‘Live has an atmosphere of its own’: azadari, ethical orientation, and tuned presence in Shi‘i media praxis

Abstract

Among producers of Shi‘i Islamic media in Pakistan, the quality of being live as an atmosphere capable of mediation has gained efficacy along with changes in media for religious dispensation. Central to the importance of live recordings are the ways they are perceived to most effectively mediate the ethical, ritual, and transhistorical contours of azadari, a word that describes the ways in which the personages held in esteem by the Shi‘a are mourned and commemorated. What are these qualities of being live that see recordings attributed the qualities of a good, moral atmosphere? By building on ethnographic research into the relationship between Shi‘i practices of azadari and their technological mediation, this article aims to provide greater insights into what atmosphere can do for anthropology, with the suggestion that it acts as a way of recognizing different thresholds of intensity and change.

The perils of utopia: Between ‘ethical static’ and moral perfectionism in Iran

“…This event, rich with meaning, was for state ideologues the expression of the triumph of a moral order over an immoral one, the (re)-insertion of Islamic values into a society where they had been sorely missing, the recurring apogee of a new social movement that promised virtuous perfection. It had, to borrow a term from Cooper (2022), a ‘moral atmosphere’, a social ambience in which ‘tone or mood are shaped by the principles of right and wrong’ (Cooper, 2022: 5–6). And, second, because for those among my interlocutors who were critical of the status quo, the parade was also a moment which elicited a response that I argue to be an index of the ramifications of moral perfectionism and its impact on elements within Mashhadi society.…”

A possible perfection

“…Finally, the perfection of the salavāt , even as it sought hegemony, never fully achieved universalism. Mashhad's public domain was a space with a conservative “moral atmosphere” (Cooper, 2022) that existed by virtue of its position as a shrine city and its ultraconservative and highly influential Friday prayer leader, Alam ol‐Hodā, something noted in the smaller body of ethnographies produced on the city (e.g., Olszewska, 2015). In this domain, the relationships of authority and absence of debate embedded in the public that the salavāt evoked demonstrate that such perfection reached close to hegemony.…”

Ethical Endeavours

“…Phenomenology, which has recently gained some prominence in US anthropology, also seems to be becoming more popular among European anthropologists (e.g. Cooper 2022;Eisenlohr 2022;Graf 2022). Th e fi eld of economic anthropology, in particular, was well represented in 2022, with two concepts -moral economy (see below) and social reproduction (e.g.…”