Theorizing ‘Subhuman’

The Rohingya ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 167-194
Author(s):  
Nasir Uddin
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
State Structure ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Human Community ◽  
The World ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

Chapter 7 discusses people’s critical ‘living conditionality’ created by the state. Besides, rather than looking at such vulnerable conditions as taken for granted for the stateless people, this chapter critically engages with the body of scholarship on citizenship, asylum seekers, stateless people and refugees, arguing whether these theories generated by academics otherwise are legitimizing the dehumanization process perpetrated by the states in various forms. This chapter offers a new perspective to contribute theoretically to the scholarship on the stateless, non-citizens, asylum seekers, and refugees by critical engagement with the idea of ‘bare life’, ‘rejected people’, ‘precarious life’ and so on, introducing a new concept—‘subhuman’. This chapter argues that ‘subhuman’ is a category of people who are born in the human society but have no space in the human community; they are born in the world, but the world doesn’t own them in any state structure, and they always live on the borderline of ‘life’ and ‘death’.

scholarly journals Mohajer (camp-e-forsat)

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (02) ◽  
pp. e2697
Author(s):  
Anna Knappe ◽  
Amir Jan ◽  
Laura Böök
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
Detention Centers ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Loan Word ◽  
Umbilical Cords ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

Mohajer (camp-e-forsat) was filmed in Forssa asylum seeker reception center in Finland, together with a recently arrived group of Hazara asylum seekers from Afghanistan. In Mohajer (camp-e-forsat) the people who are labeled as asylum seekers and refugees, redefine themselves with the word mohajer. Mohajer is a loan word from Arabic, and in Persian it means anyone or anything migrating from one place to another.  A camp is a place where mohajers live in a state of waiting. Mohajers are asylum seekers, refugees, and other migrants in precarious situations and their camps are reception centers, detention centers, and temporary shelters. Camps are often located in remote areas, effectively isolating the individuals living in them. They are facilities for storing humans, full of invisible walls, and windows to remind people that the world they can see through them is out of their reach. Cobra: “When someone asks me where I’m from, I say I’m from Afghanistan, but I’ve never been there. Mohajer means not belonging anywhere, not where you are and not where you’re from or your parents are from. My husband says that we’re born mohajers. There is no other name for us. When they ask your name, you should say your name is mohajer. Our umbilical cords are cut with the word mohajer. Even in hospitals, when a new Afghan child is born, they say a new mohajer was born. They don’t say this woman’s child was born, they say one Afghan mohajer was born. Those two words, Afghan and mohajer, are attached together, it’s always Afghan mohajer. Then many who have migrated, try to detach themselves from the word mohajer. But in a new country, you’re still a mohajer.”

Excerpt from “Women Mystics and Eucharistic Devotion in the Thirteenth Century”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Walker Bynum
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Christian Women ◽  
Imitatio Christi ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The World ◽  
Embodied Practice ◽  
Women Mystics

In this chapter the renowned medievalist scholar Caroline Walker Bynum brings our attention to a striking historical occurrence: in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Europe the concern with and attachment to Eucharistic devotion was overwhelmingly female. Why this gender bias, and at that time? Christian women were predominantly “inspired, compelled, comforted and troubled by the Eucharist” and in many different forms—from miraculous apparitions, to experiences of ecstasy connected to the attendance and ingestion of the Eucharist, to the showing of sensorial excesses in its presence. Bynum shows how material and physical receptions of the body of Christ were expressed not only as forms of ecstasy but also as gendered modes of living the Imitatio Christi. This thirteenth-century corporeal, female experience of the Eucharist is connected to a particular moment in the life of Christ—the transition between life and death. Positioned as “brides” and hence as the erotic counterparts of Christ, women and female mystics exploited the full potential of Christ’s own corporeality rather than his otherworldly nature. Bynum’s work constitutes a formative reference point for scholars of Catholicism across a range of disciplines for the obvious reason that it deals so elegantly with themes of substance, gender, bodies, and devotional forms of Catholic practice. Her work continues to be an original source of inspiration for anthropologists because of its remarkable sensitivity to religion as an embodied, practice-generative engagement with the world. Bynum should also be considered as important for the “new” anthropology of Catholicism for her pioneering work on the gymnasticity of gender and for the attention it draws to the sublimated erotic tension that exists between institutional doxa and mystical aesthetics.2 In Bynum’s work, gender is not presented as merely one among a number of potential analytical foci for elaboration of Catholicism; rather, it is the very ontological architecture of the religious, and hence an essential topic for scholars seeking to understand Catholicism as a translocal force.

