Articles

Articles dans des revues avec comité de lecture

A paraître

Une précarité prestigieuse : le travail créatif dans la mode

Migration and the search for home

Photographing the colonial icon

Les voix de la contestation. Expressions politiques sensibles et sonores dans l'espace public (Oaxaca, Mexique)

Au Mexique, dans la région de Oaxaca, chaque événement politique enseignant (manifestation, occupation, meeting syndical) s'achève par une performance qui s'appuie sur le chant de campagne « Venceremos » (Nous vaincrons). Alors, une grande partie des personnes présentes entonne la chanson, tête baissée, le poing gauche levé… J'analyse l'action politique contestataire dans ce contexte mexicain comme relevant d'un nécessaire investissement physique du territoire, véritable subversion de l'espace dont l'expression vocale scandée est une dimension privilégiée. Slogans et hymnes politiques s'apparentent dès lors à des performances polyphoniques qui permettent de donner à percevoir un groupe s'exprimant d'une seule voix. Replaçant ces performances vocales dans leurs temps et espaces spécifiques (célébrations, meetings, manifestation), analysant un large corpus d'archives ethnographiques sonores, j'explorerai le lien entre propriétés acoustiques et construction politique des voix. Trois pistes seront explorées : les ressorts sensibles propres aux performances politiques ; la dimension sociale et historique du travail de qualification des voix ; enfin, une analyse réflexive plus large sur les apports épistémologiques d'une saisie ethnographique sonore du politique.

¡ Maestras ! « Femmes aux pantalons », des salles de classe aux barricades (Oaxaca, Mexique)

Cet article traite de la participation politique des femmes à l'occasion d'un épisode insurrectionnel en 2006 à Oaxaca au Mexique (l'Assemblée populaire des peuples de Oaxaca, APPO), sous l'angle de l'expérience singulière des enseignantes qui y ont pris part. La contribution met en évidence comment ces dernières expérimentent des dilemmes et des paradoxes liés à leur ancrage social et politique spécifique au sein de la société locale (et nationale). Croisant les questions de genre, de travail et de mobilisation, nous proposons d'éclairer cet engagement politique spécifique des maestras mexicaines grâce à une double démarche, régressive et ethnographique. Cette approche de la politisation qui lie le temps long et les activités routinières permet dès lors de replacer l'expérience politique de ces femmes dans le cadre plus large des rapports sociaux de sexe au Mexique.

Sound scraps and resources of ethnographic writing

Ethnographic work generally involves the production of sound recordings, whether or not the research includes a sound dimension (as a material or as a research object). Field recordings produce sound data with which anthropological research is immediately associated: recorded interviews, sound recordings of situations or interactions, or archival documents. But the sound corpus of the ethnographical research does not stop there, it also includes recorded "notepads", recordings related to daily life in the field, telephone messages... A large part of these sound data is discarded at the time of the analysis and the writing. This exclusion of certain kind of data is done in the name of three main reasons: because they are dissonant, they do not "fit" with the question, the research theme or the analytical grid; because they are related to the personal and logistical aspects of the fieldwork, they lack "scientificity" ; finally sound data of poor quality, not very audible, which are considered as scorias. What if it were otherwise? Could some of these rubbish, rushes, scorias enrich anthropological research? In what way? If anthropologists' field notes remain largely unthought, the same is true of their recordings. This epistemological questioning on the "ethnographic sound" covers more broadly a reflection on the nature and the limits of ethnographic work. I will be particularly interested in the narrative and sensitive resources of these neglected audio materials for an ethnographic sound writing. I will rely on ethnographical data related to my research in Mexico (Oaxaca) and Brazil (Porto Seguro).

2023

Notre-Dame du Congo. Création et réception d'une dévotion de propagande missionnaire dans l'Etat Indépendant du Congo

Nouveaux savoirs spécialisés sur le biologique et redéfinitions de la responsabilité : génomique de l'ancestralité, épigénomique environnementale et ADN ancien

S'appuyant sur des travaux menés ces dernières années, ce texte prolonge des réflexions présentes dans l'œuvre de Jean-Louis Genard - sur les redéfinitions du rapport à la responsabilité - dans des domaines de pratiques où le biologique véhicule des interprétants qui résistent à celui de la responsabilité moderne. À l'appui de trois types de savoirs spécialisés, distincts, mais tous trois de plus en plus accessibles au grand public - la génomique de l'ancestralité, l'épigénomique environnementale et la paléogénomique humaine - des acteurs sociaux formulent des récits qui articulent sur le plan discursif des résultats d'analyses génomiques et des récits identitaires, des temporalités singulières qui connectent passé et présent, et établissent des connexions entre soi et autrui. Au travers de ces récits, de nouvelles formes de rapport à la responsabilité et à la construction des identités semblent émerger. Celles-ci sont particulièrement bien mises en lumière par les outils et réflexions menées par Jean-Louis Genard.

Influence du contexte sur le caractère variable ou stable de l'identification ethnique : le cas des enfants des couples belgo-philippins et belgo-thaïlandais en Belgique

La littérature sur les familles ethniquement « mixtes » se focalise en général sur les expériences des couples, mais rarement sur celles de leurs enfants. Les quelques études sur ces derniers dévoilent leurs formes variées d'identité et la façon dont la société où ils résident et grandissent affecte leur autodéfinition, soulignant le pouvoir structurant du contexte sur la formation identitaire des enfants issus des familles mixtes. Afin de nuancer la compréhension de cette construction identitaire et d'appréhender le devenir des enfants issus des familles mixtes, le présent article se penche sur l'identification ethnique de ces individus et propose une étude de cas des personnes issues de familles belgo-philippines et belgo-thaïlandaises en Belgique. Les matériaux empiriques recueillis, notamment en Belgique, montrent que ces personnes se définissent de différentes manières. La plupart d'entre elles se présentent de manière variable en fonction du lieu (espace géographique et socioculturel circonscrit) où elles se trouvent, de leurs interlocuteurs (situation interpersonnelle) et du moment (temporalité), révélant le pouvoir structurant du contexte sur leur autodéfinition ethnique. Les autres personnes interviewées s'identifient de manière stable, ce qui démontre leur résistance face aux défis biographiques et suggère que l'auto-identification ethnique n'est pas toujours fluide ou fluctuante.

Political propaganda in Northeast and Southeast Asia

Living apart together

This ethnographic story is part of a compendium of short stories focusing on spaces of intimacy that people experience as they migrate between continents and cultures. The said compendium is featured on the anthropological magazine "Otherwise" (ISSN 2752-3659) as part of its special issue on "Movement".

Aux origines des médailles ‘chinoises' de la Sainte-Enfance

Rethinking the Gay Chinese Migrant through the Prism of Migration Aspirations: Observations from France and Belgium

On the basis of data gathered by two independent ethnographic studies of gay Chinese migrants in France and Belgium, this paper aims to identify the role of intersecting and parallel aspirations which shape their migration trajectories toward Western countries. These aspirations include motivations to respond to or appropriate traditional family configurations, imaginaries that characterize the countries of destination, the desire to fulfill same-sex sexual and relationship goals, as well as class, educational, national, and ethnic affiliations. Using concepts of intersectionality and super-diversity, this paper further argues that the simultaneous and overlapping nature of these motivations deserves to be discussed as a subset of current Chinese diasporas.

