On February 11, 1965, less than one year after the outset of the Brazilian military dictatorship, singer Maria Bethânia assumed one of the principal roles in the musical theater piece Opinião in Rio de Janeiro. Taking over for Nara Leão, who helped conceive the play, Bethânia was celebrated by fans, especially for her performance of co-star João do Vale’s song ‘Carcará.’ The song’s lyrics invoke imagery of the Brazilian northeast, home region of both Vale and Bethânia, and the performance includes a spoken statistical report on the migration of people from the northeast to the southern cities. Although the song’s composer denied that the song was an act of protest or political commentary, General Riograndino Kruel, then head of the Federal Police, identified it as one of the ‘subversive’ elements in the show that needed to be cut. This call to censorship contradicted the censor board’s 1964 approval of the show, during Nara Leão’s run as star. This article analyzes singer Maria Bethânia’s participation in Opinião to consider the potential for musical performance to engender political community by affective means. Drawing on archival materials and interviews conducted with audience members and participants, I argue that Bethânia’s performances were the catalyst for the formation of an oppositional ‘community of feeling,’ a collective predicated the expression of negative emotional energy toward the nascent authoritarian state. I show how audience members’ and critics’ affective response to Bethânia’s performance evidenced a shift in the tenor of the public for Opinião, which subsequently raised the suspicions of the military government. Additionally, I investigate how the dictatorship’s repressive response illustrates the possibilities and limits of a community formed through musical performance. Photo caption: Maria Bethania in the show Opinião, at Teatro de Arena, São Paulo, 1965. (Public domain / Arquivo Nacional Collection)
{"title":"'We Feel Something'","authors":"Schuyler Whelden","doi":"10.5617/jea.10294","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.10294","url":null,"abstract":"On February 11, 1965, less than one year after the outset of the Brazilian military dictatorship, singer Maria Bethânia assumed one of the principal roles in the musical theater piece Opinião in Rio de Janeiro. Taking over for Nara Leão, who helped conceive the play, Bethânia was celebrated by fans, especially for her performance of co-star João do Vale’s song ‘Carcará.’ The song’s lyrics invoke imagery of the Brazilian northeast, home region of both Vale and Bethânia, and the performance includes a spoken statistical report on the migration of people from the northeast to the southern cities. Although the song’s composer denied that the song was an act of protest or political commentary, General Riograndino Kruel, then head of the Federal Police, identified it as one of the ‘subversive’ elements in the show that needed to be cut. This call to censorship contradicted the censor board’s 1964 approval of the show, during Nara Leão’s run as star. This article analyzes singer Maria Bethânia’s participation in Opinião to consider the potential for musical performance to engender political community by affective means. Drawing on archival materials and interviews conducted with audience members and participants, I argue that Bethânia’s performances were the catalyst for the formation of an oppositional ‘community of feeling,’ a collective predicated the expression of negative emotional energy toward the nascent authoritarian state. I show how audience members’ and critics’ affective response to Bethânia’s performance evidenced a shift in the tenor of the public for Opinião, which subsequently raised the suspicions of the military government. Additionally, I investigate how the dictatorship’s repressive response illustrates the possibilities and limits of a community formed through musical performance.\u0000Photo caption: Maria Bethania in the show Opinião, at Teatro de Arena, São Paulo, 1965. (Public domain / Arquivo Nacional Collection)","PeriodicalId":190492,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Extreme Anthropology","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141640671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cuban street vendors use pregones, high-pitched rhymes and rhythms, to promote their goods and services. This ambulant form of small-scale commerce has been part of the urban soundscape since the early years of Spanish colonization. While often celebrated as a vibrant addition to the nation’s identity, the pregón has sometimes been regarded as a nuisance that must conform to the regulations and preferences of elites or stay silent. This paper explores the shifting circumstances under which street vendors have operated in Cuba, specifically since the 1959 Revolution. The drive to establish communism on the island during the 1960s resulted in the partial decline of street traders and their tunes. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s brought about social conditions that led to their resurgence in a new form. Presently, Cuban street vendors confront an expanding legal framework aimed at regulating their activities, as well as popular critique that their sales jingles lack musical creativity. Nevertheless, the musical-commercial expressions of Cuba’s ambulant vendors persist. They continuously adapt to their social circumstances, finding new ways to draw attention to their goods and services. Photo: Ingrid Evensen
