HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
Not a member yet
1288 research outputs found
Sort by
Spatializing culture: Baithaks and the surviving classical music scene in Pakistan
No full textAdopting an inter/transdisciplinary approach, this article brings together ethnography and an ethnomusicological “ecology model”—studying music in relation to the broader sociopolitical environment—with insights from Urban Studies to spatialize the interplay of practices, meanings, and materiality for studying the survival of Hindustani classical music in a postcolonial urban environment. After the partition of the South Asian subcontinent, the Hindustani classical music tradition did not find an auspicious national-institutional context in Pakistan as it did in India. And yet the tradition survives at and through baithaks (musical gatherings) in contemporary Pakistan. Going beyond the top-down and nation-state model for exploring the ecology of Hindustani classical music, this article attends to the space and culture of contemporary baithaks in the city of Lahore, often described as the “cultural capital of Pakistan.” The article frames baithak, a musician-led space, as an instantiation of space-making-from-below where its location, organization, and gendered context are explored in relation to the broader sociosymbolic dynamics concerning the survival of Hindustani classical music in contemporary Pakistan
The life of a painting after the end of (this) life: Agentive images as relationship participants
No full textThe skyes sgo thangka, or “thangka for rebirth,” is a genre of Tibetan Buddhist thangka painting made for the recently deceased, in this instance a member of the artist’s own family in Rebgong, a Tibetan community in northwest China. Encounters in Rebgong indicate that we need to look beyond the direct interaction between the agentive image and human actors to understand how the painting works. By examining Rebgong art makers’ understandings and practices associated with the production and use of skyes sgo thangkas, I suggest viewing agentive images as relationship participants and exploring how personal relationships and social conditions intertwine with the life of “icons.” In Rebgong, the skyes sgo image not only assists funeral rites or contains personal/familial memories, it is also an anchor for thangka painters to understand, reconcile, and organize relationship changes and to reinforce the religious value of Tibetan thangka in a rapidly commercializing society
Post-conventional anthropology: A paradigm for cultivating pluralism and confidence in uncertainty
No full textThis article details an encounter of anthropological instruction on cross-cultural perceptions of the environment and cultural heritage which was provided to lawyers, environmental scientists, and environmental engineers regulating offshore oil and gas ventures. Shaped as a rapid organizational ethnography, my task was to inspire unknowing and release the grip on epistemic certainty. Operating within a contentious space, regulatory decision-making on the risks that oil and gas ventures pose to Indigenous peoples’ heritage is a concern which keeps this regulatory body in a state of organizational and directive anguish. By sharing anthropological insights on ways of knowing, plurality, ethics, and care, configured cross-culturally, the aim was to alleviate their concerns and open pathways toward better informed decision-making. The event took shape as an exercise in post-conventional anthropology, in which the post-conventional is distinguished as going beyond normative practice and aligning with a broader social contract. That social contract is progressing non-Indigenous ethical engagements with Indigenous knowledges
The libertarian experiment and the trends in the environmental issue in Argentina
No full textThis work takes stock of the recent trajectory of the environmental issue in Argentina and explains how the government of Javier Milei has produced a qualitative leap in environmental policy there. I present a summary of the experience of environmental activism, detailing its specific contribution to the debate on the role of extractivism and the problems for democracy. I explore the different ways in which legislative activism has had consequences at the institutional level. I also present some of the reforms promoted by the government of Javier Milei to show their regressive nature in the environmental field. Finally, I address environmental denialism and its role in justifying a frontal attack on acquired environmental rights; this will allow me to reflect more generally on the anti-environmental rhetoric of the right wing in Latin America
The place and space of emptiness: An experiment in collaborative ethnographic comparison
No full textEmptiness is a term used by residents of eastern Latvia to describe life in places that are losing their constitutive elements, such as people, jobs, schools, shops, and transport connections. In this article, we transform the emic term “emptiness” into a portable analytic and undertake ethnographic comparison of resonant processes and experiences in eastern Latvia, eastern Ukraine, and the Russian Far East. We argue that emptiness is both a historical formation and a novel and increasingly common spatial coordinate in the shifting landscape of political and economic power. It is also a possibility for theory-building from the postsocialist periphery about the contemporary spatial configurations of power and forms of life and politics that emerge in response to them