Burying at all costs

Enquêter sur la sexualité et la classe

Sexualité et classe sociale : hiérarchies, distinctions et politisations

Jaillissements et petites voix

Book review: the concealment controversy

«Faire famille» par-delà les frontières: Les hommes belges en Thaïlande et leurs proches restés en Belgique

Le présent article examine les pratiques transnationales mobilisées pour « faire famille » par des hommes belges vivant en Thaïlande, la plupart étant en couple avec une ou un partenaire thaïlandais. Certains de ces hommes ont encore en Belgique des membres de leur famille de naissance et/ou de la famille nucléaire qu'ils ont fondée lors d'une précédente union. Le matériau empirique collecté auprès de 19 hommes belges (grâce à des entretiens approfondis réalisés à plusieurs reprises entre 2018 et 2023) montre que ces hommes, notamment les plus jeunes, restent en contact avec certains membres de leur famille en Belgique par le biais de communications à distance, de visites en Belgique ou de visites de leurs proches en Thaïlande, ainsi que par l'envoi de biens matériels. Ces pratiques transnationales sont façonnées à la fois par des facteurs micro-individuels (capital économique des enquêtés, qualité de leurs relations familiales, situation socioéconomique plus ou moins stable de leurs enfants) et macro-structurels (décalage horaire, détention ou non d'un passeport facilitant la mobilité, etc.).

Migration et (re)socialisation sexuelle : le cas des jeunes migrants homosexuels chinois en France

Alors que le genre est devenu une catégorie d'analyse essentielle dans les travaux scientifiques sur les plus récentes vagues d'émigration depuis la Chine, la sexualité des Chinois en Europe reste peu étudiée, en particulier celle des LGBT+. Cet article s'appuie sur une enquête ethnographique menée entre 2020 et 2021 auprès de 16 jeunes migrants homosexuels chinois (vivant ou ayant vécu en France), pour explorer les multiples facettes des « changements sexuels » vécus par ces individus sous le prisme de la (re)socialisation sexuelle dans un contexte transnational. En premier lieu, l'article examine les processus d'acquisition et d'intériorisation des connaissances, des normes, des attitudes, des codes sociaux et culturels et des valeurs liés à la sexualité au-delà des frontières culturelles et nationales. Il se penche ensuite sur les sources de (re)socialisation sexuelle de jeunes migrants homosexuels chinois en France, en se focalisant sur leurs relations interpersonnelles avec leurs pairs. Enfin, l'article conclut en tissant des liens entre les études sur la migration queer et celles sur la diaspora chinoise, tout en appelant à davantage de recherches sur les liens entre migrations chinoises en Europe et sexualité en élargissant autant que possible la façon d'appréhender cette dernière.

The Time of Clutter: Anti-Kairos and Storage Space in North American Domestic Life

Timely Matters

Temporal contextuality of agentic intersectional positionalities: nuancing power relations in the ethnography of minority migrant women

Researchers' reflexivity usually focuses on the spatiality and sociality of their ethnographic fieldwork. As a result, the temporal context of their positionality, whereby their various identities interact with one another at different research phases, is often overlooked. This paper adopts an agentic intersectional approach and draws from our separate studies of Thai migrant women in Belgium and Hong Kong to unpack the temporality of the power dynamics between study participants and us (the researchers). Through this reflexive exercise, we identify three salient aspects: first, different identities of the researchers intersect at each phase of the study; second, researchers are dependent on gatekeepers and study participants, notably during the data-gathering phase; and third, the changing researcher-participant dynamics throughout the research process are embedded in broader relations of power that encompass social institutions and migrant/ethnic networks. Hence, researchers' self-discipline and constant awareness of positionality are of utmost importance for achieving well-situated knowledge (re)production.

Being “Both”: Identifications of Second and Third Generation Brussels Muslim Youths towards the Country of Origin and the Country of Residence

In Belgium, several incidents and public debates have highlighted ethnocentric conceptions of the nation held by public opinion and prominent politicians where immigrants and particularly Muslims are marked as the unwilling “others”. In this framework, immigrants maintaining ethnic identities and transnational ties is classically seen as weakening their integration in the receiving countries. Based on results drawn from 16 focus group discussions and 50 individual semi-structured interviews conducted in Brussels with youth with a foreign background, we show that while a minority of our respondents still identified themselves primarily in reference to the country of origin of their (grand)parents, emphasizing ethnic boundaries and family heritage, most of them have developed a multiple-identity strategy for themselves, which acknowledges both their ethnic background and their belonging to Belgium and Brussels as a multicultural city. Those involved in upward social mobility strategies through higher education or better secondary schools also have more facilities to express the double-presence narrative.

Membership intermediaries: a study of pluri-generational mixed-status families in Italy and France

Insider family citizens—that is, people who, according to their nationality/legal status and the possession of crucial resources for the settlement of their relatives in a foreign context—occupy an especially important place within a wide and diversified set of family relationships. Drawing on qualitative interviews with migrant women and children in mixed-status families in Italy and France, we argue that they can act as ‘membership intermediaries' towards migrant spouses and a wider set of kin. First, facilitating non-citizen relatives' formal incorporation in receiving countries through the provision of specially privileged forms of legality. Second, providing various resources for migrants' informal incorporation, including housing ownership, additional income, emotional, and cultural capital. Nonetheless, the ambivalent dependencies these processes trigger can become sources of contention, heightening gender and intergenerational power imbalances in the household.

MOVEMENT 2. FORMALIZING ARRANGEMENTS: Re-signification and the Making of Governable Spaces

The second movement considers (re)arrangements as projects of formalization that seek to impose and even fix a form to spaces historically constructed as marginal. This impositional arrangement operates as a governmental desire to fix a form by re-signifying both subjects and spaces.

Les expériences politiques de l'absence : le processus de subjectivation de proches de disparus par migration en Tunisie

This article focuses on the political experience of absence in families of Tunisian harraga who disappeared by migration. This contribution is based on an ethnography conducted in Tunisia with associations of relatives of the missing and on remote exchanges with certain families. Through three ethnographic vignettes, the article shows how exposing one's own body and photos, translating the words of another mother, and speaking in public construct the process of political subjectivation that calls into question the identity of the relatives who mobilize. This changes the actors' perception of themselves and their relationship with the disappeared. Collective action and political commitment make the mothers and wives of the missing harraga political subjects involved in the name of the freedom of movement of all individuals.

Negotiating Belgian identity in Wisconsin through ancestry genomics

How do Wisconsin-based descendants of Belgian immigrants - living in a mid-western, largely white, and mostly rural community - connect a perceived common Belgian ancestry to a contemporary sense of belonging through genomic ancestry testing (GAT)? Members of this community negotiate GAT's results in relation to their prior self-identification with Belgian ancestry and present- identity claims, highlighting two important findings. First, in this community, prior self-identification with both Belgian ancestry and present-day identity are important for understanding how group members negotiate GAT's results. GAT results have meaning for group members as long as they can be interpreted in a way that re-establishes the histories of connectedness and social life experiences that underpin a specifically ‘Belgian' identity. Second, another feature of more interest for STS researchers is that there are no specific genomic markers clearly linking individuals to a ‘Belgian' ancestry. The lack of genomic markers for Belgian ancestry ends up enabling a socially flexible interpretation of results. Indirectly and with inventiveness, community members establish their Belgian ancestry through the genomic results, despite the absence of a ‘Belgian' category derivable from the tests. As such, there is significant flexibility in the way that genomic ancestry testing ends up filtering into everyday practices.