{"title":"Street Rhythms and the Revolution","authors":"Ståle Wig","doi":"10.5617/jea.10324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.10324","url":null,"abstract":"Cuban street vendors use pregones, high-pitched rhymes and rhythms, to promote their goods and services. This ambulant form of small-scale commerce has been part of the urban soundscape since the early years of Spanish colonization. While often celebrated as a vibrant addition to the nation’s identity, the pregón has sometimes been regarded as a nuisance that must conform to the regulations and preferences of elites or stay silent. This paper explores the shifting circumstances under which street vendors have operated in Cuba, specifically since the 1959 Revolution. The drive to establish communism on the island during the 1960s resulted in the partial decline of street traders and their tunes. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s brought about social conditions that led to their resurgence in a new form. Presently, Cuban street vendors confront an expanding legal framework aimed at regulating their activities, as well as popular critique that their sales jingles lack musical creativity. Nevertheless, the musical-commercial expressions of Cuba’s ambulant vendors persist. They continuously adapt to their social circumstances, finding new ways to draw attention to their goods and services.\u0000Photo: Ingrid Evensen","PeriodicalId":190492,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Extreme Anthropology","volume":"14 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141646571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The 4 Es of the Musical Mind","authors":"Bjørm Schiermer","doi":"10.5617/jea.10741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.10741","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":190492,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Extreme Anthropology","volume":"50 3-4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139254614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork on Swedo-Russian musical collaborations, this article explores the link between popular music and the conspicuous consumption of Russia’s wealthy elite. Presenting two specific cases, one following a Russian millionaire’s wife’s efforts to become a pop star and the other exploring a wealthy Russian’s pursuit of patronage for emerging pop artists, the article describes how popular music became a means for Russia’s rich elite not only to show off their wealth and luxurious lifestyles but also to exchange monetary means for other forms of (cultural) capital, such as fame, coolness, and associations with a Western lifestyle. Furthermore, the article situates this elite dynamic in relation to specific Russian historical trajectories, and the ways in which the influence of the economic elite within the Russian music industry creates an unlevelled playing field for professionals trying to make a living from making popular music.
{"title":"Singing Wives and Oligarch Patrons","authors":"Ingrid M. Tolstad","doi":"10.5617/jea.9853","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.9853","url":null,"abstract":"Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork on Swedo-Russian musical collaborations, this article explores the link between popular music and the conspicuous consumption of Russia’s wealthy elite. Presenting two specific cases, one following a Russian millionaire’s wife’s efforts to become a pop star and the other exploring a wealthy Russian’s pursuit of patronage for emerging pop artists, the article describes how popular music became a means for Russia’s rich elite not only to show off their wealth and luxurious lifestyles but also to exchange monetary means for other forms of (cultural) capital, such as fame, coolness, and associations with a Western lifestyle. Furthermore, the article situates this elite dynamic in relation to specific Russian historical trajectories, and the ways in which the influence of the economic elite within the Russian music industry creates an unlevelled playing field for professionals trying to make a living from making popular music.","PeriodicalId":190492,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Extreme Anthropology","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123839908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
It would be far too unkind to suggest that academics and journalists have presented the COVID-19 pandemic in isolation from its broader economic context. However, it would be less unkind to suggest that its location in a triptych of major crises – the Great Financial Crash and its subsequent neoliberal austerity programmes, climate change, and the imminent deglobalisation signaled by the Ukraine-Russia conflict –could do with a little more clarity and accuracy. I want to make a small contribution to that emerging clarity by focusing on a specific interface between the pandemic, economic thinking and the role of the nation-state.
