Platypus

Coming Soon: The MultiRepository

 Owen Kohl, Falina Enriquez  October 14, 2021

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This post introduces a new collaborative project coming soon to CASTAC: an archive of online platforms that highlights how researchers have utilized different communicative modes and media in qualitative research and creative work, including in journalism and the arts. Think about how you usually encounter a researcher’s findings, a journalist’s account of an important event, or news of an artist’s latest work. In the early 20th century, you would often do so by reading an article in a newspaper, magazine, book, or academic journal. And although these publications might include pictures, graphs, and cartoons, they often emphasized textual ways of conveying information and ideas. Nowadays, an increasing number of researchers, journalists, and artists use multiple media technologies—often digital—to conduct and publicize their work, including text, graphics, and video, among others. Using and combining broader arrays of communication technologies reflects current media practices, but it also gives researchers and other professionals (read more...)

Fetishes or Cyborgs? Religion as technology in the Afro-Atlantic space

 Giovanna Capponi  October 12, 2021

(Editor’s Note: This blog post is part of the Thematic Series Data Swarms Revisited) Afro-Brazilian religions like Candomblé, Umbanda or Xangô, are a cluster of religious practices that originated mostly in West Africa, especially in Yorubaland (Nigeria and Benin), but also in Congo and Angola. Similar to other Afro-diasporic religions (i.e. Vodou in Haity and Santeria in Cuba), Candomblé shares many elements with West African traditional religious practices, like the names and characteristics of their deities (called orixás in Brazilian Portuguese and òrìṣà in Yoruba). These deities embody elements of the natural landscape and atmospheric phenomena that are regarded as personas with their own material and spiritual agency. However, in the whole Afro-Atlantic space the most important common trait is the presence fabricated objects. After a ritual procedure they become the bodies and the material manifestation of the deities themselves. These objects, often referred to as “fetishes,” represent the point of mediation between the material and the spiritual world (Meyer 2012: 15). Indeed, Western conception of materiality is often charged with moral implications, opposed to the pure and transcendent qualities of the spirit (Espírito Santo 2010). Conversely, in Afro-Atlantic religions, objects, elements and atmospheric phenomena are considered to be alive or to have a certain individuality, will or personality, in a way that the scientific Western thought would consider unacceptable. (read more...)

The Best Laid Plans are not Birth Plans

 Jennifer McIntosh, Kate Dielentheis  October 7, 2021

Childbirth has had a long and winding history. This is understandable since it has literally been happening since the beginning of human time. Prior to 1950, many births happened in a familiar home setting attended by a midwife, overwhelmingly a group of female providers. For a fun and fairly accurate representation, enjoy a binge of “Call the Midwife” by the BBC. While often depicted in a romantic way, childbirth prior to the 1930s and 40s was dangerous – sepsis caused 40% of maternal deaths as most deliveries were performed without sterile technique and many women died of hemorrhage (severe bleeding) or preeclampsia and eclampsia (elevated blood pressures in pregnancy and seizures) (6). As science and medicine progressed in the second half of the 20th century, new technologies and techniques moved delivery into a hospital setting attended by physicians, overwhelmingly a group of white male providers. Maternal death in the first quarter of the 20th century was quite common prior to this with as many as 7/100 deaths in the United States (6). While advancements in science and medicine and a shift towards hospital-based delivery improved maternal and fetal/neonatal morbidity and mortality, an unwanted side effect for many patients was the medicalization (and potentially over-medicalization) of the delivery experience (1). In addition, the culture of paternal medicine and the “doctor knows best” mentality meant that this shift encouraged a lack of communication and autonomy for patients. Within bioethics, autonomy means the patient’s right to choose what happens to their body and to make well-informed choices about the plan for their medical care. Currently, the rate of home birth remains low – less than 1% of all births in the United States (2). However, patients want autonomy for what is arguably one of the most impactful experiences of one’s life – the birth of a child. In the 1970s, prenatal educators introduced the idea of the Birth Plan, a standardized document that sets out the values of a patient regarding their birth experience. In 1996 the World Health Organization advocated for use of the Birth Plan with the goal of increasing patient autonomy during birth (1). Studies have demonstrated that patients feel more empowered and using a birth plan is associated with increased patient satisfaction (3). No studies have been done that address providers’ interactions with Birth Plans, but anecdotally there are few obstetrics providers that look upon them favorably. (read more...)

“Legibility by Invitation”: Rohingya Refugees and the Struggle for Political Recognition

 Nursyazwani  September 28, 2021

Once, in mid-August 2018 in a café tucked away in Klang Valley, Malaysia, Husin, my Rohingya research collaborator, and I sat with Fatimah, a young Rohingya woman. As it was after eight in the evening, I asked if she was worried that she might be detained by the police. “Ah Kak, that’s because the police just want money… if you know how to talk, you don’t have to pay bribe,” Fatimah explained to me in Malay before continuing, “kalau mereka mau tangkap saya, jemputlah . Saya ada UN card, saya tak takut. ” (emphasis mine). For Fatimah and other Rohingya refugees I have met in Malaysia, the notion of invite extends to their desire to be seen not just as refugees, but as Rohingya refugees. (read more...)

Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity: Just Buzzwords?

 Bianca Vienni Baptista  September 23, 2021

What is the value of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work in the current scientific-technological context? To what extent do collaborative practices present a changing setting for research in Europe but also in other countries? What can we learn from these practices from an anthropological perspective? (read more...)

Naming Species in Colombia’s Biodiverse Landscapes

 Jaime Landinez  September 21, 2021

There is a unique pair of rules on Sattins Island, in Ursula K. Le Guin’s world of Earthsea. This pair is called The Rules of Names and though these rules circulate among the villagers, they are taught to children by the schoolteacher. Names are allocated on Sattins Island based on a person’s physical characteristics or any other visible aspect of their way of life. The local wizard, for instance, is simply called “Mr. Underhill.” An old wizard known for his ineffective spells but still respected by the villagers, he lives in a cave under a hill and doesn’t enjoy visits. Mr. Underhill was in fact listening to the schoolteacher, Palani, when she was teaching the children about the Rules. Noting his presence, Palani found it instructive to call Mr. Underhill and use his case as evidence for the omnipresence of the Rules. (read more...)

Ways of Looking: Alternative Encounters with Art and Artifacts

 Susan Shih Chang  September 16, 2021

“When we encounter something beautiful, we usually experience two kinds of reactions. One may be moved by learning the background of the work or the artist, while the other one is an emotional excitement we feel for no apparent reason.”— Suntory Museum of Art. One would guess that this quote is based on theories of lateralization, stating that the right hemisphere of the brain controls emotion, while the left hemisphere is dominant in language expression. While there is evidence that discounts the left/right brain concept, many people still believe in this distinction and that their preference for reason or emotion may be genetic. Held at the Suntory Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan, from April 27 to June 2, 2019, “Information or Inspiration? Japanese aesthetics to enjoy with the left side and right side of the brain” plays with this debate in brain science and invites visitors to experience art via two routes: the information route and the inspiration route. (read more...)