Humanitarian affect: Islam, aid and emotional impulse in northern Pakistan

Mostowlansky, Till

doi:10.1080/02757206.2019.1689971

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Th e temporal element is important here: particular constellations of power and meaning generate diff erences that have material, ontological consequences, but do not stem out of a pre-given diff erence in being (e.g. Mol 2003).…”

Section: Socially Produced Ontological Consequences: Towards Decoloni...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Vernacular Humanitarianisms

Brkovič¹

2023

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

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There has been an increase of anthropological interest in small-scale humanitarianisms that make situated claims to universality. The articles in this collection demonstrate that some genealogies of such situated universalisms have been explored more than others. Focusing on vernacular humanitarianisms, the goal is not to celebrate the standpoint of ‘radical alterity’ but rather to acknowledge that imagining and recognising similarities of people's experiences is not reserved for the Western European epistemology. Anthropological research of small-scale humanitarianisms points to situated, alternative and sometimes even decolonising visions and practices of ‘the humanity’ understood as a framework for imagining and recognising broadly shared experiences. This collection asks how vernacular humanitarianisms are performed in everyday life, enabling particular forms of ethics, power and inequality. Thus, it keeps possibilities of social critique in sight and moves a conversation towards an ethnographically attuned perspective that explores the role of vernacular humanitarianisms in various projects of governance. Depuis cinq ans, les anthropologues s'intéressent de plus en plus aux formes de l'humanitarisme à petite échelle qui, compte tenu du contexte socio-historique, visent un caractère d'universalité. Les articles publiés dans ce numéro de la revue montrent que quelques généalogies ont été explorées plus que d'autres. Les nouvelles expressions de la vie humanitaire émergent aujourd'hui remettent en question les divisions entre les pays du Nord, les pays du Sud, et les pays de l'Est. En mettant l'accent sur les idées et pratiques de l'humanitarisme vernaculaire, notre objectif n'est pas de célébrer le point de vue d'une ‘altérité radicale’. Il s'agit plutôt d'admettre que la capacité d'imaginer et de reconnaître les similitudes dans l'expérience humaine n'est pas limitée à l’épistémologie de l'Europe occidentale. La recherche anthropologique sur les humanitarismes à petite échelle révèle des visions et des pratiques de ‘l'humanité’ alternatives et sans connotations coloniales, qui sont conçues comme un cadre moral permettant d'envisager et d'identifier des expériences communes. Cet ensemble d'articles offre une approche critique pour étudier comment les humanitarismes vernaculaires sont manifestes dans la vie de tous les jours, et donnent lieu à des différents types d’éthique, pouvoir et inégalité. Nous proposons de concentrer sur les possibilités de critique sociale et d'avancer vers un point de vue ethnologique pour étudier le rôle d'humanitarismes vernaculaires en rapport avec des projets de gouvernance.

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Section: Socially Produced Ontological Consequences: Towards Decoloni...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Vernacular Humanitarianisms

Brkovič¹

2023

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

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“…Simultaneously, this same ethos may also translate to deep care for aid recipients, recognizing how ‘we all are in need’ (Mittermaier 2014: 64). Emotional impulses, urges to ‘get the unlikely done’, and compulsion to ‘give discreetly’ so as not to compromise the piety of donors and aid recipients exhibit the complexity of giving and caring in Muslim societies (Mostowlansky 2020; Schaeublin 2019). My ethnographic case adds to these discussions concerning Islamic ethics and care by showing how dogs were not merely innocent objects of Aliya's compassion or conduits for her personal hopes to enter Paradise.…”

Section: (Islamic) Care Ethics After Socialismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embracing precarity across species: Muslim ethics and care for stray dogs in Russia

Rabinovich

2023

Royal Anthropological Inst

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Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Saint Petersburg between 2015 and 2016, this article puts work on postsocialist precarity in conversation with scholarship on piety and interspecies care in Muslim contexts to explore how Aliya, a low‐income Slavic convert to Islam, responded to social and economic hardships by tending to stray dogs. In doing so, she did not turn away, turn inwards, or turn political in the conventional sense of the word. Instead, she engaged in what I term ‘embracing precarity’, which I define as a response to uncertainty, grounded in Islamic spirituality, ethics, and care. By embracing canine tactility – often in departure from cultural norms concerning stray dogs in Islam and at the risk of deepening her own vulnerability – Aliya embarked on a path towards God with nonhuman others. The emergent relatedness between her and the dogs illustrates how striving for an ethical Muslim life amid uncertainty may open one up to experimentation, improvisation, and becoming with precarious others in a pursuit of a relationship with God and a favourable afterlife.

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“…'Religion' in their work can neither be seen as the essential cause, as if they were only missionaries in disguise, nor merely a device for educational, economic or political endeavours; the two act mutually and both are constitutive of their efforts. The religious formations which shape the social and economic work warrant research in their own right, such as recent inquiries into Islamic economy in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan (Botoeva 2018) and Muslim humanitarianism in the borderlands of Central and South Asia (Mostowlansky 2020).…”

Section: Religious Transformations and Collective Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropology of Transformation

2022

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This collection of essays is the result of the joint efforts of colleagues and students of the leading social anthropology and post-socialism theorist, Professor Chris Hann. With the thirtieth anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 2019 as their catalyst, the authors reflect upon Chris Hann’s lifelong fieldwork in the discipline, spanning regions as diverse as East Central Europe, Turkey, and the Chinese north-west. The collapse of the Berlin Wall naturally triggered a plethora of analysis and scholarly research. Sociocultural anthropology, with its focus on ethnographic study and on the gradual evolution of social relations, sharply contrasted with the emphasis on dramatic rupture brought about by the 1989 transition. Continuing in this tradition, this volume, through micro-level analysis of societal transformation from the post-war years to the present day, provides an alternative perspective to the neoliberalist views often encountered in the scholarship on political and economic modernisation. The more nuanced analysis of social transformations proposed here is a particularly useful tool in the investigation of contemporary issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the refugee ‘crisis’, and the rise of right-wing populism in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Anthropology of Transformation will be of interest to researchers in the fields of socio-cultural anthropology, religion and economics. Moreover, the book’s discussion of issues widely discussed beyond the field of academia such as neoliberalism and the welfare state, and populist and exclusionary politics, will appeal to non-specialist readers.

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Humanitarian affect: Islam, aid and emotional impulse in northern Pakistan

Cited by 7 publications

References 64 publications

Vernacular Humanitarianisms

Vernacular Humanitarianisms

Embracing precarity across species: Muslim ethics and care for stray dogs in Russia

Anthropology of Transformation

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