HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
Not a member yet
1288 research outputs found
Sort by
Relational beings modeled in clay within the depths of the Sierra Mixe of Oaxaca, Mexico: Bridging Indigenous knowledge and archaeology
No full textThis article examines the possible roles of exceptionally preserved clay reliefs and sculptures within a cave in the Mixe (Ayuujk) territory of Oaxaca, Mexico, a region where early researchers proposed that no art existed. Deploying conceptual tools offered by the reactivation of ontological studies, it is suggested here that these multilayered things acted as a dynamic relational web between beings co-responsible for the world’s prosperity, social reproduction, and the fertility of the land. Early ethnographic accounts, anthropological work, historical documents, and first-hand interviews with Indigenous people provide an initial explanatory platform for investigating those figures’ functions in the past while also understanding their agentive nature, thus enriching our current knowledge of Ayuujk worldview and rituals. Ayuujk’s participation and collaboration in this research offers a glimpse into their values, culture, and practices today, and an opportunity to give members of the descendant community a voice in this archaeological inquiry
Pauses and flow in art making and ethnographic research
No full textI examine my dual role as artist and ethnographer in the creation of artworks including mixed-media paintings and installations. Drawing from four works that combine art making and anthropological research, I present, from the perspective of anthropology, the process of the creation of artworks as dynamic sites for creating and observing the emergence of knowledge, as well as the development of empathy between researcher/artist and participants. Art making provided the tools to unveil ephemeral subjects such as the internal images of exile, the traces of memorable dreams in cities, and the memories and legacy of World War II among Japanese Latin Americans. Art making was possible by using approaches from anthropology that emphasize the senses as a means of both acquiring and expressing knowledge, the view of the anthropologist as a conductor of experiences and events, and multimodal anthropology
Deception-based knowledge in Indigenous and scientific societies: American Indian tricksters and experimental research designs
No full textThe emerging movement to decolonize the sciences, social sciences, and humanities has emphasized the differences between Indigenous and Western scientific ways of knowing. Paradoxically, emphasizing the difference between these systems has also been the principle undergirding modern science’s claim to being a uniquely valid means of knowledge creation. Yet as each approach focused solely on contrasting Indigenous and scientific ways of knowing, potential similarities between these knowledge systems may have been ignored. One such oversight is the use of deception by each system, which is central to experimental research designs in the social and psychological sciences, and in American Indian trickster stories. In narratives recounted throughout American Indian societies, tricksters act from malevolence, greed, or generosity and are often catalysts in knowledge production. Similarly, it is the “experimental process” found in Western scientific systems that deceives subjects in order to elicit insights into causality, and such have been the results, that it has become a preeminent empirical method in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
The performative photograph: A poietic approach to visual ethnography in a French banlieue
No full textBy reexamining the empirical relationship between ethnography and photography, this article explores the phenomenology of photographic experiences in a French banlieue. Photography may be a powerful practice to critically depict social phenomena in the field. Taking into account the basic assumption that photography is more than visual evidence of observed realities, I analyze the creative and nonindexical dimensions of visual experiences. Based on collaborative, sensorial, and pragmatic practices, I discuss the politics of visual representation in marginalized and racialized urban spaces from an intersectional point of view. The analysis developed here contributes to the definition of a creative and critically self-reflexive approach to the depiction of ethnographic experiences. In doing so, this article explores the plastic, poietic, and performative dimensions of photographic narratives in visual ethnography.Figure 1. (Author, 2017
Fluctuating affect: Purpose and deflation in paths of self-development
No full textThis article spotlights the role of affect in paths of “self-development,” focusing on young adults in China who engage in various training programs. Informed by market-driven expertise, individuals configure their feelings as central for their ability to execute their tasks and enhance their socioeconomic competence. Thus, they seek to induce and manage affect while combating the purposeless attitudes that they ascribe to Chinese everyday life. However, young adults are also frequently confronted with their inability to convert affect to palpable endpoints, leading them to frequent deflation and self-examination. Drawing on the works of Sara Ahmed and Lauren Berlant, I delineate this dialectic of high and low affect. I argue that rather than undermining productivity, low affect and its perceived negative valence are integral to a trajectory of self-development where individuals shift between projects and renew their commitment to an underlying ethos, notwithstanding the prevailing impasses of the Chinese socioeconomic landscape
Postcolonial politics of elimination?: A view from Australia and the United States
No full textA common view is that states formulate and administer policy. However, there is much in the classification and administration of persons that is not narrowly governmental. As an example, this article traces long-term developments in Australia and the United States which have made possible recent broadening and “de-racializing” of governmental formulations of Indigenous identity. This most recent phase has seen emergent kinds of “new politics,” here called “hyper-identification.” This is the self-identification of significant numbers of people as Indigenous, well beyond strictly “demographic” factors. It is easy, and probably partly accurate, to regard such hyper-identification as opportunistic, given the range of entitlements that Indigenous identification may permit. Yet an explanation in terms of opportunity, strategy, or psychology does not treat the conditions that enable that process. This paper attempts to do so in its focus on the relation between state classifications and shifts in the public sphere
Place, materiality, and gender in subaltern memories of long lives in a poor Beijing neighborhood
No full textRawa-Nore gifting
No full textThis article comprises a rethinking of Mauss’s The gift, reciprocity, and exchange theory in anthropology, using theories of chaos and complexity to make sense of the author’s ethnographic data from Papua New Guinea. The article begins with an explanation of chaos and complexity, proceeds with an ethnographic demonstration focusing on pig feasts, marriage exchange, and exchanges within households, and concludes with a consideration of the implications of this analysis for Mauss’s legacy