Inscribed Space and Occupational Shift: An Anthropological Study from Saltgheri Village of Mousuni Island in South 24 Parganas of West Bengal

Inscribed space is solely a metaphor describing the relationship between humans and their physical or social environment. The present study is an empirical one, representing the inscribed space and its role in the occupational shift of a community dwelling at Saltgheri village in Mousuni Island in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal in India. The most revered firsthand anthropological fieldwork method has been used in the present study. The study shows how inscribed space shapes the social-cultural life of the studied community.

The ‘other’ within: Striving for health equity in the Maldives Eva-Maria

Relations within are quintessential in anthropological fieldwork — and in archipelagos in particular. The domestic sea is incorporated in the national consciousness connecting an archipelagic nation but distinguishing individual islands with a strong emphasis on the centre. The Maldivian archipelago displays this spatial organization of a socio-political and economic centre and a dependent island periphery. In the national consciousness, the capital island, Male', contrasts with “the islands” — a distinction which is particularly evident in the public health sphere, where striving for health equity encounters geographical and socio-political obstacles. Using the topic of the inherited blood disorder thalassaemia as a magnifying lens, this paper asks how different actors are making sense of health inequities between central and outer islands in the Maldivian archipelago. Intra-archipelagic and international mobilities add to the complexities of topological relations, experiences, and representations within this multi-island assemblage. Yet, my study of archipelagic health relations is not confined to a mere outside look at the construction of the ‘island other’ within the archipelagic community. It is a situated investigative gaze on disjunctures, connections, and entanglements, reflecting my methodological-theoretical attempt to unravel my own involvement in island–island relations and representations — my being entangled while investigating entanglements.

Troubling solutions through anthropological fieldwork: Mediation research in Ghana, Australia, and the United States

Social workers and anthropologists encounter different representations of mediation as a professional practice: On the one hand, Social Work is grounded in mediation as expert knowledge that helps others to resolve interpersonal disputes. For example, mediation as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) can enable court cases to resolve without formal trials. On the other hand, Anthropology is grounded in mediation as a research field site and by past intervention experience of anthropologists. As mediation professionalized and became mandated across public institutions, anthropologists became strong ADR critics. Academic debate between mediation proponents and critics ended as critics abandoned research in the 1990s and 2000s. My initial research goal was to pick up from past empirical study. Research was conducted in Australia, Ghana, and the United States in two areas of mediation practice; resolving parenting disputes between adults who are separating or not married, and “elder mediation” cases involving older adults. Initial findings reified past debate through data that supported proponents and critics. Further insight was gained through return to fieldwork using an expanded, ethnographic case study design. This article provides a journey through a seemingly intractable divide that was ultimately resolved through prolonged time in fieldwork focused on understanding client perspectives. I show how social work and anthropology scholars of professional mediation have been positioned on opposite sides of an expert knowledge/fieldwork research boundary. This boundary can be made productive through open exchange about mediation as a practice that evolves through an interplay of expert knowledge, intervention practice, and client engagement.

Ritual act, technology, and the efficacy of traditional tattooing among the Igorots of north Luzon, Philippines

What are the social dimensions involved in the technology of traditional tattooing among the Igorots of north Luzon, the Philippines? Based on a long-term anthropological fieldwork among the Igorots, an examination of the varying traditional tattooing practices of these ethnic groups demonstrates that the significance of batok (traditional tattoos) does not only lie in their symbolic and aesthetic qualities, but also in the rituals performed, the taboos observed, and the technology employed in the production of tattoos. The tattoo's appearance on skin is also dependent on the method or technique employed in the production of designs; the varying pigments used to produce a blackish, greenish, or bluish color in tattoos that mark the identity of a group; and the symmetry and arrangement of tattoos. More importantly, this paper explores the social and cultural practices involved in the production of batok for these to achieve the efficacy of purpose and function . This paper examines how the technology of tattoos, along with rituals and their associated taboos, contributes to the production of what is classified among the Butbut of Kalinga as: whayyu or maphod (“beautiful”), rather than lagwing (“unpleasant”); unfinished versus finished; and “thin or thick” tattoos. Traditional tattooing was formerly practiced in the confines of collective and place-based rituals among the people of the Philippine Cordillera. However, the rarity, rawness, and the particularity of the technology used in the production of these tattoos render them more “authentic,” as such, traditional tattooing has entered contemporary tattoo practices in the Philippines as a form of revival.

Global Religious History in Theory and Practice

“Global religious history” derives its name from the German phrase “globale Religionsgeschichte”. This term articulates an approach that aims to be relevant to the whole field of religious studies, and it encompasses theoretical debates, particularly in the areas of postcolonialism and gender studies. Thus, “Global” embodies, acknowledges, and incorporates all prevalent terms of and the parameters for the global constitution of present-day academia and society. “Religious” means that it concerns religious studies. “History” denotes a genealogical critique as the central research interest. Historicization in that sense is not limited to philological research of sources from the past but also relevant to any research based on data from contemporary anthropological fieldwork or other empirical methods. This approach also aims to provide a pertinent influence on research practice, and seeks to circumvent any artificial segregation of theory and practice.

