HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
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Android existence: The affect of artificial vitality
No full textThis article investigates the affective vitality of the technical in Japanese android-making through the creation of the android Alter and its artistic performance in the “android opera” Scary Beauty. By following the technical processes invested in Alter, I highlight how Alter’s technical components are brought into affective synergy with artistic and cultural traditions whereby these traditions are reinvigorated with technical vitality. This research shifts the focus from a human-centered to a technically centered perspective on Japanese robotics. By this move, the article shows how the technical nature rather than the humanlike nature of such beings influences the collaborative environments from which they grow. In doing so, I address the affective and ambiguous vitality that brings such artificially made beings to life, and highlight the creational affinity to artistic processes of creation and their shared techniques of the artificially real
Afterword
No full textIn this afterword, I consider the important contributions this special section makes to the study of the relations between immanence, transcendence, and mediation in the study of Islam and religion more generally, and the dialogue it opens up with the anthropology of Christianity. I go on to suggest that one way to reframe transcendence in relation to these articles is as a phenomenon related to human passivity rather than agency. I also consider the issues these authors raise about how the study of ontologies can shape anthropological studies of transcendence and the nature of anthropology as a way of life
The Egyptian communities in Milan: Ideas of home, home-making, and care at the time of COVID-19
No full textThe Egyptian communities in Milan are among the oldest and largest migrant communities in Italy, their history dating back to the 1970s. Following in-depth ethnographic research, this article explores their members’ representations and understandings of home, examining also Egyptian women’s practices and role as driving forces underlying home-making processes. Moving from the Egyptian migrants’ translations of casa, Italian word for “house, home,” the article tries to disentangle the multifaceted meanings attached to the notions of balad (country, hometown, village), bayt (house), and waṭan (nation), which hold different social, political, and religious connotations and reflect different levels of integration in Italy. The research took place during the protracted lockdowns in Italy following the outbreak of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, and therefore delving into the meanings of “home” has meant unraveling how the pandemic situation has increased the domestic care burden on women and how gender relations have changed under such unprecedented events. This article corroborates the hypothesis that care practices and home-making processes are key sites where society reproduces itself, and that accelerated social and historical transformations make gendered care practices within the home more explicit
The way of the prophets: History, structure, imagination: The Lévi-Strauss Lecture 2021
No full textI follow here three different prophetic movements in Africa with which I have been closely engaged. I highlight the singularity of the prophet vis-à-vis the group, as well as the difficulties built into the ethnographic method to combine the study of sudden historical transformation with the study of the structural dimensions of a society. I invite the reader to explore Bergson’s work on religion and morality as a resource to help us think the ethical singularity of the prophet. The study of the “call” prophets receive and of their creative imagination may complement Weber’s emphasis on exemplarity, extraordinariness, and charisma. This combination can help us understand the unique role some individuals have in imagining and materializing “the new,” transcending local boundaries and orienting people’s ethos towards a universal humanity beyond the strictures of their societies, even if prophets, far too often, end up failing in realizing such an ideal