2022

Challenging stereotypes in Europe-Thailand transnational migration: non-conventional unions, mobilities, and (re)productive labor

The migration flows connecting Thailand and Europe have constructed social spaces in which different stereotypes regarding Thais and Europeans emerge, perpetuate, and circulate, thereby affecting to various extents the lives of these individuals. To challenge these stereotypes, the present special issue takes into account the mechanisms of social categorization at transnational and local dimensions in three critical steps. First, it adopts an inclusive stance by not limiting itself to heterosexual relationships involving Thais and Europeans. Second, it shifts the scholarly gaze from marriage and family issues to Thai migrants' mobilities in spatial, social, and intergenerational terms. And third, it highlights Thai migrants' engagement in the labor market as intimate workers and entrepreneurs to uncover the factors shaping their (re)productive labor and social incorporation in their receiving countries. Using an intersectional approach, this special issue presents six empirically grounded case studies to unveil often-neglected dimensions and complexities of Europe-Thailand transnational migration.

Social networks and organization of Thai migrants in Europe: an interview with Chongcharoen Sornkaew Grimsmann, President (2019-2022) of Thai Women Network in Europe

The interview with Mrs. Chongcharoen Sornkaew Grimsmann, a long-term member and former president of Thai Women Network in Europe (TWNE), was originally conducted in English over email by Sirijit Sunanta and Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot in July 2022. It was supplemented by an online interview (via WebEx) in Thai by Sirijit Sunanta in November 2022. Mrs. Grimsmann served as the President of TWNE from 2019 to 2022. TWNE is well-established and one of the most active organizations of Thai migrant women with individual and organizational members in 16 European countries, the US, and Thailand. TWNE seeks to collaborate with governmental and non-governmental organizations, both in Thailand and the destination countries, to improve the welfare of Thai migrant women. They organize annual general meetings to discuss topics relevant to Thai migrant women's lives in destination countries and publish an annual newsletter Sarn Satree (สารสตรี) to circulate information. Mrs. Grimsmann has extensive experience of providing community service as a social volunteer and working with international organizations, particularly in the area of women and children's welfare. She is now based in France and Thailand.

Multiform transmission and belonging: Buddhist social spaces of Thai migrant women in Belgium

The Thai migration to Belgium is numerically a woman-led phenomenon, which has captured social attention for the last decades. This attention entails stereotypes about Thai migrant women as ‘workers' in the intimate industry and/or ‘exotic wives' of Belgianmen. To challenge these stereotypes, the present paper explores the often-ignored dimension of Thai women's sociality. Specifically, it examines the transmission dynamics occurring in their Buddhist social spaces, which shape and reinforce their sense o fbelonging. To do so, it draws from ethnographic fieldwork with Thai migrant women and key social actors within the Thai population in the country. Data analysis unveils that these women engage in multiform modes of transmission in their Buddhist socialspaces. First, they transmit good deeds from the material world to the spiritual realm through merit-making practices and by seeking spiritual guidance in the temple. Second, they pass their socio-cultural ways of belonging to their children by engaging in different socializing activities. And third, they involve themselves in sharing religious faith, material symbols, and tastes described as part of Thai culture. Through this multiform transmission, Thai migrant women confront in subtle ways the common-held views about them at the intersection of their various identities as spouses, mothers, citizens, and Buddhist devotees.

"To Give a Good Cambio" Economic Affinity, Cheating and the Ambivalent Ethics of Barter in the Southern Andes

Négocier avec l'État. Mariages mixtes en Asie du Sud-Est

Les études sur la mixité conjugale dans le contexte migratoire sont rarement conduites dans les pays en voie de développement, alors même que ces derniers connaissent depuis quelques années un phénomène migratoire important en provenance des pays développés, orienté vers la formation de couples mixtes. Comment les pays en voie de développement réglementent-ils cette mixité conjugale et l'immigration sur leur territoire ? Quel est l'impact de cette gouvernementalité sur la vie des migrants ? S'appuyant sur des matériaux empiriques récoltés notamment lors d'entretiens semi-directifs, cet article examine le cas des hommes migrants belges au Laos et en Thaïlande sous le prisme de la gouvernementalité au sens foucaldien. Les récits de ces hommes montrent comment leurs ressources économiques leur permettent de vivre confortablement dans leur nouveau pays, validant les stéréotypes sociaux d'opulence et de partenaires idéaux associés aux étrangers « occidentaux » (appelés « falang » au Laos et « farang » en Thaïlande). Pourtant, ces hommes migrants font l'objet d'un traitement différentiel de la part de leur État d'accueil. Tandis que les hommes belges au Laos se plaignent de l'absence d'une loi régissant la division des propriétés conjugales lors du divorce d'un couple mixte, leurs homologues en Thaïlande critiquent les règles thaïlandaises qui ne leur permettent pas d'y séjourner plus d'un an et nécessitent de disposer des ressources financières solides. Afin de faire face à cette gouvernementalité de leur pays d'accueil, les hommes belges interviewés ont notamment recours au soutien de leur épouse laotienne ou thaïlandaise.

“We are all cousins.” Belgian ancestry and genomic testing in a close-knit community in Northeastern Wisconsin

Drawing on an ethnography of Wisconsin-based descendants of Belgian immigrants, this article explores social dynamics relating to ways lay users of genomic ancestry testing (GAT) understand genomic ancestry and how their understanding raises questions concerning the construction of their identities. The study focuses on a group that presents interesting features for which the existing literature is sparse (i.e. a rather secure Belgian ancestry/present identity, the absence of a clear ascription to the category “Belgium/Belgian” from the tests, and a biological connectedness in the Belgian community). GAT is approached as a socio-cultural object contextualized at a local level. The analysis involves specifying the discursive practices by which individuals entangle with this knowledge, following a two-pronged perspective derived from the nature of the information received by users, which is both individuating/deindividuating and deterministic/probabilistic. The paper, therefore, provides new insights into the manners in which social actors trigger their responsibility in response to genomic ancestry, and this questions the users' sense of identity.

Les médailles chrétiennes de dévotion en caractères chinois

Catholic medals with Chinese characters

Préface - littérature ouïghoure

Malaise of Indolence

Rural-to-urban migrants in China have often been portrayed as striving subjects, living in “suspension” for the sake of the entrepreneurial futures they desire. Drawing on fieldwork conducted alongside young café workers in Shanghai, this article highlights more ambivalent engagements with the future obscured by emphases, within the social sciences, on the intentional, active aspects of subjectivity. Relatedly, it analyzes moments of purposelessness as more than emotional downsides of precarity, in a context where official discourses of the “Chinese Dream” coexist with vernacular celebrations of indolence. Purposelessness is a form of refusal, allowing young migrants to dwell in the present, if only momentarily. Yet, the very act of articulating unwillingness through playful idioms of indolence does not mean embracing disengagement as a norm. Rather, it nurtures a sense of ethical discomfort and self-responsibility. This malaise of indolence might prevent the translation of temporary disinvestment into a clear politics of refusal.

Précaires de luxe

Dans les productions de la mode de luxe, le travail est souvent précaire, peu ou pas rémunéré. À partir d'une enquête ethnographique menée à Paris, cet article traite du cas particulier des stagiaires dans le secteur. Il illustre qu'il est nécessaire de bénéficier d'un certain statut économique afin de cumuler de nombreuses expériences de travail précaire, dans l'espoir de décrocher un poste stable. Il s'agit d'analyser le rôle des écoles de mode internationales dans la diffusion des stages et dans la normalisation du travail précaire, dans un secteur qui affiche pourtant une excellente santé financière. Il en émerge que dans la mode de luxe, l'accumulation de stages est un luxe que seulement les étudiants et étudiantes économiquement et socialement favorisés peuvent se permettre.