{"title":"Neoliberalism and the Opportunodemic","authors":"S. Hall","doi":"10.5617/jea.9940","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.9940","url":null,"abstract":"It would be far too unkind to suggest that academics and journalists have presented the COVID-19 pandemic in isolation from its broader economic context. However, it would be less unkind to suggest that its location in a triptych of major crises – the Great Financial Crash and its subsequent neoliberal austerity programmes, climate change, and the imminent deglobalisation signaled by the Ukraine-Russia conflict –could do with a little more clarity and accuracy. I want to make a small contribution to that emerging clarity by focusing on a specific interface between the pandemic, economic thinking and the role of the nation-state.","PeriodicalId":190492,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Extreme Anthropology","volume":"98 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127101600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The purpose of studying women’s participation in radical movements, as the classical study We Were Making History notes, is ‘an attempt to broaden the history of that struggle by recovering the subjective experience of women, to capture women’s voices from the past and to present issues as they were perceived by women’ (Stree Shakti Sanghathana, 1989, 2). Taking this framework as the point of departure, this article seeks to explore the history of women’s participation in the secessionist politics of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). Deviating from the existing scholarships on the subject that rightly focus on the lack of adequate women’s representation at the leadership level, this article argues that representation at formal political negotiations is not the only form of political activity that women aspire to. Instead, in their own way, many of these revolutionaries have in fact turned into ‘political women’. Fictional writings in the Assamese language are more forthcoming than academic scholarship in recognizing this alternative, informal politics in which women engage. At the same time, it is important to note that these ‘political women’ need not be free from conventional gendered prejudices.
正如经典研究《我们正在创造历史》(We Were Making History)所指出的那样，研究女性参与激进运动的目的是“试图通过恢复女性的主观经验来扩大这场斗争的历史，从过去捕捉女性的声音，并从女性的角度看待现在的问题”(Stree Shakti Sanghathana, 1989, 2)。以这个框架为出发点，本文旨在探讨妇女参与阿萨姆邦联合解放阵线(ULFA)分离主义政治的历史。与现有的关于这一主题的奖学金正确地关注缺乏足够的妇女在领导层面的代表不同，本文认为，正式政治谈判中的代表并不是妇女渴望的唯一政治活动形式。相反，这些革命者中的许多人实际上以自己的方式变成了“政治女性”。用阿萨姆语写的小说比学术研究更能认识到这种女性参与的非正式政治。与此同时，重要的是要注意到，这些“政治女性”不必摆脱传统的性别偏见。
{"title":"Revolutionaries as Political Women","authors":"Manas Misra","doi":"10.5617/jea.9652","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.9652","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of studying women’s participation in radical movements, as the classical study We Were Making History notes, is ‘an attempt to broaden the history of that struggle by recovering the subjective experience of women, to capture women’s voices from the past and to present issues as they were perceived by women’ (Stree Shakti Sanghathana, 1989, 2). Taking this framework as the point of departure, this article seeks to explore the history of women’s participation in the secessionist politics of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). Deviating from the existing scholarships on the subject that rightly focus on the lack of adequate women’s representation at the leadership level, this article argues that representation at formal political negotiations is not the only form of political activity that women aspire to. Instead, in their own way, many of these revolutionaries have in fact turned into ‘political women’. Fictional writings in the Assamese language are more forthcoming than academic scholarship in recognizing this alternative, informal politics in which women engage. At the same time, it is important to note that these ‘political women’ need not be free from conventional gendered prejudices.","PeriodicalId":190492,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Extreme Anthropology","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115653498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This essay begins in the past, with the hope of developing a different way of thinking through the transformations of the present. Many commentators and media outlets have referred to the era of the Covid-19 pandemic as ‘unprecedented’, but there is nothing unprecedented about a pandemic. What seem unprecedented are the measures which have been taken to control the public, measures that have been implemented via a series of states of emergency: the exercise of medical power through the vehicle of the neoliberal state did lead to a pattern of state and society which was unprecedented in democratic states. On the other hand, and as I will argue in this essay, this relationship was certainly not unprecedented when it came to the history of the Western state in Africa. In fact, when we take the perspective of medical history and its relationship with colonial power, we can historicise more easily the transformations