing on non-human listening – listening by various actors living in an (under)water reality. I am guided by the postulate of combining the achievements of sound studies with the perspectives of the wet ontology and multi-species ethnography.

The anthropology I postulate is supposed to remove human actors from the center of reflection. The problem with the anthropologies of water and sound, however, is that despite attempts to go beyond the binary understanding of reality human beings are still at the center of attention. The answer is to follow the thought of Philip E. Steinberg and Kimberley Peters - folow the "wet" or "liquid" ontology - a perspective on the world understood as a space of flows, connections and fluidity. However, in its current form, it is not enough. The real liquefaction of reality, which would enable a new paradigm of thinking and researching aquatic sounds, must assume a kind of multi-species ethnography. As a result, the fields of research in hydro-anthropology are a combination of geo-, bio- and anthropophony analyzed from the perspective of our knowledge about the different ways of hearing and acoustic communication of various creatures inhabiting a given body of water.

Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates management of sanitary infrastructures as one example of the co-existence of human activities and underwater worlds. More specifically, it suggests that the idea of water as circulating cannot be wrested apart from human attempts to control, and monitor this circulation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws on interviews with twenty-one water and waste water engineers and chemists in Sweden and Slovenia. Focus for these interviews is management of sanitary infrastructures, in terms of monitoring and repair, but also water leak detection and preventive work. Management of sanitary infrastructures offers an interesting example of the co-existence of human activities and underwater worlds. Pipes and pumps, carrying drinking, and waste water (and other water bodies such as storm, and ground water) make up for thousands of kilometers of infrastructures that largely remain hidden underground. Sanitary infrastructures are of interest to scholars, also within anthropology and sociology, as they are highly invested in social and political arrangements. Here, the idea of water as circulating cannot be wrested apart from human attempts to control, and monitor this circulation. My informants’ work thus seemed to comprise somewhat of a paradox. At the same time as an uninterrupted provision of drinking water and removal of waste water are largely taken for granted in many European countries today, human engagement (for instance, in terms of repair, maintenance and monitoring) is required to simulate water’s natural ability to circulate. This speaks to the concurrent hiddenness, and conspicuousness of sanitary infrastructures. More specifically, management of sanitary infrastructures serve, both to render natural, and reveal the social and political aspects of water’s circulation. The workings of sanitary infrastructures then, are simultaneously black-boxed and unearthed, in and through the daily engagements of my informants.

Paper short abstract:

Frequent accidental drownings and the reappearance of the salt water crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) have provoked the indigenous Mentawaians living on Siberut Island (West Sumatra, Indonesia) to rethink about human and more-than human relations in the age of development and progress.

Paper long abstract:

Frequent accidental drownings have provoked the indigenous Mentawaians on Siberut Island (West Sumatra, Indonesia) to connect the recent reappearance of the ever-elusive salt-water crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) with ongoing ecological and social crises. The animal is a special creature, traditionally seen as both the embodiment and the companion of the autochtonous spirit of the water (sikaoinan) as well as the custodian of the underworld, a divine arbiter guarding moral order and manifesting social unity. The incidents have led to a resurgence in the old belief that sikaoinan is punishing society due to a lack of sharing and the emergence of social inequality inseparable to the development projects. The Mentawaians understand that the rampant development activities have altered their cosmological world, caused the depletion of natural resources, and generated a new social insecurity. Yet, they are actively engaged and have voluntarily aspired to participate in these agendas. I argue that the contemporary anxiety over crocodiles and the drowning accidents signals an ongoing (re)consideration of what it means to be a Mentawaian in the context of rapid social disruption and environmental transformation. The crocodiles visitation trouble the narrative of the Mentawaians aspiration to be modern and remind them about the the fragile relationship between the human and the more-than-human realms in the age of progress.

Paper short abstract:

This paper introduces the outcomes of a trans-disciplinary risk analysis of permafrost thaw in Arctic coastal regions and explores related understandings and perceptions of Indigenous land users and knowledge holders in Northwestern Turtle Island (North America) of changes and uncertainties.

Paper long abstract:

his paper introduces the outcomes of a trans-disciplinary risk analysis of permafrost thaw in Arctic coastal regions conducted within the Nunataryuk project. It also explores related understandings and perceptions of Indigenous land users and knowledge holders in Northwestern Turtle Island (North America) through ethnographic interviews. Rivers, sea ice, lakes and the Arctic Ocean, as well as roads, trails and the tundra itself, and their susceptibility to minor changes in temperatures play a crucial role in the maintenance of historically highly mobile Inuit and First Nation ways of life. The highly localized, heterogeneous physical processes of thawing ground pose several hazards to local populations: infrastructure failure, disruption of mobility and supply, a potential decrease in water quality, challenges for food security and exposure to infectious diseases & contaminants. All of these hazards have significant implications for health and wellbeing to both humans and their ecosystems, while also affecting recreation and being in nature, financial security, Arctic (Indigenous) cultures and languages, and fate control. Many uncertainties arise from what is hidden inside the Mackenzie River delta and Beaufort Sea waters, such as contaminants and infectious diseases, but also silt, bacteria and algae affecting water quality. Through the ethnographic interviews uncertainties in relation to increased permafrost thaw and ways of navigating them become clearly visible, speaking to the resilience of Inuvialuit and Gwich’in First Nations on the one hand, as well as to the increase of uncertainty in terms of climate changes on the other.