[...]sts or ="trms">imagined

can we talk affirmatively of a post="trms">modern ethnography of ="nms">ajayeb='qstn'>? ='lgc'>=/= “totalizing vision” of culture

recovery of a human voice as a moral imperative (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="frds scrmbld">Hoda)

(='qstn'>?your ="trms">history as a) telos of increasingly self-awareness

="prgrph">-="ppl">Derrida's philosophical style tending to negative transcendence (différance='lgc'>: an absence that transcends ‘a’ and ‘not a’)
="prgrph">-="ppl">Deleuze's tradition of affirmative immanence

="large lg2" stl="font-size:110%"> (="ppl">Singh > ="ppl">Deleuze > ="ppl">Strauss='lgc'>:) structure is ="trms">composed of “pre-individual singularities” ='lgc'>~ nomadic distribution of potential ='lgc'>--immanent='lgc'>='lgc'>--> contra="trms">dictions, accidents, mutations

pure/impure
suspicious/inauspicious
life/death

heretic ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> reorder and ob="trms">literate the partitioning of ="trms">categories that ="trms">compose the structural order of ="trms">religion ='lgc'>[='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="ppl">Veena on Sikhism and Hinduism='lgc'>: ="trms">symbolism of Sikhism understood in ="trms">relation to Hinduism structural order, annihilating the ="trms">categorical ="trms">prioritise (intellectual and ="trms">social) of the medieval ="trms">world. Sikhism rejecting the op="trms">position between ="trms">categories of='lgc'>: the rulers, the caste ="trms">system, and the orders of r="trms">enunciation ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> investment of the virtues of all three ='strcls'>*in a single body of faith='strcls'>* and conduct='lgc'>]

heterodox sects
rebellious thinkers
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> negation of the organizing conceptual order

(="trms">social and) ritual order generates its own forms of instability

...ambivalences of key concepts ='lgc'>==bring='lgc'>='lgc'>==> “play” to the structure, for good and ill ='lgc'>~ liminality

(="ppl">Veena's) liminial ="trms">situation='lgc'>: a form of instability where the individual experiences his ="trms">social ="trms">world as separated from the cosmic ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> death='lgc'>: dis="trms">articulation ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> must be undone by inhabiting the liminality ='lgc'>: ritually rejoining the flow of life

similarities of ritual mourner and ascetic='lgc'>: transcending the ="trms">categories of the ="trms">social and the cosmic

incorporation of the liminal undead (preta) with ritually incorporated ="trms">ancestors (pitri) ='lgc'>[job of the mourner='lgc'>]

(crucial task of the) ritual='lgc'>: conveying the dead from the threshold of liminality into an ="trms">ancestral flow of life

emphasis on the ="trms">system is (always='qstn'>?) at the cost of the event
(eternal investment of the artists in foregrounding of the event rather than the structure ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> rapture with structure as caste, tradition, state, norm, ="trms">system, etc. at the cost of missing the practical kinship transcribed into the ="trms">social contract, leadership, and laws of encounter)

="large lg1" stl="font-size:115%"> ='strcls'>***="trms">modernity is ="trms">composed (neither by continuities nor rupture then, but) by trans="trms">figurations='strcls'>***
(="ppl">Singh ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Veena)

critical event
critical structure

='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]event='lgc'>: institute a new modality of ="trms">historical action which is not inscribed in the inventory of that ="trms">situation
(for Furet='lgc'>: French revolution is an event par excellence) ='lgc'>--="ppl">Veena='lgc'>='lgc'>--> event='lgc'>: moments when new modes of action come into being which which redefines traditional ="trms">categories (such as='lgc'>: ="trms">codes of purity and honor, the meaning of martyrdom, construction of a heroic life, etc.)

foregrounding the event as analytic ="trms">category (without disappearing the ="trms">question of structure)='lgc'>:
="prgrph">-sati of Roop Kanvar
="prgrph">-Sikh militancy
="prgrph">-collective violence during the partition of India and Pakistan

not only the state (tries to institutionalize collective ="trms">memory), but also minor ="trms">communities (in the process of their emergence) try to control and fix ="trms">memory in much the same manner ='lgc'>[not total of course='lgc'>] (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> something i am learning in north of Norway with the sami)

there is always ='strcls'>*ambiguity='strcls'>* in the way even the most passionate public ="trms">presentations of militant nationa="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list discourse is framed (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> there is ='strcls'>***noise in reference to violence='strcls'>*** ='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Mona)

event ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> shift the con="trms">figuration of analysis (and not annulling the structure's analytical possibilities)

event='lgc'>: (a new set of) circumstances for which rules are not set in place

in the case of Bhopal intoxication ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> gradual creation of an expert discourse which sought to dissolve the concrete and existential reality of suffering victims

in the case of such-large suffering event coordinations gradually come to be defined around it ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">question of structure

(='strcls'>**="trms">modernity is an event='strcls'>**)

pain and suffering are not simply individual experiences ... they may also be experiences which are created and distributed by the ="trms">social order