Redefining Fatherhood in a Migratory Context: A Narrative Inquiry into the Experiences of African First-time Fathers in Belgium

Many African fathers face practices in their host countries that conflict with the conceptions of fatherhood in their countries of origin. They deal with negative stereotypes, including notions of paternal irresponsibility when it comes to embracing child care. This article looks at how exposure to the Belgian norms of fatherhood may redefine the fatherhood practices of African first-time fathers residing in Belgium. Drawing on a qualitative narrative approach, this article explores the perceptions and experiences of African migrant fathers in Belgium and examines how they adapt to a different fathering culture. The findings show that while African first-time fathers acknowledged their primary role as providers, they also embraced new practices that transgress defined gender lines in African culture. In the absence of a larger family support network, respondents face the responsibility of providing prenatal and postnatal support and sharing in child care responsibilities. Findings also shed light on how African fathers with European partners engage in shared decision-making and negotiate on core African values such as male circumcision.

Involving the health sector in the prevention and care of female genital mutilation: results from formative research in Guinea

Abstract Background Despite efforts to reduce the burden of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Guinea, the practice remains prevalent, and health care providers are increasingly being implicated in its medicalization. This formative study was conducted to understand the factors that facilitate or impede the health sector in providing FGM prevention and care services to inform the development of health sector-based interventions. Methods Between April and May 2018, a mixed methods formative study was carried out using a rapid assessment methodology in three regions of Guinea—Faranah, Labe and Conakry. A structured questionnaire was completed by one hundred and fifty health care providers of different cadres and 37 semi-structured interviews were conducted with health care providers, women seeking services at public health clinics and key stakeholders, including health systems managers, heads of professional associations and schools of nursing, midwifery, and medicine as well as representatives of the Ministry of Health. Eleven focus group discussions were conducted with female and male community members. Results This study revealed health systems factors, attitudinal factors held by health care providers, and other factors, that may not only promote FGM medicalization but also impede a comprehensive health sector response. Our findings confirm that there is currently no standardized pre-service training on how to assess, document and manage complications of FGM nor are there interventions to promote the prevention of the practice within the health sector. This research also demonstrates the deeply held beliefs of health care providers and community members that perpetuate this practice, and which need to be addressed as part of a health sector approach to FGM prevention. Conclusion As integral members of FGM practicing communities, health care providers understand community beliefs and norms, making them potential change agents. The health sector can support them by incorporating FGM content into their clinical training, ensuring accountability to legal and policy standards, and promoting FGM abandonment as part of a multi-sectoral approach. The findings from this formative research have informed the development of a health sector intervention that is being field tested as part of a multi-country implementation research study in Guinea, Kenya, and Somalia.

Divorce in transnational families: norms, networks, and intersecting categories

This paper highlights the originality and scholarly contributions of the present Special Issue on transnational divorces in three ways. First, it examines two sets of related literature and situates the Special Issue within them: one on divorces, in general, and the other on divorces in transnational families (also called here “transnational divorce”). This exercise identifies the scholarly tendencies and gaps needing immediate attention in the study of divorce at the present age of family (re)composition. Second, the paper discusses how the special issue addresses the lacunas in the literature through “transborder intersectionality,” that is, a combination of transnational and intersectional perspectives. And third, based on its five empirically grounded case studies, it unveils the main structuring forces in transnational divorces: norms (social and legal), networks (transnational family support, local social ties…), and intersecting categories (gender, social class, legal status…). The paper ends with research directions for the future study of divorces traversing nation-states' borders.

Foodborne zoonotic trematode infections in Yen Bai, Vietnam: a situational analysis on knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) and risk behaviors

Introduction: Foodborne Zoonotic Trematode Infections (FZTi) are neglected tropical diseases of public health concern in Vietnam. The transmission of FZTi is linked to human behavior patterns. The aims to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding FZTi among local people. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a mixed method, which included a baseline survey and in-depth interviews. 375 participants were interviewed face-to-face in the survey, and 27 participants had the in-depth interviews. Results: The results showed that 36.3% passed the knowledge assessment, 86.7% passed the attitude assessment, and 24% passed the practical assessment. There were differences in average knowledge scores among gender (men higher than women, p = 0.006), ethnicities (Kinh higher than Dao and Tay, p < 0.001), and educational level (higher education, higher knowledge score, p < 0.001). There were differences in the frequency of eating raw fish between men and women (men higher than women, p < 0.001), and in the average practice score between men and women (women higher than men, p = 0.028). Eating raw fish and/or undercooked fish, raw vegetables, and drinking untreated water from Thac Ba lake in Yen Bai province were identified as FZTi risk behaviors. The occurrence of these risky habits can be explained by the lack of knowledge on FZTi, poor economic conditions and typical social features of local people. Conclusion: The current knowledge of local people in regard to safe eating practices is poor. They keep performing unsafe practices, which lead to infection with FZTi; therefore, an integrated control of FZTi is essential.

‘There Were Moments We Wished She Could Just Die': The Highly Gendered Burden of Nodding Syndrome in Northern Uganda

Nodding Syndrome (NS) occurs within a wide spectrum of epilepsies seen in onchocerciasis endemic areas of sub-Saharan Africa. It has debilitating consequences on affected individuals and increases the socio-economic, physical and psychological burden on care-givers and their households, diminishing their standing within the community. Social science research on the disproportionate burden of the disease on females is limited. Based on ethnographic research over 3 years in northern Uganda, we explored the burden of being ill and care-giving for persons with NS from a gendered perspective. We found that NS-affected females were at greater risk of physical and psychological abuse, sexual violence, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and stigma, in a context of deteriorating socio-economic conditions. Primary care-givers of the NS-affected, mostly women, struggled to make ends meet and were subjected to stigma and abandonment. Targeted interventions, including legal protection for affected females, stigma reduction, and psycho-social and financial support are needed.

Projectland - Life in a Lao Socialist Model Village

Homestay, sleepover, and commensality: three intimate methods in the study of “mixed” families

Scholars most often adopt qualitative data-gathering methods, notably interviews, to access the lifeworld of “mixed” families. Nonetheless, when research questions require vivid details about their lives, other data-collection techniques may be needed. “Intimate” research methods, characterised by proximate contacts and interactions with “mixed” couples and their families, appear particularly useful in this regard. Drawing from ethnographic studies of mixed families of Filipino and Thai migrant women in Belgium and The Netherlands, the present paper unveils the heuristic value of three intimate methods—homestays, sleepovers, and commensality—in perceiving the realities of these women's couple and family lives. Homestays and sleepovers allow an in-depth understanding of ways of life within homes, interpersonal interactions, and their intricacies. Commensality (i.e., eating together) offers “snapshots” of the lives of mixed families, providing insights complementary to other methods such as interviews. Hence, the three intimate methods explored in this paper are social sites in which one can view details, otherwise invisible or unspoken, of the lives of mixed families, ranging from power dynamics to intergenerational relations, from the family's social class status and cross-border social ties to emotional situations.

“We used to have lice … ” interethnic imagery in post-war upland Laos

‘The Land is Asking for History'. Marriages, Land, and Post-Slavery in Southern Benin

This article analyses the recent evolution of marriage relations between descendants of free and enslaved persons in Benin. It shows that slave ancestry is connected to tenure insecurity. This insecurity arises because land occupied by the descendants of slaves can be claimed by the descendants of the people who owned their ancestors. At the same time, such claims are blunted by intermarriage between these groups, which weakens the position of the descendants of slave-owners. As the memory of the exact arrangements that characterized past marriages between enslaved and freeborn fades away, marriage and kinship ties with descendants of former dependants put pressure on elite landowners to accept a degree of land redistribution in favour of relatives whom they perceive as ranking below themselves. In order to understand land conflicts in the present, it is essential to analyse the mixed-status marriages of the past.

AUX MASQUES CITOYENNES !