‘A word will set the seed / of life and death’: Robin Robertson’s Protean Lyric

2019 ◽  
pp. 122-158
Author(s):  
Monika Szuba
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Seasonal Cycle ◽  
The Body ◽  
Material World ◽  
Folk Tales ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The World ◽  
Classical Myths ◽  
Human World ◽  
The Subject

The chapter discusses Robin Robertson’s poetry, stretched between the existential and the material, oscillating around edges, junctures and transitions. Focusing on legends and folk tales that are forged in the Scottish landscape, Robertson, for whom the sense of place is ‘absolutely crucial’, combines them with classical myths. The analysis centres around Robertson’s preoccupation with these themes, arguing that the inherent order of the world as evoked in his poems is governed by chaos and change. In various forms of being volatility dominates, occurring in transfigurations of the material world, standing against the claims about the inertness of matter. Vitality connects with epidermal vulnerability revealed in the poems’ frequent focus on metamorphosis. The apprehension of the temporality of the body is captured in Robertson’s enfolding of the subject into the seasonal cycle. The chapter thus investigates the corporeal drive as co-temporal with the rhythms of the non-human world.

Marxist Historiography Today

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Hobsbawm
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Human Society ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Methodology Of Science ◽  
The Way

This chapter discusses Marxist historiography in the present times. In the interpretation of the world nowadays, there has been a rise in the so-called anti-Rankean reaction in history, of which Marxism is an important but not always fully acknowledged element. This movement challenged the positivist belief that the objective structure of reality was self-explanatory, and that all that was needed was to apply the methodology of science to it and explain why things happened the way they did. This movement also brought together history with the social sciences, therefore turning it into part of a generalizing discipline capable of explaining transformations of human society in the course of its past. This new perspective on the past is a return to ‘total history’, in which the focus is not merely on the ‘history of everything’ but history as an indivisible web wherein all human activities are interconnected.

scholarly journals ‘If I didn’t know you what would you want me to see?’: Poetic mappings in neo-materialist research with young asylum seekers and refugees

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 391-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Frimberger ◽  
Ross White ◽  
Lyn Ma
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Arts Based Research ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Research Orientations ◽  
Embodied Self ◽  
Epistemological Uncertainty ◽  
Ways Of Being ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

AbstractThe following article puts to work an affirmative approach to critical theory through poetic mappings of the process of crafting identity boxes with ESOL students from refugee and asylum backgrounds in a Glasgow-based college in Scotland (UK). The article takes as its starting point the work of feminist and neo-materialist thinkers who argue for an ontological re-orientation of our practices of inquiry. This involves the questioning of positivist research orientations, which regard language as mere second-order representations of a primary reality. We argue that such representationalist logic can implicate research participants in deficit orientations, especially when their embodied and often contested ways of being in the world defy purely linguistic or other ‘fixed’ cultural representations. With the aim to embrace epistemological uncertainty and prioritise our participants’ embodied self-articulations over our “rage for meaning” (MacLure 2013), we experimented with poetic mappings as neomaterialist, arts-based research tools.

scholarly journals PERLINDUNGAN TERHADAP PENCARI SUAKA DAN PENGUNGSI MENURUT HUKUM ISLAM DAN HUKUM INTERNASIONAL (STUDI FILOSOFIS DAN ONTOLOGIS KEILMUAN)

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-76
Author(s):  
Muhammad Alvi Syahrin
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Difficult Problem ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
World Community ◽  
The World ◽  
International Regulations ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

The problem of refugees and the displacement of people in the country is the most difficult problem facing the world community today. Many discussions were held at the United Nations which continued to seek more effective ways to protect and assist these very vulnerable groups. Some people call for increased cooperation and coordination between aid agencies, others point to gaps in international regulations and call for further standards in this field. However, everyone agrees that this problem is a global and global problem. Therefore every approach and solution must be carried out comprehensively and explain all aspects of the problem from the causes of mass exodus to the elaboration of the necessary responses to overcome the range of problems of refugees from emergencies to repatriation. This study will discuss how the basic rules of protection for asylum seekers and refugees according to Islamic law and international law.

Wesley Carr, religious institutions, and institutional integrity

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-111
Author(s):  
Edward R. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Group Relations ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Human Community ◽  
Institutional Integrity ◽  
The World ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Church

Wesley Carr devoted his life to the Church of England, using group relations theory to frame some of his thinking. He saw the primary task of religious institutions as containing irrationality and dependency on behalf of society. This article offers a summary of Wesley’s central ideas, with an extended illustration of his management (as Dean of Westminster) of Princess Diana’s funeral. The private and public mourning of millions around the world during and after this funeral is an example of the way religious institutions can respond to the needs of society by helping to manage the boundary transitions of life and death. The rituals of religion during such transitions can help individuals move beyond narrow subgroup identifications to discover their membership in a larger human community. For Wesley Carr, integrity meant to commit all of oneself to an institution’s primary task, negotiated with and on behalf of others, that connects to a transcendent set of ideals and beliefs.

scholarly journals From ‘the mind isolated with the body’ to ‘the mind being embodied’: Contemporary approaches to the philosophy of the body

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 206-219
Author(s):  
Duoyi Fei
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Pure Consciousness ◽  
The World ◽  
Value Judgements ◽  
The Mind

