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Lilies of the Field: marginal people who live for the moment.
... While this argument is couched in terms of benefi t maximisation and productivity optimisation, which perhaps draws it back more than necessary into a modernist frame of 'optimal' land use, it does open up, together with the insights from Indigenous theorists and circumpolar anthropology, a useful avenue to consider the logic of a way of life that confronts volatility by embracing it. Th is awareness and embracing of volatility, as I will argue, is not necessarily geared at maximising the benefi ts from an uncertain environment, but can be understood as an active letting go of all illusions of control and pretensions of planning (see Day et al 1999), turning oneself into a volatile actor who is able to correspond with a volatile world. Th e ambivalence of volatility, then, lies in the extent to which inhabiting volatility is possible by being aware and embracing it, or to which embracing volatility engenders a radical erosion of people's world. ...
This article argues that Ehdiitat Gwich’in and Inuvialuit inhabitants of the Mackenzie Delta cultivate flexibility and a refusal of settler habits by actively avoiding stability and predictability. It discusses ethnographic insights into articulations of dependence, work, schooling, alcohol consumption, gambling and hunting, highlighting the virtues Mackenzie Delta inhabitants see in certain forms of volatility. While some volatilities are regarded as problematic, others are cultivated, rebelling against colonial control and enabling continuity in a fundamentally uncertain world. This article proposes re-evaluating ‘volatility’ as a term with ambivalent, but not only negative, connotations. It may become a useful idiom for coming to terms with a social and ecological world, in which control is neither possible nor desirable.
Résumé : Cet article affirme que les Ehdiitat Gwich‘in et Inuvialuit du delta du Mackenzie cultivent la flexibilité et le refus des habitudes des colonisateurs en évitant activement la stabilité et la prévisibilité. Il aborde les aperçus ethnographiques des articulations de la dépendance, du travail, de la scolarité, de la consommation d‘alcool, du jeu et de la chasse, en soulignant les vertus que les habitants du delta du Mackenzie voient dans certaines formes de volatilité. Si certaines volatilités sont considérées comme problématiques, d‘autres sont cultivées, se rebellant contre le contrôle colonial et permettant la continuité dans un monde fondamentalement incertain. Cet article propose de réévaluer la volatilité comme un terme aux connotations ambivalentes, mais pas seulement négatives. Il peut devenir un idiome utile pour s‘accommoder d‘un monde social et écologique dans lequel le contrôle n‘est ni possible ni souhaitable.
... Th is agency is not reducible to the opportunity-seeking and benefi t-maximising of the enterprising self as imagined by neoclassic economics and enforced through liberal capitalism. It may, on the contrary, involve a remarkable withdrawal of the self, a patient and ostensibly 'unresolved' disposition (see Day et al 1999). Waiting, stagnancy and recalcitrant obstacles belong to volatile life just as much as fast activity and fl exible adaptation. ...
This article proposes volatility as a term with which to approach some of the challenges that shape the current world. We develop this term as an analytical concept and perspective by thinking with people and ecologies from the margins, where uncertainty and rapid transformations have long been the order of the day. An approach focusing on volatility as a social and ecological condition provides an opportunity to consider what life in a radically uncertain world means and does to its inhabitants, which may offer useful lessons to those of us who are currently being forced to let go of their illusionary certainties. The article introduces a special issue elaborating volatility as a concept and perspective in various contexts and from different angles.
Résumé : Cet article propose la volatilité comme un terme permettant d’aborder certains défis qui façonnent le monde actuel. Nous développons ce terme en tant que concept analytique et perspective en réfléchissant avec les populations et les écosystèmes en marge, où l’incertitude et les transformations rapides sont depuis longtemps à l’ordre du jour. Une approche axée sur la volatilité en tant que condition sociale et écologique permet d’examiner ce que signifie de vivre dans un monde radicalement incertain, notamment pour ses habitants - une approche qui peut donner des leçons utiles à ceux d’entre nous qui sont actuellement contraints de se défaire de leurs certitudes illusoires. L’article introduit un numéro spécial qui élabore la volatilité comme concept et perspective dans divers contextes et sous différents angles.