L'ethnographe, l'escort et le client. Produire et exploiter les ambiguïtés sur une plateforme digitale d'escorting masculin

2021

Introduction

If there is such a thing as a dominant public sphere in post-Reform China, its emotional tonality has often been described as overwhelmingly positive, as evidenced by the recent focus on "happiness" campaigns or state-promoted "positive energy." This special section takes the prevalence of positivity as an invitation to investigate its opposites: what, in an authoritarian context, is the political work of negative affects such as bitterness, fear, shame, indifference, deflation, or trouble? Locating the articles within a broader literature on affect and emotion in anthropology and beyond, this introduction provides an overall framing for the collection. Based on the articles, it depicts the potential of negativity as both disruptive and generative, as affects work through their evaluative and propositional force that induces transformation while often evading repression.

Onchocerca volvulus transmission in the Mbam valley of Cameroon following 16 years of annual community-directed treatment with ivermectin, and the description of a new cytotype of Simulium squamosum

Abstract Background The onchocerciasis focus surrounding the lower Mbam and Sanaga rivers, where Onchocerca volvulus is transmitted by Simulium damnosum s.l. (Diptera: Simuliidae), was historically the largest in the southern regions of Cameroon. Annual community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI) has been taking place since 2000, but recent studies have shown that new infections are occurring in children. We aimed to investigate blackfly biting and O. volvulus transmission rates along the lower Mbam river 16 years after the formal onset of annual CDTI. Methods Black flies were collected for three consecutive days each month between July 2016 and June 2017 at two riverside villages and two inland sites situated 4.9 km and 7.9 km from the riverside. Specimens collected at each site were dissected on one of the three collection days each month to estimate parity rates and O. volvulus infection rates, while the remaining samples were preserved for pool screening. Results In total, 93,573 S. damnosum s.l. black flies were recorded biting humans and 9281 were dissected. Annual biting rates of up to 606,370 were estimated at the riverside, decreasing to 20,540 at 7.9 km, while, based on dissections, annual transmission potentials of up to 4488 were estimated at the riverside, decreasing to 102 and 0 at 4.9 km and 7.9 km, respectively. However, pool screening showed evidence of infection in black flies at the furthest distance from the river. Results of both methods demonstrated the percentage of infective flies to be relatively low (0.10-0.36%), but above the WHO threshold for interruption of transmission. In addition, a small number of larvae collected during the dry season revealed the presence of Simulium squamosum E. This is the first time S. squamosum E has been found east of Lake Volta in Ghana, but our material was chromosomally distinctive, and we call it S. squamosum E2. Conclusions Relatively low O. volvulus infection rates appear to be offset by extremely high densities of biting black flies which are sustaining transmission along the banks of the lower Mbam river. Graphical Abstract

Young Belgian Muslims: between religious reactivity and individualization

In Belgium, since the first instances of girls wearing headscarves in schools in 1989, the public discussion on the place of Islam and Muslims in Belgian society has been almost constant. That debate has become more polarized in the wake of the attacks of 22 March 2016. The results presented in this paper are drawn from sixteen group discussions and twenty individual semi-structured interviews. We investigate the weight of discrimination processes on identity formation in the light of both reactive religiosity and individualization and secularization theoretical frameworks. Our data show that strongly identifying as Muslim is not experienced as being exclusive of other types of identifications claimed simultaneously. Then, we illustrate the processes of reflexivity, appropriation, and individualization of belief, as well as the negotiation or even circumvention of certain religious norms that are ongoing among Brussels' Muslim youth.

Epidemiologists' ambivalence towards the epigenetics of social adversity

Pleasure, womanhood and the desire for reconstructive surgery after female genital cutting in Belgium

Growing numbers of women are showing interest in clitoral reconstructive surgery after ‘Female Genital Mutilation'. The safety and success of reconstructive surgery, however, has not clearly been established and due to lack of evidence the World Health Organization does not recommend it. Based on anthropological research among patients who requested surgery at the Brussels specialist clinic between 2017 and 2020, this paper looks at two cases of women who actually enjoy sex and experience pleasure but request the procedure to become ‘whole again' after stigmatising experiences with health-care professionals, sexual partners or gossip among African migrant communities. An ethnographic approach was used including indepth interviews and participant observation during reception appointments, gynecological consultations, sexology and psychotherapy sessions. Despite limited evidence on the safety of the surgical intervention, surgery is often perceived as the ultimate remedy for the ‘missing' clitoris. Such beliefs are nourished by predominant discourses of cut women as ‘sexually mutilated'. Following Butler, this article elicits how discursive practices on the physiological sex of a woman can shape her gender identity as a complete or incomplete person. We also examine what it was that changed the patients' mind about the surgery in the process of re-building their confidence through sexology therapy and psychotherapy.

Reinforcing authentic intimacy? Relationships between an escort boy and his male clients in the spectre of COVID-19 in France

Drawing on the story of Valentin, one of the key participants of my current research on escort boys and their male clients in Paris, this article offers some reflections on the very meaning of intimacy as it is lived and experienced by this escort boy and his clients in the spectre of COVID-19. As a strict lockdown has been decreed by the French government for two months between March and May 2020, the situation has been somehow indicative of Valentin's relationship with his clients. The lockdown showed how authentic intimacy, cleared of expected escort performances, arose with even more intensity between Valentin and one of his clients. This article explores the changing nature of their relationship in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hackers of the heart: Digital sorcery and virtual intimacy in Côte d'Ivoire

This is an ethnography of internet scams in Abidjan through which I attempt to develop a theory of digital sorcery. The brouteurs of Côte d'Ivoire impersonate Europeans in social media profiles and seduce others into falling in love with them. After months of flirtatious messaging and photo exchanges, disaster strikes their avatar and they ask for an emergency wire transfer from their digital lover. While millions of euros of income are sent to Abidjan every year, the brouteurs say they can no longer succeed without the use of occult forces, and they turn to marabouts for assistance. During my fieldwork in 2015, rumours circulated that brouteur wealth depended on the blood sacrifice of children for its success. As Ivoirians increasingly employ smartphones and social media in their daily life, the anxieties concerning the illusions and manipulations of the virtual world become enmeshed with those of the occult second world. I suggest that the overlap between hacker technology, con artistry and occult power outlined in Ivoirian urban rumour suggests a model for rethinking the space of virtuality in the global economy as a form of magical semiosis, one that can be every bit as vitality draining as witchcraft itself.

Controlled experiments: ethnographic notes on the intergenerational dynamics of aspirational migration and agrarian change in upland Laos

Ce que produit l'incongru

Qu'apprend-on de l'indésirabilité lorsqu'elle est envisagée non comme objet de contrôle mais dans sa dimension productive, tant au niveau interactionnel qu‘affectif ? La question sert de fil conducteur à ce court essai, où l'indésirabilité réfère à une « impropriété situationnelle » telle qu'elle se manifeste dans une librairie de Shanghai, perturbant momentanément les conditions de la coprésence. Oscillant entre interactionnisme goffmanien et analyse des variations atmosphériques, la contribution met en évidence la socialité et les affects ordinaires que fait émerger l'indésirabilité. Celle-ci désorganise l'ordre interactionnel local autant qu'elle réorganise les possibilités d'engagements entre inconnus, orientés au-delà d'une restauration des conditions sensibles à la conduite des activités individuelles. En dialogue avec la littérature sur la socialité urbaine, l'article conclut sur le caractère heuristique des affects suscités par la situation, et décrits ici comme tempérés.

Impacts of political and social contexts on refugees' experiences.