="ppl">Veena's ='strcls'>*="trms">anthropology of pain='strcls'>*
how institutions (in the domain of ="trms">religion, and ="trms">modern='lgc'>: bureaucracy, law, medicine) maintain and signal their legitimacy in the face of massive human suffering='qstn'>?
="prgrph">-manufacture of pain
="prgrph">-theology of suffering

the discovery of the event, as a ="trms">question for ="trms">anthropology, is precisely that='lgc'>: ='strcls'>*event exceeds structure='strcls'>*
(exess ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> re="trms">imagining the ="trms">networks that ="trms">compose our lives)

="ppl">Veena ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> Bhopal industrial disaster='lgc'>: neither ="trms">social ="trms">relations nor locally available knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge were sufficient to apprehend the event. it is at this point that people had to actively search for new knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge, for new kinds of ="trms">social actors that might help them address the ="trms">question of what was happening to their bodies ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> they had to reconstruct ="trms">social ="trms">relations to in="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clude the existence of ="trms">international legal ="trms">systems and governmental bureaucracies in their image of ="trms">society='strcls'>***

toxic potency (='lgc'>='lgc'>==> ="trms">difference, collective violence ='lgc'>[such as the partition of India and Pakistan ='lgc'>=/=='lgc'>], stable violence ='lgc'>[such as a village caste dispute='lgc'>],,,)

poles of life and death that separates ="trms">different kinds of collective violence ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the sexual and reproductive violence witnessed in the Partition connot be understood by taking ="trms">social ="trms">relations as model
(="ppl">Veena)

...distance that arises out of forms of proximity

="ppl">Veena 3 ="trms">books='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•Structure and Cognition ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> illuminates certain recurring patterns
="lsts lst1">•Critical Event ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> paints a kind of national lanscape
="lsts lst1">•Life and Words ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> turn to an art of an ="trms">anthropological portraiture

...healing properties of the everyday
...everyday life generates its own forms of toxicity

="large lg3" stl="font-size:111%"> (="ppl">Singh's) art of portraiture
of individuals, of milieu,

='strcls'>*singularity (of a portraiture) may express something both local and global='strcls'>*

="ppl">Veena ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> how would we conceptualize the moments of potentially violent uncertainty='qstn'>?
="prgrph">-="ppl">Benjamin='lgc'>: invocations of the uncanny
="prgrph">-="ppl">Derrida='lgc'>: the spectral
="prgrph">-="ppl">Veena='lgc'>: eventedness of the everyday (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> skepticism)

Cavell (on Hollywood cinema and other sites where the drama of separation and union is played out) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> how philosophers have typically focused on skepticism ='lgc'>[longstanding western philosophical ="trms">question and doubt about existence='lgc'>] with respect to ="trms">material objects and the external ="trms">world
...existence of the ="trms">finite neighbour (seemingly known other) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> may become unknowable

="large lg4" stl="font-size:111%"> ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*="ppl">Veena discovers the concept of skepticism for ="trms">anthropology (as a discipline centrally concerned with the varying conditions of human relatedness and otherness)='strcls'>*

='lgc'>[i have been trying dicover skepticism un="trms">systematically in artistic practices those that have strong concerns of ="trms">social justice and suffering, but i never named it as such. ='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Hoda, ="frds scrmbld">Xiri's emphasis on the threatening ="trms">nature of liminality (="trms">demand for equality or freedom) ='lgc'>=/= ='strcls'>**to take the possibility of unsettlement or chaos as founding concern='strcls'>**='lgc'>]
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> skepticism (may) sug="trms">gests a differnt route of inquiry

(="ppl">Veena -2007='lgc'>:) “the intimacy between skepticism and the ordinary is revealed in the ="trms">present work on several sites, as in the panic ="trms">rumors that circulate and produce the picture of the other as phantasmal from whom all human subjectivity has been evacuated, or when violence in the register of ="trms">literary is seen as transfiguring life into something else, call it a form of death, or of making oneself, as it were, into a ghost”

='lgc'>[violence ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> ghosts='lgc'>]

skeptical problematic ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> shifting potency of words ='lgc'>: energies that words may gather, and the ways these energies may give or deny life

="large lg5" stl="font-size:110%"> speech ='lgc'>=/= voice
='lgc'>='lgc'>==> ='strcls'>***silence is not necessarily life-denying or that it necessarily indicates a lack or an inability to mourn='strcls'>***

='lgc'>[victims of violence telling ="trms">stories='lgc'>]
words imbued with spectral quality (yet animated by some other voice)

there is a deep moral energy in the ='strcls'>*refusal to re="trms">present some violations of the human body='strcls'>* ='lgc'>[='lgc'>=/= forensic architecture project's imperative of detailed re="trms">presentation of violation, explicit acknowledging traumatic ="trms">memory='lgc'>]
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>***living with poisonous knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge='strcls'>*** (a ="trms">differen[...]