The Unfamiliar (E-Journal)
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ACCESSING GENETIC KNOWLEDGE: A CASE FOR A HUMANIST VIRTUE ETHICS
Get PDFThis essay presents an ethical argument for the value of taking a theoretical perspective that privileges the particularities of individual lived experience over a priori categories of subjecthood. This argument is made through the examination of one practice – disclosure – among American patients who have recently been diagnosed with Huntington’s disease, a fatal genetic disorder. Disclosure is understood in this context as the expected sharing of a Huntington’s disease diagnosis by the patient with those close to her (primarily family). It is modeled on the practice in which a medical professional informs a patient of her diagnosis. Through advancing an account of disclosure that constitutes it as an ethically obligatory practice within the realm of bioethics, the essay demonstrates that a particular set of ethical priorities is assumed by insisting on the salience of disclosure in the lives of patients diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. Two case studies are presented to illustrate that patients’ lived experience in the wake of a Hunting ton’s disease diagnosis does not necessarily include disclosure as an ethically important practice
EXPLORING VISUAL MEDIA IN THE PROCESS OF ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDWORK
Get PDFThis paper discusses the benefits of using film in ethnographic fieldwork. During the fieldwork for Kamilla’s Ph.D. project about elderly people’s health and social relations, we have experimented with the use of video. In this paper we focus on the results of and reactions to using self-produced film material in focus group discussions conducted in an activity centre for retired people in Copenhagen. The method applied turned out to be beneficial in expected but also positively surprising ways that enabled us to gain insights beyond those of solely word-based approaches. Please view our short film clip Bodil in the Snow (http://vimeo.com/59180448) which we used for accessing knowledge about health issues among the elderly in Copenhagen, as discussed in the article
Ancestor Worship and Disrupted Continuity among Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Georgia
Get PDFDue to the Russian-Georgian military conflict in 2008, thousands of eth- nic Georgians had to flee from their villages in South Ossetia and move to new settlements built for what were now termed internally displaced persons (IDPs). Through displace- ment, IDPs lost their connection with their places of origin and, consequently, their con- nection with their ancestry. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the Koda IDP settlement, the article explores how rituals related to the deceased help IDPs sustain be- longing to their family lineage. The article illustrates that verbal commemoration, and in particular toasting, gives IDPs an opportunity to maintain presence of the deceased within their social group. While verbal commemoration is sufficient for this, tangible objects also seem to play a significant role. The place of burial and the soil provide an opportunity for the continuation of the social group of the extended family and its constant re-creation
ACCESSING KNOWLEDGE IN A DISCONTINUOUS WORLD. A BRIEF COMMENT FROM SOUTHERN CHILE
Get PDFDrawing on my ethnographic experience with rural Mapuche people, in this paper I attempt a twofold comment regarding the topic of ‘Accessing knowledge’. This comment firstly, problematizes our own understanding of what can be loosely labelled as ‘the world’; and, secondly, challenges the social emphasis of our notion of knowledge, which eventually is what permits its institutionalisation and thus its restriction. Finally, this discussion will lead us to the debate concerning the relationship between ontology and epistemology, which, as I argue, should be solved through an always-contingent ethnographic solution
Mourning with Masks: Political Death and Virtual Life
No full textIn this essay I explore how the V mask (Guy Fawkes mask) not only became a ‘re- sistance’ mask for the Turkish protesters during the 2013 Gezi Park demonstrations, but also how it visually transformed into a new image. I argue that this new face became a virtual ‘death mask’ for one of the killed protesters and that the image exemplifies a shift in commemorative practices. Furthermore, I examine the relationship between this mask and the process of mourning to dis- cover why the Turkish protesters decided to adopt this particular mask for the dead. This essay argues that the mask and the need to wear it can be explained as an attempt to keep the lost one alive by virtually becoming him. In this sense, the V mask transformed from being just a ‘politi- cal’ symbol in real life activist movements, into a new mask which signifies something beyond the political, that is, a more ‘personal’ connection with the deceased that in turn ‘resurrects’ him
A Letter from the Editor
No full text[First paragraph of article follows] This issue of The Unfamiliar includes contributions on a wide range of topics related to the place of death in human social life. Alongside explorations of life-cycle rituals in Georgia; commemorative prac- tices and discourses surrounding a Russian monument for the deceased and a virtual ‘death mask’ image circulated by Turkish protesters, the issue also includes reflections on political violence in Iran; Euro- pean Renaissance ossuaries; and a poem that provides a more creative take on the subject. A common thread running through these pieces is the well-studied anthropological theme of death as an - often ritu- alized - event of ‘transition’ from one stage to another, rather than a decisive ‘end’. It produces persistent material reminders - such as bones, graves, monuments, and belongings of the deceased - that serve as loci for existing social ties to be maintained or new ones to be reconstituted
Reading Aziz\u27s Notebook in 2013
Get PDFA contextual review of Aziz\u27s Notebook: At the Heart of the Iranian Revolution by Chowra Makaremi, written during the 25th year anniversary of the 1988 prison massacres in Iran.[First paragraph of article follows] Aziz’s Notebook speaks to us through the voices of the dead, with memories refracted through other memories. What ensues is a single narrative, one of absence, vio- lence, imprisonment, execution and exile pieced together from different perspectives. We are led into the lives of two sisters, whose political affiliations cause their even- tual executions in a post-revolutionary Iran. This is an Iran rife with chaotic power struggles between the (then) newly founded Islamic Republic and opposition activists
ACCESSING EMOTIONS THROUGH HUMOUR IN THE CONTEMPORARY ARGENTINIAN TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE TRAJECTORY
Get PDFThis article is based upon qualitative fieldwork on the current human rights trials regarding crimes committed during the last dictatorship (1976-1983) in Argentina in and around Federal Courts in Argentina with focus on emotions. It analyses emotional experiences from a phenomenological perspective. Researching collective violence in a context of law involves many behavioural constraints due to judicial rules; additionally memories of the violent past also enclose many uncomfortable emotions. Analysis of local humour practices related to the human rights trials in Argentina provide a heuristic tool to study these emotional experiences that often remain inaccessible. Humour in a context of law is thought-provoking and provides alternative insights in local transitional justice trajectories after collective violence