The influx of refugees into France since 2015 has been framed as a crisis and marked by a restrictive turn in arrival and asylum policies. By comparison, in the 1970s Southeast Asian refugees fleeing from communist regimes were welcomed warmly in the country. This article compares two in-depth case studies of refugees, analysed using the biographical policy evaluation method, to retrace how the policies and collective representations of these two different historical moments affect the experiences of refugees over time. It shows that policies play a significant role in shaping refugees' experiences in respect of their access to papers, housing, language courses and work, thus impacting, but not determining, their possibilities of reconstructing life in exile. The comparison also raises the question of how personal experiences of arrival, viewed as a rejection or a welcome, influence refugees' life courses.

The Consequences of Female Genital Mutilation on Psycho-Social Well-Being: A Systematic Review of Qualitative Research

The health consequences of female genital mutilation (FGM) have been described previously; however, evidence of the social consequences is more intangible. To date, few systematic reviews have addressed the impact of the practice on psycho-social well-being, and there is limited understanding of what these consequences might consist. To complement knowledge on the known health consequences, this article systematically reviewed qualitative evidence of the psycho-social impact of FGM in countries where it is originally practiced (Africa, the Middle East, and Asia) and in countries of the diaspora. Twenty-three qualitative studies describing the psycho-social impact of FGM on women's lives were selected after screening. This review provides a framework for understanding the less visible ways in which women and girls with FGM experience adverse effects that may affect their sense of identity, their self-esteem, and well-being as well as their participation in society.

Les ambivalences du don dans les projets humanitaires transnationaux.

The Ambivalence of the Gift in Transnational Humanitarian Projects. (English version of the article published in Moussons, 37)

Attitudes of health care providers regarding female genital mutilation and its medicalization in Guinea

Background Guinea has a high prevalence of female genital mutilation (FGM) (95%) and it is a major concern affecting the health and the welfare of women and girls. Population-based surveys suggest that health care providers are implicated in carrying out the practice (medicalization). To understand the attitudes of health care providers related to FGM and its medicalization as well as the potential role of the health sector in addressing this practice, a study was conducted in Guinea to inform the development of an intervention for the health sector to prevent and respond to this harmful practice. Methodology Formative research was conducted using a mixed-methods approach, including qualitative in-depth interviews with health care providers and other key informants as well as questionnaires with 150 health care providers. Data collection was carried out in the provinces of Faranah and Labé and in the capital, Conakry. Results The majority of health care providers participating in this study were opposed to FGM and its medicalization. Survey data showed that 94% believed that it was a serious problem; 89% felt that it violated the rights of girls and women and 81% supported criminalization. However, within the health sector, there is no enforcement or accountability to the national law banning the practice. Despite opposition to the practice, many (38%) felt that FGM limited promiscuity and 7% believed that it was a good practice. Conclusion Health care providers could have an important role in communicating with patients and passing on prevention messages that can contribute to the abandonment of the practice. Understanding their beliefs is a key step in developing these approaches.

Decolonizing the Virtual

Intersecting categories in the dissolution of transnational marriages: a socio-legal perspective

As divorces take place increasingly across national borders, many former partners find themselves in complex situations entangled in more than one state during which some categories of difference intersect, (re)creating inequalities and precarity. Through a socio-legal perspective combined with transnational and intersectional approaches, the present study elucidates the link between these intersections and the legal aspects of divorce. Examining Filipino migrant women's divorces in transnational social spaces, it unveils that social class, gender, legal statuses, and filiation intersect in specific situations: when the legal problem arises or implicates communal properties in another country; when a family member residing abroad interferes in the divorce settlement; and when the divorce process occurs in the context of domestic violence and involves an institution espousing women's spatial mobility to protect them. In such situations, the social class differences between partners become particularly pronounced (rather than their supposed cultural differences) and intersect with other categories.

Asia-Europe intimate links: family migrants, binational couples and mixed-parentage children

The literature on migrations in the Asia-Europe migration corridor focuses on the migration experiences of the Asian adult migrants who moved in Europe, whereas the viewpoints of their family members remain largely understudied. This tendency highlights the need for studies centered on spouses and children. Moreover, scholarly works mostly concentrate on women's perspectives, overlooking as a result the viewpoints of men and LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or gender non-conforming and other) migrants. Aware of these lacunas, the present special issue underlines the findings from recently conducted empirical studies in different research fields: migration, family, gender, sexuality and socio-legal studies. It has three principal objectives: first, to compare to one another the migration and family experiences of Asian migrants, citizens and non-citizens in the European context; second, to identify intersecting factors shaping the family dynamics and experiences of these migrants and their family members; and third, to pinpoint the manifold stakes of migration, conjugality, parenthood and childhood.

Lingering caregiver-child relations across borders: Filipino migrant youths in Europe and their stay-behind carers in the Philippines

The Filipino parental migration results in many children “left behind” under the care of kin, but subsequent family reunification may trigger emotional adjustments in the child-caregiver dyad. Drawing from ethnographic fieldworks in France, Italy and the Philippines, this paper aims to shed light on these adjustments. Examining the case of 1.5-generation migrants in France and Italy and their stay-behind caregivers, this paper uncovers the mutable, flexible nature of child fosterage in Filipino transnational families and the interlinked emotional difficulties of caregivers, children and parents. Despite these, caregiver-child relation perdures across borders at the same time as 1.5-generation migrants acknowledge the efforts of their parents and caregivers.

Places of 'Heat and Noise'

Public parks in urban China have become places where elder and middle-aged city-dwellers join in varied group activities such as choral singing, plaza dancing, or traditional and revolutionary opera, to name but a few. While these places have been analyzed as a setting for a rich, everyday public life, the sonic dimension of park life has been relatively unexplored. Based on recent ethnographic accounts of encounters and performances in Beijing's public parks, this article explores these practices as an intervention in the daily sonic order of the city, an active production of the textures of the everyday through “heat and noise” (re'nao). Using voices and technologies to perform in public, the display of sounds by parkgoers who experienced the Cultural Revolution echoes the loudness of those days while creating temporal assemblages of their own. Simultaneously, they reshape the patterns of co-presence and engagements among strangers, allowing for convivial interactions. Constitutive of the everyday, the tension between familiarity and strangeness, between routine and playfulness, is thus cultivated through “the sensorial production of the social” in ways that shape a pleasurable urban experience.

The best interests of the child in “mixed” couples' divorce in Belgium and the Netherlands: Filipino mothers' socio-legal encounters about their children

Studies on the marital break-up of “mixed couples” in which partners have different nationalities and/or ethnicities pay little attention to how individual partners, notably the one with a migration background, experience the law and institutions concerning their children. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews with Filipino women in Belgium and the Netherlands, this paper investigates these migrants' socio-legal experiences to shed light on their children's situation during the divorce process. Paying attention to the principle of the “best interests of the child”, data analyses reveal that the children of women experiencing problematic divorce and/or domestic violence have more direct encounters with laws and/or institutions than those whose parents separated on good terms. Likewise, young people whose parent(s) resort to socio-legal assistance in their country of residence are more exposed to the legal aspects of divorce. This case study underlines the intersubjective dimension of divorce and suggests that state policies do shape individual lives.

Relações duradouras para além de fronteiras: jovens Filipinos migrantes na Europa e seus cuidadores que permaneceram nas Filipinas

A migração familiar filipina resulta em muitas crianças “deixadas para trás” aos cuidados de parentes, mas reunificações familiares subsequentes podem disparar ajustes emocionais na díade criança-cuidador(a). Partindo de trabalhos de campo etnográficos realizados na França, na Itália e nas Filipinas, este artigo visa lançar luz sobre essas mudanças. Examinando casos de migrantes da geração 1.5 na França e na Itália e seus parentes cuidadores que permaneceram nas Filipinas, este artigo descortina a natureza mutável e flexível dos cuidados infantis em famílias transnacionais filipinas e as dificuldades emocionais interligadas entre cuidadores, crianças e pais. A despeito destas, a relação cuidador(a)-criança perdura para além de fronteiras, ao mesmo tempo em que migrantes da geração 1.5 reconhecem os esforços de seus pais e cuidadores.