... The note on experiential time as linked to the quality of the experiences in the different Western EU member states comes with two caveats. First, Roma attitudes towards temporality and the creation of an expansive present is already documented and is due to the experience of extreme marginalisation and social exclusion and the high level of symbolic violence that is involved in the process (Day et al., 1998;Sardelić, 2016Sardelić, , 2017. Secondly, the level of structural racism against the Roma in some Western states is not lower than in the Balkans. ...
Using the innovative concept of cognitive remittances, this paper looks at the transformation of the self-perception and positionality of Roma returned asylum-seekers. The empirical evidence, in the form of interview narratives and focus group quotes, is drawn from two research projects based in Albania and Kosovo and the wider Western Balkan region. The findings show that the migration and asylum-seeking experience, in Germany and other EU countries, provide the Roma with a new lens through which they can view and appreciate their historical and contemporary belongingness in the Western Balkan countries. Having been exposed to different lifestyles and values, they face real challenges upon return, where they have to confront anew very low living standards, socio-economic marginalisation and unfavourable positioning in the social hierarchy. We label this the reintegration ‘hump’. A cognitive shift occurs and their self-perception changes, including a greater sensitivity to experiences of discrimination. Reintegration is both hampered and potentially enabled by their enhanced political literacy and agency.
For a socio-cultural anthropology of contemporary hunter-gatherers, The Dawn of Everything (Graeber & Wengrow 2021) provides both good and bad news. It is good news in that it underlines the relevance of hunter-gatherer research for the here and now – beyond early humans and questions of origins. It is bad news insofar as the book proposes that the study of ‘hunter-gatherer societies’ is not a useful way to carve out a field of research and that we should be asking different questions. This contribution proposes that hunter-gatherer research continues to be a useful point of departure for engaging in a conversation about long-term social change.
The article emulates one of the strategies in The Dawn of Everything , namely using the ‘indigenous critique’ to generate and enhance enlightenment thinking. Based on extended conversations with ≠Noa//oab and !Gamekhas, two ≠Akhoe Hai//om from northern Namibia, I comment critically on the notions of seasonality and schismogenesis that are important threads of The Dawn of Everything . Going back to these conversations allows us to go beyond ‘dawning’ (searching for original states) but also beyond ‘dooming’ (searching for the point when we got ‘stuck’). Practices of doing seasons and doing difference, I suggest, are ways of dealing with the socio-cultural system, if in a piecemeal manner; practices that are underrated by Graeber and Wengrow who therefore fail to see important continuities beyond changes and flexibility in hunter-gatherer lifeways, and beyond.
This article highlights the importance of studying the politics of time in the copper and cobalt mining sector of south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where a tense coexistence can be observed between artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and large-scale mining (LSM). It is argued that inequality in ASM-LSM settings not only manifests itself spatially but also temporally. Faced with an uncertain future, ASM and LSM actors do not have the same capacity to control time and plan their futures. Drawing on data from several rounds of ethnographic fieldwork in Katanga's mining areas between 2005 and 2022, the article advocates an approach which pays more attention to issues of time and temporality in places where large-scale forms of mineral extraction clash with small-scale ones.
The 'ethical turn' in anthropology has been one of the most vibrant fields in the discipline in the past quarter-century. It has fostered new dialogue between anthropology and philosophy, psychology, and theology and seen a wealth of theoretical innovation and influential ethnographic studies. This book brings together a global team of established and emerging leaders in the field and makes the results of this fast-growing body of diverse research available in one volume. Topics covered include: the philosophical and other intellectual sources of the ethical turn; inter-disciplinary dialogues; emerging conceptualizations of core aspects of ethical agency such as freedom, responsibility, and affect; and the diverse ways in which ethical thought and practice are institutionalized in social life, both intimate and institutional. Authoritative and cutting-edge, it is essential reading for researchers and students in anthropology, philosophy, psychology and theology, and will set the agenda for future research in the field.