In the interpretation of the body in the 20th century, philosophy placed less emphasis than before on its natural composition and sought to integrate value judgements from different perspectives. The philosophy of the body addresses the deepest essential problems of human society and culture, it generates a uniquely detailed analysis of human nature and its various roles and performances in social operations, and it reveals contemporary society’s operating mechanisms and deep internal contradictions. Accordingly, philosophy no longer gives the mind any priority or superiority in terms of cognition, and the focus of research has moved away from pure consciousness and towards the body. Contemporary philosophical exploration of the body covers both the concept of belongingness and the feasibility of bodily freedom. It not only foregrounds the impossibility of viewing the body and the mind as separate entities but also leads us to examine the connections between humans and the world, taking meaning, reason and the body as their basis. This paper explores the connections between body and thought in modern philosophy, traces the development of philosophy’s increasing concern with the body, elucidates the main contributions of representative figures in the field of philosophy of the body, and analyses the methodological significance and influence of the philosophy of the body as a contemporary philosophical trend.

scholarly journals LEGAL INTERPRETATION OF DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF IMMIGRATION DECREE NUMBER IMI-0352.GR.02.07 OF 2016 CONCERNING THE HANDLING OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS THAT SELF DECLARED AS AN ASYLUM SEEKERS OR REFUGEES IN IMMIGRATIVE SELECTIVE POLICY: HIERARCHY THEORY OF LEGAL

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-128
Author(s):  
M. Alvi Syahrin ◽  
Brianta Petra Ginting
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Recipient Country ◽  
The Body ◽  
Illegal Immigrants ◽  
Director General ◽  
Population Movement ◽  
Hierarchy Theory ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

Displacement is a form of population movement that has different characteristics than other forms of population movement. The movement of population, both in the national territory and those that have crossed national borders, is an event that has long existed in human history and is increasingly happening now. The increasing number of asylum seekers and refugees to the territory of Indonesia, has caused social disturbances, political security, and even order in the community. The number of their arrival is not proportional to the completion rate or placement to the recipient country (Australia). To deal with the problem of asylum seekers and refugees entering and residing in the territory of Indonesia, the government issued a Director General of Immigration Decree Number: IMI-0352.GR.02.07 of 2016 concerning the Handling of Illegal Immigrants who Self Declare as Asylum Seekers and Refugees. This regulation not only affirms Indonesia's position in favor of refugee humanitarian policies, but also makes it incompatible with the legal principles of establishing legislation. The formulation of the problem examined in this paper is how the legal position of Director General of Immigration Decree in the immigration selective policy with a hierarchical theory approach to legal norms. The research method used is normative legal research that is qualitative in nature with mixed logic (deductive and inductive). From the results of the study can be known several legal facts as follows. The legal status of Director General of Immigration Decree Number: IMI-0352.GR.02.07 in 2016 creates disharmony in the legal order (immigration) in Indonesia. Article 7 of Law Number 12 of 2011 has established a sequence of laws and regulations which form the basis for the implementation of all legal regulations in Indonesia. The provisions of this article are in line with the Hierarchical Theory of Legal Norms (Hans Kelsen) which explains that lower norms, valid, sourced and based on higher norms. However, this theory is not negated in the formation of these regulations, where in the body the norms conflict with each other with higher legal norms above. The existence of this regulation has created norm conflicts that lead to the absence of legal certainty. As for the higher regulations that contradict these regulations are as follows: The 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, Law Number 6 of 2011 concerning Immigration, Government Regulation Number 31 of 2013 concerning Regulations for Implementing Law Number 6 of 2011 concerning Immigration, and Regulation of the Minister of Law and Human Rights Number M.HH-11.OT.01.01 of 2009 concerning Organization and Work Procedures of Immigration Detention Houses. Conflicting legal norms include: Definition of Detention Center, Determinant Definition, Refugee Handling, UNHCR and IOM Authority in Refugee Handling, Discovery, Collection, Immigration Oversight, Funding, and Sanctions.  

The space of the body schema: putting the schema in movement

2021 ◽  
pp. 18-32
Author(s):  
David Morris
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
New Perspective

This chapter contributes to conceptual debates about the body schema and body image by studying the body schema’s role in shaping our sense of lived space. Contra ‘body-in-brain’ or representational views of the body schema as a centralized controller, the chapter supports ‘body-in-world’ views by showing how the body schema is itself of space, founded and actualized in schematizing movements of a body in the world. This suggests that capacities for, and divergences between, a body schema versus a body image emerge when body-schematizing activity runs into resistances or demands from environmental supports, including other perceiving bodies and the social sphere, over various timescales, e.g., of evolution, development, skill, and habit acquisition, as well as cultural formations. The chapter draws on phenomenological and psychological results concerning our sense of space in cases of directly touching and moving with things, but also in cases where movements coupled with surroundings through light (via our eyes or technological devices) yield a sense of distal things. These are complemented by conceptual insights from recent evolutionary-comparative approaches to the philosophy of mind and body, which give a new perspective on just where movement control arises in bodies.

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