Decolonizing Science, Digitizing the Occult: Theory from the Virtual South

In this article Newell uses two case studies to explore one of the central threads of Mbembe's Abiola lecture, the idea that there is a relationship between the plasticity of digital technology and African cosmologies of the deuxième monde. One case concerns the viral YouTube video #sciencemustfall, in which students at the University of Cape Town criticize "Western"science and demand that African forms of knowledge such as witchcraft be incorporated into the meaning of science. The second case considers fieldwork among the brouteurs of Côte d'Ivoire, internet scammers who build intimate relationships on false premises using social media. They acquire shocking amounts of wealth in this way which they display on their own social media accounts. However, they are said to use occult means to seduce and persuade their virtual lovers, trapping their prey in the sticky allure of the world wide web. Newell uses both examples to highlight the overlaps between the transformational efficacies embedded in both occult ontologies and digital worldings, calling for the possibility of using African cosmologies of the second world to produce a 'theory from the south' of virtual sociality.

(Un)configurable masculinities and gender dynamics in men's eyes: “Mixed” couples of Filipino migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands

Studies on “mixed” couples focus mainly on women's perspectives, which results in the neglect of the viewpoints of men. Addressing this empirical gap, this research note investigates the case of Belgian and Dutch men in (former) relationship with Filipino women, and Filipino men (currently or previously) married to Belgian/Dutch women. Ethnographic data analysis unveils the importance of the traditional division of household chores to these men. Belgian and Dutch informants maintain a gendered division of labor in their respective households, whereas Filipino informants, whose Belgian/Dutch spouses pursue gender equality, adopt various strategies to regain their masculine self.

“True love” as a bureaucratic utopia: the case of bi-national couples in Belgium

In this contribution I propose to examine the moral roots of the contemporary (in)hospitality of the city of Brussels by exploring one area of observation in particular: the handling of the fight against marriages of convenience for migratory purpose. Based on 2012-2013 ethnographic fieldwork, I reflect on the utopian thinking underlying the work of state agents in charge of implementing this fight. Through the detailed examination of two case studies, we will see how state agents select ‘good‘ couples and, in doing so, reproduce social and racial hierarchies by excluding undesirable forms of intimate relationships. The non-conformity with local moral standards (and particularly the romantic logic), modest ways of self-presentation or the current ideology of migrants as parasites are at the core of these practices of exclusion.

Penser les échanges économico-sexuels entre hommes. Âge, genre et classe dans la relation escort-client

En s'inspirant du concept d'échange économico-sexuel, théorisé par l'anthropologue Paola Tabet dans le contexte des rapports sociaux de sexe (entre hommes et femmes), cet article propose de conjuguer la catégorie de la classe et celle de l'âge pour tenter de saisir les dynamiques relationnelles et les rapports sociaux entre escorts et clients dans le cadre de la prostitution masculine en ligne à Paris (France). Mots clés: échange économico-sexuel; escorting; classe; âge; prostitution ma-sculine; rapports sociaux.

In pursuit of a cure: The plural therapeutic landscape of onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy in Cameroon - A mixed methods study

Background A high prevalence of epilepsy has been observed in several onchocerciasis-endemic villages in the Sanaga River basin, Cameroon. Recent studies suggest that ivermectin, a drug that is distributed annually with the aim of eliminating onchocerciasis, may have a protective effect against acquiring onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy (OAE). This study, therefore, provides an in-depth understanding of both the complex therapeutic landscape for epilepsy as well as the experiences related to the ‘community-directed treatment with ivermectin' (CDTI) campaign in order to identify a more trenchant path forward in the fight against epilepsy. Methodology/Principal findings Based on a mixed methods study combining a qualitative strand with a quantitative survey, we found that epilepsy was perceived to have had an epidemic emergence in the past and was still considered an important health issue in the study area. Socio-economic status, availability and accessibility of drugs and practitioners, as well as perceived aetiology shaped therapeutic itineraries for epilepsy, which included frequenting (in)formal biomedical health care providers, indigenous and/or faith healing practitioners. Ivermectin uptake for onchocerciasis was generally well known and well regarded. The CDTI faced structural and logistical bottlenecks undermining equal access and optimal adherence to the drug. Conclusions/Significance Uninterrupted, sustainable and comprehensive health-service delivery is essential to help alleviate the epilepsy burden on afflicted households. Addressing structural challenges of CDTI and communicating the potential link with epilepsy to local populations at risk could optimize the uptake of this potentially significant tool in OAE prevention.

Queer (post-)migration experiences: Mexican men's use of gay dating apps in the USA

Drawing on an ethnographic research in Mexico City, this article focuses on the use of geo-localized gay dating apps among Mexican queer migrants returning from the USA. Based principally on in-depth interviews and participant observation, this article aims to grasp how the participants have come to use these technologies when arriving in the USA. I argue that gay dating apps impact the trajectories of my informants and that their involvement in these networks is intimately linked to their migration experience. Furthermore, I suggest that these technologies contribute to fill a lack of sociability in the host country and influence queer sexual subjectivities after relocation.

Anthropological Knowledge on Political Violence.

‘Men are butterflies, women are hindlimbs of an elephant': Thai women's gendered being in transnational spaces

The numerical dominance of women within the Thai population in Belgium raises the question of how gender, as a category of difference and as a norm, influences Thai women's decision to enter in a ‘mixed' marriage, to migrate, and to ‘do family' in their transnational social spaces. Drawing from a qualitative study of Thai women in ‘mixed' couples in Belgium from 2012 to 2015, this article addresses this question using as conceptual points of departure the metaphor ‘men are butterflies, women are hindlimbs of an elephant'. It unveils how gendered ideologies in Thailand and in Belgium intersect and shape Thai women's subjectivity and agency. On the one hand, the ‘men are butterflies' metaphor reflects the gendered double standard of sexual morality in Thailand and suggests explanations for Thai women's marriage with Belgian men, for their migration to Belgium, and for the break-up, in some cases, of their mixed marriage. On the other hand, the saying ‘women are hindlimbs of an elephant' uncovers Thai women's contributions to their families, societies, and nations, as well as the way they cope with the overlapping social expectations interacting on them as daughters, mothers, and citizens.

2020

Emerging public spaces in rural Laos

Public space in Late Socialist East Asia. Interactions, Performativity, Citizenship. Introduction.

L'expérience ethnographique.

Cet article propose une analyse réflexive sur le partage et l'expérimentation des méthodes ethnographiques dans le cadre d'enseignements des sciences humaines et sociales en école d'architecture. Il est le fruit du travail et des échanges réguliers entre trois femmes anthropologues aux statuts et trajectoires différents qui privilégient l'approche ethnographique dans leurs recherches. Pour cette contribution, elles s'attachent à comprendre et à documenter la genèse d'une posture ethnographique chez leurs étudiant.e.s, faisant de cet apprentissage un objet anthropologique. Le propos éclaire les processus de réappropriation des savoirs et des savoirs faire ethnographiques tels que confrontés aux méthodes et aux habitus architecturaux, des logiques instrumentales à l'engouement pour le « terrain ». Ces questionnements seront abordés à l'aune de trois aspects: la place effective des sciences humaines et sociales dans le contexte des écoles d'architecture, le « terrain » et le « projet » analysés en tant que dispositifs initiatiques, et enfin les appropriations concrètes, observées en actes, de dispositions ethnographiques par les étudiant.e.s.