Everyday Ethical Challenges and Informal Ethics Support Structures of Migrant Caregivers in Older Adult Care in England

"This paper builds on anthropological fieldwork I conducted in 2019 while living for over two months with migrant caregivers of older adults in Epsom, England. Caregivers’ experiences resonated with existing literature on everyday ethical challenges in caregiving: navigating divergent perspectives on good care, negotiating professional disagreements on treatments, dealing with older adults’ verbal and physical abuse appropriately, and telling older adults ‘white lies’ to avoid mental distress. Caregivers also faced unique ethical challenges because of their migrant identities: dealing with racism, conscientious objecting of certain requests made by older adults, struggling with language when following training and defending themselves against exploitative managers, and carrying the burden of being a translator to fellow migrant colleagues. Based on insight into ethical challenges unique to migrant caregivers, this paper focuses on informal ethics support systems on which migrants relied ‒ an unexplored area in the literature on ethics support within social care ‒ and explores formal ethics support systems that could support migrant caregivers in the future. Existing literature shows that the UK in general lacks ethics support systems to help caregivers recognize and appropriately address ethical challenges. The literature goes on to explore kinds of formal ethics support systems that could address ethical challenges. However, the literature completely overlooks needs and challenges unique to migrant caregivers who increasingly constitute the older adult care workforce in the UK. Understanding everyday ethical challenges and informal support systems of migrant caregivers are important steps in ensuring wellbeing of caregivers, and thus, quality of care. "

Sufism and the Sacred Feminine in Lombok, Indonesia: Situating Spirit Queen Dewi Anjani and Female Saints in Nahdlatul Wathan

This article is a feminist ethnographic exploration of how ‘indigenous’ notions of a ‘sacred feminine’ shape Sufi praxis on the island of Lombok in the eastern part of Indonesia in Southeast Asia. I demonstrate through long-term immersive anthropological fieldwork how in her indigenous form as Dewi Anjani ‘Spirit Queen of Jinn’ and as ‘Holy Saint of Allah’ who rules Lombok from Mount Rinjani, together with a living female saint and Murshida with whom she shares sacred kinship, these feminine beings shape the kind of Sufi praxis that has formed in the largest local Islamic organization in Lombok, Nahdlatul Wathan, and its Sufi order, Hizib Nahdlatul Wathan. Arguments are situated in a Sufi feminist standpoint, revealing how an active integration of indigeneity into understandings of mystical experience gives meaning to the sacred feminine in aspects of Sufi praxis in both complementary and hierarchical ways without challenging Islamic gender constructs that reproduce patriarchal expressions of Sufism and Islam.

From Panic to Confusion to Negotiation: Reflection from Early Response to Covid-19 in Indonesia

This research reflected on the response to the pandemic that emerged as it happened. It drew attention to the viral aspect of a pandemic, namely how people understood and responded to pandemics using various digital platforms. It questioned the context and reasons for what it called an immeasurable but organized community response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital-based research was applied through observing three mainstream digital media (Kompas TV, The Jakarta Post, and Detik.com) and social media (i.e., WhatsApp Messenger and Twitter). Data were analyzed thematically by categorizing the ways people responded to COVID-19 via social media into three thematic phases. In the first phase, digital media was used to voice frustration and disappointment with the government’s response. This had sparked public distrust of the government’s ability to deal with the pandemic at the national level. The second phase was the confusion phase. The rise of public discussion about the pandemic showed that the public was concerned about the development of the COVID-19 news in the country. The last phase was the negotiation phase. While COVID-19 was rapidly becoming a source of panic and confusion, grassroots initiatives emerged using social media. These initiatives aimed to help reduce panic and reduce socio-economic impacts. This research shows how anthropologists can still pay attention to social relations forged through social media in times of crisis where traditional anthropological fieldwork is nearly impossible. Methodologically, digital anthropology or social media ethnography is gaining momentum to be developed, considering that fieldwork cannot be done in the pandemic era.

Working Time as a Measure of Acceleration of the Serbian Society at the Turn of the Century: Anthropological Analysis

Multiple processes in modern Serbia occurred at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first century. Almost all of them regard political, economic, and social changes. Influences caused by these changes can be seen in the social template across the spectrum of plans, encompassing various spheres of life of individuals from business to private, all the way to the point where this division, for many, is gradually disappearing. In that sense, this paper will follow the most anthropologically interesting example of research, the one that follows the influences of the undertaken reform processes and observed changes. This is the example that regards the experience and evaluation of time among employed inhabitants of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The aim of this paper was to refer to the results of anthropological fieldwork conducted in 2005, which focused on the experiences, strategies and expectations of employed Belgraders in terms of their working hours and certain temporal boundaries that characterize it. Due to the increasingly intensive business contacts with foreign partners and colleagues since 2000, the working hours of employees were analyzed in a narrower context, as they were on the long list of adjustments, mostly to Western influences. These contacts were not only more frequent after the period of the 1990s, which, among other things, is characterized by a sudden break in cooperation with foreigners, but were often dictated by the EU integration process, the increase of the private sector in which operated companies were oriented towards profit, and the acceleration of time. The last aspect was examined in 2005 through a sample comprising 30 interlocutors of various business backgrounds. The ethnographic material was categorized and analyzed with regard to the differentiation of respondents by age. Fifteen respondents were chosen to represent the older generation (born in the 1940s and 1950s) and as many the younger generation (born in the 1960s and 1980s). The blurring of the boundaries between the employees’ business and private life in Belgrade became more marked at the turn of the century, and it could be clearly stated through the example of working time. Differences between the period of socialism and the period of reforms since the 1990s relate also to a sense of insecurity and fear of losing one's job or having inadequate work, and the simultaneous development of the private sector, which is characterized by stricter rules for employees. More intensive was the influence of business on the private domain of life, but also the intrusion of the private into business life. This has become a necessity and a pledge of individual functioning on both levels, which show combined characteristics of acceleration through the increase of obligations.