Salvaging electronic waste (e-waste) is a critical sector for global south cities. Salvaging complements the gap of under-resourced waste-collecting and handling institutions. It also offers employment and steady income to many struggling under high unemployment and economic inequalities. How can we understand e-waste salvaging and its malcontents in a polarized global south city? Based on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork among informal electronic waste recyclers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I explore e-waste salvaging and its polarization through walking in Dar es Salaam cityscapes. Walking with my walimu (teachers) during their labour, I travelled along the trail of value production; things moved, and people moved to generate value. Arguably, walking connects different parts of the city, material objects, histories, and violence, enhancing the city’s knowledge and materiality. This article focuses on collecting, the first stage of the e-waste salvaging process, which further down the value circle includes reusing, dismantling, sorting, and repurposing. I argue that e-waste collection in Dar es Salaam can be very well understood through walking, the primary labour method used by electronic waste gatherers (e-gatherers). Crucially, walking exposes the ethnographer to physical obstacles, ingenuity, valorization processes and violence of post-modern consumerism that waste collectors experience during their endeavours. Walking also enhances understanding of class polarisation, inequality in the distribution of built infrastructures, and colonial histories that persevere.
During Yemenite Jews’ stay in Israeli transit camps during 1948–1950, many of their children disappeared in the so‐called “Yemenite Children Affair,” undermining the immigrants’ faith in the redemptive ethos of Zionism. To better understand this collective trauma, we return to the original Freudian conceptualization of melancholia as “failed mourning,” locating it within the ethnographic context of the Yemenite Children Affair and integrating its private/individual and public/collective aspects. Moreover, we provide a novel historical reading that integrates the individual loss of children and the collective lack of civic recognition. We use the term “civil melancholia” to reflect on the lingering, hurtful group experience of being overlooked (as refugees and parents) and the continuing collective predicament as “second‐rate citizens.” By conceptualizing this civil melancholia and its cultural nuances, the analysis enhances the discussion of cultural traumas and their intergenerational transmission among contemporary ethnic immigrant groups.
This article critically explores the complex and contradictory meanings attached to conspicuous consumption in an informal settlement on the outskirts of Johannesburg. It examines why un(der)employed young people, especially young Black men, view the trappings of wealth in their midst and dismiss them as ‘fake’. The article shows how the widespread concern with ‘faking it’ indexes the unstable links between consumption, status, and class differentiation in a time of generalized economic insecurity. Accordingly, it maintains that the accusation of ‘fakery’ is not only about jealousy and the dangers of being seen to accumulate money without redistributing it, but also a product of the precariousness that characterizes young people's lives. Ultimately, the article shows how consumption affords a unique window into the values, aspirations, and anxieties of young un(der)employed Black men in a context where ‘proper’ pathways to social mobility are, for most, completely out of reach. Faux‐semblants ou réussite : politique de la consommation et précarité de la mobilité sociale en Afrique du Sud Résumé Cet article explore de manière critique les significations complexes et contradictoires attachées à la consommation ostentatoire dans un quartier informel de la banlieue de Johannesbourg. L'autrice examine les raisons pour lesquelles les jeunes sous‐employés et sans emploi, en particulier les jeunes hommes noirs, voient les signes extérieurs de richesse en leur sein et les rejettent comme étant « faux ». L'article montre comment l'inquiétude généralisée concernant les « faux‐semblants » indique les liens instables entre la consommation, le statut et la différenciation des classes dans une période d'insécurité économique généralisée. En conséquence, l'accusation de « faux » n'est pas seulement liée à la jalousie et aux dangers d’être vu comme accumulant de l'argent sans le redistribuer, mais est également un produit de la précarité caractérisant la vie des jeunes. Enfin, l'article montre comment la consommation offre une vue unique sur les valeurs, les aspirations et les angoisses des jeunes hommes noirs sous‐employés et sans emploi dans un contexte où les voies « appropriées » de la mobilité sociale sont, pour la plupart, complètement hors de portée.
This article contributes to contemporary ethnographies concerning poverty and digital financial inclusion in Europe. More specifically, it explores how poor Roma families engage with digital banking cards at home in Romania and when they travel to work in the informal economy in Denmark. The analysis conceptually unfolds “access” as a framework for financial inclusion and applies it to an empirical case of three brothers in a Roma family. On this basis, the article argues that cashless initiatives can, perhaps unintentionally, be a driving element in new practices of social exclusion. Without a comprehensive approach toward ensuring “de facto access” for the marginalized communities, which takes all dimensions of access into account, digital financial initiatives can potentially push them further to the periphery of the global economy.
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