HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
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Performing the economic man, governing inflation
No full textImages of Javier Milei shift between those that emphasize his exotic and extravagant character and those that take him to be another of the extreme far-right leaders that increasingly come to prominence in the global political order. The aim of this article is to question both images. Firstly, I situate Milei within Argentine political and cultural history, riddled with prophecies and charismatic figures and shaped by attempts to save the country from the risk of disintegration brought about by the constant loss of value of the national currency, persistent inflation, and repeated hyperinflationary experiences. Secondly, I show that Milei stands out in this contemporary panoply of the far-right precisely for performing the persona of the economist—a singular economic man that legitimizes himself as the one capable of unveiling the theoretical dilemma of Argentine inflation and proposing practical (albeit bitter) solutions to cure the nation of this purportedly mortal affliction. The article highlights the productivity of an ethnographic theory of inflation that explores the role of imaginaries surrounding economists and inflation in the formation of far-right political movements
The coming future is now: Artists, data scientists, and artificial intelligence (AI) in India
No full textIndian artists are increasingly incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into their creative works. While their output shows the potential uses of AI for art, it also underscores its limitations and engages with common assumptions about what AI is. Drawing attention to the implications of AI for daily lives and its reliance on vast amounts of energy, their works point to the presence of AI as part of people’s lifeworlds and the way we share a planet with it. Taking a multispecies approach, this paper builds on extensive research among Indian artists and data scientists to propose a possible anthropological approach that centers on notions of cocreation and cohabitation with AI
Ideological zeal and popular cultural roots of Milei’s turn to the right in Argentina
No full textArgentine President Javier Milei is leading a turn to the right, and it is not the first one in the pendulum-like history of the country. Yet, something is different this time. I make two arguments in this article. First, I argue that a major new feature in Milei’s program is a high level of ideological conviction and an attachment to libertarian doctrine pursued with religious fervor. In comparison with three earlier right turns, the balance of explicit commitment to philosophical principles and pragmatic ends is much more skewed to the former. Second, I argue that while these libertarian doctrines were marginal in the Argentine political landscape until recently, a libertarian ethics circulated under the radar in popular practices like financial self-help, before they were channeled aggressively into politics by Milei and his party
Embracing risk: Islamic finance and practice in the bazaar
No full textIn this article I demonstrate that Muslim traders in the bazaar inhabit a practical-experiential conception of Islamic economic practice in contrast with the normative conceptualization implicit in modern Islamic finance. I examine the role of non-economic factors like reputation, generosity, mistrust, and an acknowledgment of the workings of the divine in sustaining bazaar transactions. I argue that these attitudes are learned through experience and act as risk-bearing and trust-inducing mechanisms without the framework of normative law and the governance of state institutions. I present practice as a meaningful site of hermeneutical engagement with Islamic teachings, an alternative to the text-bound hermeneutics that Islamic reformers espouse
Self-formation in precarious conditions: Women among former refugees from Lebanon in Berlin
No full textDrawing on ethnographic research with women among former refugees from Lebanon in Berlin, this article reflects on the concept of ethical self-formation as a tool for ethnographic analysis in contexts beyond closely delineated religious or pedagogical ones, and in economically precarious conditions. I revisit James Laidlaw’s approach to ethics and freedom as an example of an approach that emphasizes self-formation as the most fundamental dimension of ethics. If applied to actors in their everyday relational and larger political contexts, self-formation is always closely intertwined with other forms of ethical striving, and can only be one among a variety of dimensions of ethics instead of its most fundamental one. Focusing on ethics as self-formation is useful because it reveals how it is distinctions between situated selves and particular others, which are shaped by political contexts, actor positions, and individual trajectories, that form the basis of people’s ethical reflections, evaluations, and actions
Translator’s Preface: Ernesto de Martino’s “Cultural apocalypses and psychopathological apocalypses”
No full textThis translator’s preface introduces Ernesto de Martino’s article “Cultural apocalypses and psychopathological apocalypses.” It provides readers with a concise historical and conceptual contextualization of this essay, an overview of his unfinished project for a monographic study of apocalypse