[...]us.)
='at'>#workshop='lgc'>: Studying State Power='lgc'>='lgc'>---in ="nms">Tehran we must explore theoretical alternatives to the concept of force='lgc'>: consent, contract, ="ppl">Singh's bipolar theory of force and contract, varying ideas of the “magic” of the state, ="ppl">="ppl">Foucault's governmentality ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> contemporary ="trms">anthropology of the state, we examine varying pictures of state incapacity
="lsts lst1">•requirements='lgc'>: willingness to engage challenging concepts and texts, weekly online comment, class ="trms">presentations and participation
="lsts lst1">•aims='lgc'>: a final essay='lgc'>: to make a coherent argument drawing on ="trms">anthropological and theoretical ="trms">literatures on state power
="lsts lst1">•axis='lgc'>: i work with ="ppl">Singh='lgc'>: that “there is no one correct answer we hope that students will come away with a better sense of the paradoxical coordinates of power such as violence and welfare, central to the making and unmaking of global ="trms">modernity”
="lsts lst1">•="trms"nttrm="already,spread">reading='lgc'>: we will gradually build up towards the more difficult texts and ideas.
="lsts lst1">•note='lgc'>: You will not necessarily receive a better grade for any external research or new information you bring in but on how well you relate to the texts and ideas we have discussed in class. two student ="trms">presentations. often a quieter, more considered ="trms">response will be more highly valued.


='lgc'>[="ppl">Singh seeks to signal='lgc'>] a wider range of forces (of which “repression” sarkub سرکوب would be one) and forms of contract (modes of give and take that are not exactly captured by ='thdf'>the idea of “compassion” rahm رحم) ='lgc'>[='lgc'>=/= VOA or BBC's d="trms"nttrm="danger,stranger">angerous notion of “informing” ="nms">iranians’ political awareness='lgc'>]
="prgrph">-these two forms exist as potential tendencies of power, two forms among others that ='strcls'>**power over life may take='strcls'>**
='strcls'>*tendencies='strcls'>* are not static or a="trms">historical ='lgc'>[- ="frds scrmbld">Foad's “tendencies” (to destiny)='lgc'>] ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> tendencies may ="trms">morph and take new shapes ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> they can also turn toxic when they are disappointed ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> we oscillate from redemption to catastrophe ='lgc'>=/= ='lgc'>[this is the kind of political act/project we need:='lgc'>] “with Mitra and Varuna (='lgc'>~ region of structural-potential tendencies) we are not giving up hope, but the project becomes more ="trms">specific='lgc'>: to track the particular degrees of force (many of which may be morally objectionable) and the modes of contract that are available in a polity” -="ppl">Singh
...="trms">gestured to tendencies of thought

='at'>@="nms">iranian friends
to inhabit Mitra and Varuna is to not give up all political hopes and criticism (='lgc'>=/= dialectical political logic ='lgc'>==> a final purifying battle ='lgc'>[='lgc'>~ ="frds scrmbld">Mehdi's totall earthquake offering a “higher” synthesis to his ="nms">Tehran in a destructive scenario='lgc'>])

='strcls'>*** the locus of disappointment (& hope) ='lgc'>[for ="nms">iranian='lgc'>] ='strcls'>***

="large lg2" stl="font-size:112%"> a concept can='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•shift or reverse the locus of our hopes and disappointments
="lsts lst1">•gives us coordinates along which to pay closer attention


nondialectical thought ='lgc'>=/= law of noncontra="trms">diction ='lgc'>: you are either for or against (Islam, state, ...)


a kind of life-force that an older generation of ="trms">social ="trms">science would have called “="trms">agency”='lgc'>:
“she is fearless and has an amazing ability to bring people together”, i was drawn to the vitality that she ="trms">embody ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="ppl">Singh understands her life not simply as a unidirectional ="trms">story of “empowerment” or “="trms">agency” ='lgc'>[a ="trms">story many ="nms">iranians are caught in='lgc'>] but as a ='strcls'>*fluctuation between forms of strength and vulnerability='strcls'>*
(condition of life itself='lgc'>:) our particular strengths and vulnerabilities variably express themselves
...pushing a family from a ="trms">position of relative strength into near destitution


="large lg1" stl="font-size:111%"> how do we conceptualize ="trms">relations between potentially hostile neighboring groups='qstn'>? (="ppl">Singh 2011)


='lgc'>[agonistics ='and'>& intimacies='lgc'>] ='lgc'>--how='lgc'>='lgc'>--> they may ="trms">traverse ="trms">different intensities ='lgc'>='lgc'>~='lgc'>~='lgc'>~='lgc'>~> ='strcls'>***="trms">differences ="trms">internal to a life='strcls'>***

agon (contest) ='lgc'>--="ppl">Singh='lgc'>='lgc'>--> agonistic intimacy='lgc'>: a way to understand the co-="trms">presence of modes of conflict and cohabitation, (='strcls'>*co-="trms">presence of violence and wellness='strcls'>*,) to leave open the possibility of a shared and contested future


jinn='lgc'>: a ="trms">category of spirit shared by popular hinduism and islam
who, usually turns out, is a lifelong conpanion
='strcls'>*a ="trms">relation that can be life-giving may also become life-denying
jinn and other minor spirits may also harbor the possibility of madness


