Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses the tactile experiences of house work and practices of home among Tanzanian Indians. With footage from a Tanzanian Indian home, I show how attending to the tactile details of everyday life is a way to explore the intimate politics of belonging in a migrant minority.

Paper long abstract:

"Home is like a temple", Pushpa says. Three times a day she cooks healthy meals for herself and her family. She peels the vegetables, cuts them in perfect pieces, grinds the spices, boils the tea, churns the butter with a steady hand. She crochets blankets that decorate the tv and the furniture. She rolls the cotton wigs for the mandir; the little temple she keeps in the bedroom for prayers. Throughout the day, Pushpa uses her hands and feet to sustain and nourish the home, its ambience, comfort, and healthiness. The thorough attention to the details points towards several issues that I wish to discuss in the paper:

- the home and its safety and comfort has a special and important meaning for Tanzanian Indians, not least after nationalizations in 1972

- food is a very fundamental way of making home and feeling home for Tanzanian Indians

- the tactile qualities of the house work, and its thoroughness, is an intimate way for the Tanzanian Indian women in particular to connect to and maintain their cultural and religious background.

In the paper I show footage from a Tanzanian Indian home, where I as an anthropologist and filmmaker attend to the tactile details of everyday life and try to understand experiences of home as not only stretched in time and across continents, but also a highly concrete practice centered in the body.