which have taken place during the Covid-19 pandemic. *** Image Credit: A medical officer taking a sample of blood from an inhabitant of Buruma Island, suffering from sleeping sickness. Photograph, 1965, after photograph 1902. In 1901, a severe sleeping sickness epidemic in Uganda claimed more than 20,000 lives. The first Uganda Sleeping Sickness Commission went out from the London School of Tropical medicine, the senior member was Dr Cuthbert Christy. It also included Dr Carmichael Low and Count Aldo Castellani. The album, which consists of copy photographs, was sent to Dr Poynter at the Wellcome Institute library by Professor Foster from the Department of Medical Microbiology in Uganda, in 1965. It was put together to record Foster's comments on the photographs sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis), an infectious disease which affects the fluid of the spinal cord, causing lethargy and loss of physical function. In Uganda it was passed most virulently by the bite of the tsetse fly. Created 1965. Contributors: Uganda Sleeping Sickness Commission. Meeting (1902). https://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/YW029102V/A-medical-officer-taking-a-sample-of-blood-from-an-inhabitant-of-Buruma-Island-suffering-from-sleeping-sickness
{"title":"Covid-19: Medicine and Colonialism, Past and Present","authors":"T. Green","doi":"10.5617/jea.9637","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.9637","url":null,"abstract":"This essay begins in the past, with the hope of developing a different way of thinking through the transformations of the present. Many commentators and media outlets have referred to the era of the Covid-19 pandemic as ‘unprecedented’, but there is nothing unprecedented about a pandemic. What seem unprecedented are the measures which have been taken to control the public, measures that have been implemented via a series of states of emergency: the exercise of medical power through the vehicle of the neoliberal state did lead to a pattern of state and society which was unprecedented in democratic states. On the other hand, and as I will argue in this essay, this relationship was certainly not unprecedented when it came to the history of the Western state in Africa. In fact, when we take the perspective of medical history and its relationship with colonial power, we can historicise more easily the transformations which have taken place during the Covid-19 pandemic.\u0000***\u0000Image Credit: A medical officer taking a sample of blood from an inhabitant of Buruma Island, suffering from sleeping sickness. Photograph, 1965, after photograph 1902. In 1901, a severe sleeping sickness epidemic in Uganda claimed more than 20,000 lives. The first Uganda Sleeping Sickness Commission went out from the London School of Tropical medicine, the senior member was Dr Cuthbert Christy. It also included Dr Carmichael Low and Count Aldo Castellani. The album, which consists of copy photographs, was sent to Dr Poynter at the Wellcome Institute library by Professor Foster from the Department of Medical Microbiology in Uganda, in 1965. It was put together to record Foster's comments on the photographs sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis), an infectious disease which affects the fluid of the spinal cord, causing lethargy and loss of physical function. In Uganda it was passed most virulently by the bite of the tsetse fly. Created 1965. Contributors: Uganda Sleeping Sickness Commission. Meeting (1902). https://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/YW029102V/A-medical-officer-taking-a-sample-of-blood-from-an-inhabitant-of-Buruma-Island-suffering-from-sleeping-sickness \u0000 ","PeriodicalId":190492,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Extreme Anthropology","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127380038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper offers a critical reflection on the impact of Covid-19 and government public health measures on patterns of work in the UK. This paper will focus specifically on remote or home workers as this generates myriad questions about the future of work and employment, particularly in the context of advances in digital technology and the growing emphasis on environmental inequality, the spectre of climate change and a green revolution. If the laptop class work from home, they can help control the spread of Covid-19, tackle climate change and rebalance their lives – we were told. Reflecting on the pandemic, an assumption of harmlessness underpins home working. Then I look towards the future and raise questions about the role of digital technology, algorithmic governance and surveillance in our working lives. As more of us are encouraged to utilise the latest digital technologies in our working lives, it is crucial to look critically at these developments and their implications for workers. Working practices deemed necessary to tackle the pandemic are now part of a long-term future which requires further interrogation as to whether the short-term and long-term changes associated with digital technology, algorithmic governance and surveillance also make hidden assumptions of harmlessness.