='lgc'>[varying thresholds of life='lgc'>]
thinking of the dead, the unborn, spirits, and those participants among living ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> what kind of conception of life this requires='qstn'>? ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (="ppl">Deleuze > ="ppl">Singh's) ='strcls'>***varying thresholds of life='strcls'>*** (='lgc'>=/= ="ppl">Agamben's “bare life” ='lgc'>[='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="ppl">Singh's starting point='lgc'>: how one thinks about life or vitality not just as bare life='lgc'>]) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> as a way of engaging ="trms">ancestors (such as ="frds scrmbld">Ehsan's little girl ghost ='lgc'>[='at'>#="frds scrmbld">Ehsan's brilliant ="trms">storytelling gives the “unbeliever” goosebumps from the intensities, the “incredible feeling of an unknown ="trms">Nature-="trms">affect” that he ="trms">embodies='lgc'>]), spirits, the undead, and the unborn who subsist alongside the living
='strcls'>*threshold='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•to denote points of passage accross phases of life
="lsts lst1">•refering to varying degrees of intensity (that may continue after death)='lgc'>='lgc'>--> as a spirit/jinn is preserved or recedes, through possession or in visions or ="trms">memories, enduring in potentially multiple dimensions
='strcls'>*a ="trms">memory, a dream, even a ="trms">hallucination is also a threshold of life='strcls'>*
="trms">agency of spirits ='lgc'>[jinn, abstract spirit of ="trms">modernity, secular education, Thakur Baba, , ,='lgc'>]='lgc'> = ='strcls'>*a threshold of life='strcls'>* (with its own immanent forms of movement and flux)
='lgc'>[-='lgc'>]lets not call it “disenchantment” or mere nostalgia, but ='strcls'>*a shift in the quality of life='strcls'>* ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ethnographic investigation can be a form of heightened attentiveness (to varying thresholds of life ='lgc'>[to the intensities of ="frds scrmbld">Ehsan's ghost-girl, to the cannibal mice, ="nms">Tehran's earthquake synthesis of ="trms">affect, , ,='lgc'>]='lgc'>--(these ='lgc'>[="nms">Tehran's range of moods and intensities='lgc'>] are)='lgc'>='lgc'>--> waxing and waning گام‌های ماه ='strcls'>*intensities immanent to a milieu; ="trms">affecting our ideas of ethics and politics)


the ="trms">social ='lgc'>=='qstn'>? “our” version of the transcendent/immanent ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphysical
how many dimensions is “our” ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphysical ="trms">composed of (in ="nms">Tehran)='qstn'>?


(Durkheim starts='lgc'>:) ="trms">religion='lgc'> = an engagement with a vital animating principle, “a kind of anonymous and impersonal force ='lgc'>[...='lgc'>] none possesses it entirely and all share in it”
="prgrph">-spirits, demons, jinns, gods of every rank are the ='strcls'>*concrete forms='strcls'>* that capture this energy, this ='strcls'>*potentiality='strcls'>*
(later Durkheim reduces this remarkable promising ="trms">formulation in his signiture from the ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphysical='lgc'>: “the moral ="trms">authority of ="trms">society”, ‘="trms">religion ='lgc'>==> solidarity انسجام’ ='lgc'>}='lgc'>=/= innumerable ="trms">anthropologists have shown how ="trms">religion does not necessarily “reawaken solidarity”)

(instead of “the ="trms">social” lets get ="trms">interested in more than one dimension of life, lets think, with ="ppl">Singh and ="ppl">Deleuze, of) ='strcls'>*vast continuum of human and nonhuman life='strcls'>*


“Baba, I have been troubled for years. What can I do to please my ="trms">ancestral spirits='qstn'>?”


Beyzai analyzes deities and myths in ="nms">Iran, negating any potential for spiriual movement between rival groups, even in what is clearly ='strcls'>*a form of ="trms">religious life moving across='strcls'>*
Beyzai preoccupation with defeat doesn't allow him to attend to ‘forms of ="trms">religious life moving across’
="lsts lst1">•bottom-up thesis of op="trms">positional negation and from its “top-down” op="trms">posite
='lgc'>=/= ='thdf'>the idea of spiritual conversation
imitation of ='lgc'>[upper caste,,,='lgc'>] values
='lgc'>[='strcls'>***='lgc'>]the fatality of these ideas of negation and of imitation is that they obscure the possibility of a spiritual in="trms">heritence that may be shared and contested in ways that create the possibility of a ='strcls'>*cohabited future between neighbors and rivals='strcls'>* (="ppl">Singh)

yes yes the ="trms">history might be made through bloody contra="trms">dictions, and yet, we cannot be as Magi, waiting for the big drama to un="trms">fold ='lgc'>--(we can do better)='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a sig="trms">nature capacity of ethnographic attentiveness in an affirmative lineage of thought ='lgc'>--(not to deny contra="trms">diction)='lgc'>='lgc'>--> to be able to sense ='strcls'>**varying intensities of conflict and cohabitation='strcls'>**
(play and war may both be latent in the give and take of everyday life, and the ="trms">difference may not always be clear-cut)

نیرومندی و کثرت اهالی و تعارضات کشمکش و جماع
(how='qstn'>?) (to be able to) sense varying intensities ='lgc'>[کیفیتی با شدت و سختی و حجم ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= انقباض ,در هم کشیدگی ='lgc'>+ شتافتن ,گرفته شدن ='lgc'>+ فراهم آمدن ,گرفتگی ,ترنجیدگی='lgc'>] of conflict and cohabitation='lgc'>[='lgc'>: my sister thinks of this term as family in small scale='lgc'>]
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">differential ='lgc'>[داراى ضريب متغير، افتراقی، تشخیص دهنده the result of ="trms">differentiation ='lgc'>=/= ="trms">different تمایز='lgc'>] intensities

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