The Material Subject

Rethinking Bodies and Objects in Motion

Urmila Mohan, Laurence Douny, Urmila Mohan, Laurence Douny

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781350077362
• eBook ISBN: 9781000182224
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

The Material Subject emphasises how bodily and material cultures combine to make and transform subjects dynamically. The book is based on the French Matière à Penser (MaP) school of thought, which draws upon the ideas of Mauss, Schilder, Foucault and Bourdieu, among others, to enhance the anthropological study of embodiment, practices, techniques, materiality and power.

Through theoretical sophistication and empirical field research, case studies from Europe, Africa and Asia bring MaP's ideas into dialogue with other strands of material culture studies in the English-speaking world. These studies mediate different scales of engagement through a sensori-motor, affective and cognitive focus on practices of making and doing. Examples range from the precarity of professional divers in French public works to the gendered subjectivity of female carpet weavers in Morocco, from the ways Swiss watchmakers transmit craft knowledge to how Hindu devotees in India make efficacious use of altars, and from the enskilment of Paiwan indigenous people in Taiwan to the prestige of women's wild silk wrappers in Burkina Faso. The chapters are organised according to domains of practice, defined as 'matter of' work and technology, heritage, politics, religion and knowledge.

Scholars and students with an interest in material culture will gain valuable access to global research, rooted in a specific intellectual tradition.

Index

Italicized pages refer to figures and page numbers followed by “n” refer to notes.

absorption/absorb 87, 88, 113, 143, 147; see also appropriation

academic knowledge: practical vs. 169, 180; vocational vs. 170–172

actions: action of matter 51, 52, 56; actions-on-objects 77, 84; bodies-in-action 83; bodily actions 48–49, 98; catalogue of actions 35; continuous 12; daily 17; doing action 17; dynamics 171; efficacious xix, 3, 22, 111, 152; embodied 82–83, 108; human 21, 153; interaction 6, 8, 15, 17, 19, 22, 39, 83, 137, 170, 172, 174, 178, 180; logics 179; of making do 39–40; materiality of 70; on materials 90; moral 148; motor 17; network of 20, 34, 37, 42, 43, 62–63, 67–72, 83; networks on others actions 42–43, 67, 68–69; objects-in-actions 6, 34, 77, 82, 84; performed actions 36; power of 95, 98, 100, 101, 102; as practice 95; reciprocal 13, 21, 50, 98, 102, 142, 146; science of 17; sequence 8; social 95; socialised 71; on the subjects 99; technical actions 50, 57; traditional 152; upon action 62–63, 67, 85; upon materials 21; value 153; see also Mauss

actor 172; human vs. non-human 11; pace Lemonnier vs. Latour 10

Actor Network Theory 11

adaptability 39–40

ad interim workers 35, 38, 39, 43

adolescence 61, 70

adults 1, 62, 68, 109; grown-ups 200

aesthetics: bathing 157–158; built surfaces in Paiwan 192; deity images and 153; female beauty in Iran 116; of gestures 53; Hindu devotion 154, 155, 160; Marka-Dafing image 96; of Musée du Quai Branly 88–89; of Paiwan 194; pattern-making 160–162; perception of 204–205; of priyayi 126; of shifu 190; sheen as value 98; as taste 54; of weaving 194, 206; of workers’ art 57; see also agency; art

Africa 18; Burkina-Faso 20, 93; Cameroon 13, 15, 20–21, 108–110, 113, 117; Morocco 21, 49, 137; territorialisation in 109–114

African artefacts 81

African undocumented strikers 8...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Affective Architectures
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword by Jean-Pierre Warnier
• Introduction
• Matter of work and technology
• Matter of heritage
• Matter of politics
• Matter of religion
• Matter of knowledge
• Index