{"title":"Covid-19 and the Future of Work","authors":"Anthony Lloyd","doi":"10.5617/jea.9653","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.9653","url":null,"abstract":"This paper offers a critical reflection on the impact of Covid-19 and government public health measures on patterns of work in the UK. This paper will focus specifically on remote or home workers as this generates myriad questions about the future of work and employment, particularly in the context of advances in digital technology and the growing emphasis on environmental inequality, the spectre of climate change and a green revolution. If the laptop class work from home, they can help control the spread of Covid-19, tackle climate change and rebalance their lives – we were told. Reflecting on the pandemic, an assumption of harmlessness underpins home working. Then I look towards the future and raise questions about the role of digital technology, algorithmic governance and surveillance in our working lives. As more of us are encouraged to utilise the latest digital technologies in our working lives, it is crucial to look critically at these developments and their implications for workers. Working practices deemed necessary to tackle the pandemic are now part of a long-term future which requires further interrogation as to whether the short-term and long-term changes associated with digital technology, algorithmic governance and surveillance also make hidden assumptions of harmlessness.","PeriodicalId":190492,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Extreme Anthropology","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130311235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The majority of this article consists of an unadulterated piece of auto-ethnographic writing depicting a key experience from my anthropological fieldwork. For my PhD research on Japanese policing, I spent two years living in Tokyo and training at the Yoshinkan Aikido Honbu Dojo together with groups of Japanese police officers. This particular dojo has a program called the Senshusei course where Tokyo police officers take part in a nine-month full-time training period that will bring them up to first class black belt instructor level. Alongside the aikido training, the senshusei have other duties such as being responsible for cleaning the entire building, maintaining a training diary, writing weekly essays, and helping at dojo functions. This course removes them from their policing duties for the duration of the training, yet they remain on salary. The Japanese police are encouraged to train in either aikido, judo, or kendo, as well as required firearm practice, as a part of their job. The senshusei course enrols a maximum of ten officers each year, and is just one of many training options available to them for their professional development. From interviews conducted I discovered that, despite being known amongst the Tokyo police for the intensity of the training, completion of senshusei does not necessarily bestow greater importance, respect, or professional status onto those who do it, and most of the officers I trained with signed up simply due to a personal interest in martial arts. A couple of the police told me that judo and kendo have a larger following, so there is apparently less competition if you choose aikido. After completing the course, they are expected to act as instructors to the other officers in their area units (though this is largely dependent on whether anyone is interested). Alongside this, there is a course that civilians can enrol in, of slightly longer duration (eleven months), that trains together with the police and shares all the same duties, usually containing mostly non-Japanese nationals and is therefore known as the International Senshusei or Kokusai Senshusei course. This course has been running since 1990 and was set up due to popular demand from non-Japanese aikido practitioners, many of whom had already been travelling to Japan in order to train for some years. This course is what I undertook and completed in 2017-18. This piece of writing is a first-hand description of one of the aspects of that training, called zagaku: meaning ‘seated learning,’ once a week all senshusei had to spend one full 90-minute training session in seiza, the traditional kneeling position. This practice was derived from the era when Shioda Gozo-sensei (the founder of Yoshinkan Aikido) was still alive and leading the dojo in the late 1990s; it was for all the senseis to attend and reflect on their progress and techniques. This session would usually last around 45mins, during which time everyone had to pay attention to the discussion de
{"title":"Zagaku","authors":"Amy Tapsfield","doi":"10.5617/jea.9459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.9459","url":null,"abstract":"The majority of this article consists of an unadulterated piece of auto-ethnographic writing depicting a key experience from my anthropological fieldwork. For my PhD research on Japanese policing, I spent two years living in Tokyo and training at the Yoshinkan Aikido Honbu Dojo together with groups of Japanese police officers. This particular dojo has a program called the Senshusei course where Tokyo police officers take part in a nine-month full-time training period that will bring them up to first class black belt instructor level. Alongside the aikido training, the senshusei have other duties such as being responsible for cleaning the entire building, maintaining a training diary, writing weekly essays, and helping at dojo functions. This course removes them from their policing duties for the duration of the training, yet they remain on salary. The Japanese police are encouraged to train in either aikido, judo, or kendo, as well as required firearm practice, as a part of their job. The senshusei course enrols a maximum of ten officers each year, and is just one of many training options available to them for their professional development. From interviews conducted I discovered that, despite being known amongst the Tokyo police for the intensity of the training, completion of senshusei does not necessarily bestow greater importance, respect, or professional status onto those who do it, and most of the officers I trained with signed up simply due to a personal interest in martial arts. A couple of the police told me that judo and kendo have a larger following, so there is apparently less competition if you choose aikido. After completing the course, they are expected to act as instructors to the other officers in their area units (though this is largely dependent on whether anyone is interested). Alongside this, there is a course that civilians can enrol in, of slightly longer duration (eleven months), that trains together with the police and shares all the same duties, usually containing mostly non-Japanese nationals and is therefore known as the International Senshusei or Kokusai Senshusei course. This course has been running since 1990 and was set up due to popular demand from non-Japanese aikido practitioners, many of whom had already been travelling to Japan in order to train for some years. This course is what I undertook and completed in 2017-18. This piece of writing is a first-hand description of one of the aspects of that training, called zagaku: meaning ‘seated learning,’ once a week all senshusei had to spend one full 90-minute training session in seiza, the traditional kneeling position. This practice was derived from the era when Shioda Gozo-sensei (the founder of Yoshinkan Aikido) was still alive and leading the dojo in the late 1990s; it was for all the senseis to attend and reflect on their progress and techniques. This session would usually last around 45mins, during which time everyone had to pay attention to the discussion de","PeriodicalId":190492,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Extreme Anthropology","volume":"478 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128995020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article offers an original insight on the gift economy in Tajikistan. As long shown by the literature, ceremonial expenditures sustain social status and convey moral obligations and social order. In this context, we find that marriage breakdown sheds a new light on social cohesion and the sense of indebtedness in Tajik society. In the case studies provided, the material and symbolic meaning of marital breakdown is analysed from the perspective of divorced women. In the context of high ritual expenditure, we ask what are the effects of divorce (and more broadly, demarriage) on women’s perceptions of gender and marital roles in a context of economic crisis and mass male migration to Russia. Specifically, we are interested in the language of debt that shapes women’s discourses about their former marital bond, and how it disrupts the principles of the gift economy that derive from traditional gender and generational roles. In particular, the notion of debt allows divorced women to condemn their ex-in-laws’ failings towards them. The end of the marriage opens the way for the denunciation of broken promises, the expression of unfulfilled expectations and the breaking of marital, gender and collective obligations towards the spouse. While it brings with it a demand for recognition and social justice, it also expresses the contradictory tensions that run through society, its norms and the traditional social roles associated with conjugality.
{"title":"Marriage, Divorce and Mutual Indebtedness","authors":"Juliette Cleuziou, Caroline Dufy","doi":"10.5617/jea.9562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.9562","url":null,"abstract":"This article offers an original insight on the gift economy in Tajikistan. As long shown by the literature, ceremonial expenditures sustain social status and convey moral obligations and social order. In this context, we find that marriage breakdown sheds a new light on social cohesion and the sense of indebtedness in Tajik society. In the case studies provided, the material and symbolic meaning of marital breakdown is analysed from the perspective of divorced women. In the context of high ritual expenditure, we ask what are the effects of divorce (and more broadly, demarriage) on women’s perceptions of gender and marital roles in a context of economic crisis and mass male migration to Russia. Specifically, we are interested in the language of debt that shapes women’s discourses about their former marital bond, and how it disrupts the principles of the gift economy that derive from traditional gender and generational roles. In particular, the notion of debt allows divorced women to condemn their ex-in-laws’ failings towards them. The end of the marriage opens the way for the denunciation of broken promises, the expression of unfulfilled expectations and the breaking of marital, gender and collective obligations towards the spouse. While it brings with it a demand for recognition and social justice, it also expresses the contradictory tensions that run through society, its norms and the traditional social roles associated with conjugality.","PeriodicalId":190492,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Extreme Anthropology","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130013107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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