Rethinking the Anti-FGM Zero-Tolerance Policy: from Intellectual Concerns to Empirical Challenges

Abstract Purpose of Review Based on the discussions of a symposium co-organized by the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the University of Lausanne (UNIL) in Brussels in 2019, this paper critically reflects upon the zero-tolerance strategy on “Female Genital Mutilation” (FGM) and its socio-political, legal and moral repercussions. We ask whether the strategy is effective given the empirical challenges highlighted during the symposium, and also whether it is credible. Recent Findings The anti-FGM zero-tolerance policy, first launched in 2003, aims to eliminate all types of “female genital mutilation” worldwide. The FGM definition of the World Health Organization condemns all forms of genital cutting (FGC) on the basis that they are harmful and degrading to women and infringe upon their rights to physical integrity. Yet, the zero-tolerance policy only applies to traditional and customary forms of genital cutting and not to cosmetic alterations of the female genitalia. Recent publications have shown that various popular forms of cosmetic genital surgery remove the same tissue as some forms of “FGM”. In response to the zero-tolerance policy, national laws banning traditional forms of FGC are enforced and increasingly scrutinize the performance of FGC as well as non-invasive rituals that are culturally meaningful to migrants. At the same time, cosmetic procedures such as labiaplasty have become more popular than ever before and are increasingly performed on adolescents. Summary This review shows that the socio-legal and ethical inconsistencies between “FGM” and cosmetic genital modification pose concrete dilemmas for professionals in the field that need to be addressed and researched.

La transmission intergénérationnelle et ses déterminants. Enquête sur les pratiques alimentaires dans les familles belgo-péruviennes et belgo-philippines en Belgique

La transmission intergénérationnelle des pratiques alimentaires au sein des familles dites « mixtes » dont l'un des parents est migrant demeure peu explorée dans les travaux sur l'alimentation dans le contexte migratoire. Afin d'explorer cette question, cet article examine le cas des familles mixtes de migrantes péruviennes et philippines en Belgique. Ces mères de famille appartiennent à deux populations migrantes différentes en termes d'histoire de migration et de profils socioéconomiques, mais partagent certaines similarités, ce qui rend possible le croisement de leurs expériences. L'analyse de données empiriques obtenues au moyen d'entretiens semi-directifs et d'observations révèle trois pratiques alimentaires qui font l'objet d'une transmission intergénérationnelle dans les familles étudiées : la consommation des plats propres au pays de la mère, la préparation des aliments et de la table (ainsi que son nettoyage à la fin du repas) et la commensalité. Ces pratiques se situent au croisement du genre et de l'ethnicité et sont influencées par la situation économique des parents ainsi que par les réseaux tissés par la mère migrante

Les plaisirs ordinaires du chant révolutionnaire en Chine post-maoïste

Key informants in socio-epidemiology: advantages and pitfalls

Of Colonial Propaganda and Belgian Intimacy

Stress and the ecology of urban experience: migrant mental lives in central Shanghai

Responding to claims in urban studies and epidemiology that modern urban living negatively affects the mental health of the poor and newcomers to the city, this article offers a different account based on an ethnography of a neighborhood in central Shanghai, where precarious rural migrant lives unfold. Drawing on the concept of “ecologies of experience” to recognize the making of everyday sensibilities and affective tensions in urban dwelling, it focuses on subjectivity formed in habits of negotiating the urban environment, in coping with troubled thoughts and feelings posed by precariousness. The article considers ecologies of experience arising in distinct prosaic locations ‐ a public library, a large bookstore, and a café - found to be important in the everyday spatial practices of migrants, grounding to different degrees of success hopes for their present and future in the city. In such dwelling, the stresses to mental health - consistently described by migrants as “pressure” (yali) - seem to be moderated through varied forms of respite, slowing‐down, and “moments of being,” though always in ambivalent ways. In recognizing the everyday materiality of urban living, the article looks beyond the tendency in studies of China's internal migration to read off migrant mental health outcomes from structural disadvantages related to work, welfare and living conditions. Conceptually, it opens new ground in thinking by acknowledging the role of the felt qualities of lived experience in managing mental states, building on work in geography, sociology and anthropology attentive to the affective resonances of place and to practices of urban negotiation.

Honour, respectability and ‘noble' work

Descent-based hierarchies shape the lives of members of 20 ethnic groups across West Africa and the Sahel. Yet, except for work on human rights violations against people of slave descent, little research investigates the experiences of other groups within these hierarchies, or the influence of descent-based identities on wider development issues. Hence, this paper examines the intersecting influences of descent-based identity and gender on education and employment among the Haalpulaar'en in the Futa Tooro, northern Senegal, focusing on women of the dominant group, the Muslim clerics or tooroɓe. On one hand, their families' privileged access to capital enabled their trajectories. However, patriarchal notions of honour and respectability, including expectations to marry young, limited their educational careers. Restrictive definitions of ‘noble' work also reduced their employment options. Analysis of the occupation of hair-braiding unpacks how beliefs in supernatural forces underpinned these ideals and how women negotiated and sometimes challenged these norms.

En quête de reconstruction identitaire

Les louvoiements du patient au sein du cabinet médical

“Our Lady of Congo”

In 1891, the founder of the Matadi mission commissioned a neo-gothic master sculptor in Ghent to create a Madonna and child with a kneeling, imploring African released from the shackles of slavery at the Virgin's feet. The very name of this devotional statue -Our Lady of Congo- and the decision by the Holy See to choose the Blessed Virgin as the patron saint of Congo could have propelled this icon as the tutelary figure of the new colony. The sculpture only had mixed success in Congo, but in Belgium, however, it was effectively used as missionary propaganda, notably by a pious association for the “redemption of slaves” in Ghent. These divergent receptions are analyzed based on historical and iconographic sources, using comparative data to shed light on the theme of slavery as appraised in Catholic Europe and in Africa. The role of institutions, familiarity, and emotions is stressed in gauging the efficacy -or rejection- of images, which must be cast in complex genealogies, in their local and global contexts, and in different regimes of visuality.

AfricaMuseum reopening. Tervuren, Belgium

Comments on Jean Michaud's The art of not being scripted so much. The politics of writing Hmong language(s)

A path from slavery to freedom: The case of the ologoudou family in southern Benin

What can family biographies, life stories and memories of individuals tell us about the sociohistorical transformations of domestic slavery in Benin? By focusing on the generational dynamics among the Ologoudou, a family of former slaves, this article attempts to shed some light on how economic, social and school trajectories have influenced the situation of descendants of slaves in Benin over the generations. The case of the Ologoudou family, descended from a Yoruba slave who arrived in Ouidah in the mid-nineteenth century, shows that domestic slaves, placed under particular conditions, may have had the capacity to take their fate into their own hands and not only to be passive beings as they are often described.

French Lao and their Transnational Humanitarian Activities in Laos: between Illusions and Disillusionment

‘Getting the best of both worlds': aspirations and agency in relation to marriage and schooling among Haalpulaar women in northern Senegal

The link between marriage and premature school-leaving among females in the Global South is a major preoccupation within the field of international development and education, yet theoretically-grounded qualitative scholarship unpacking this relationship remains scarce. This paper uses models developed to conceptualise female agency in constrained circumstances, combined with theory on youth's educational aspirations, to analyse several ethnographic case studies of the ways female pupils in northern Senegal attempted to ‘get the best of both worlds', namely fulfiling the competing ideals of marrying and finishing secondary school. Findings are used to inform recommendations to guide future research, policy and programming on marriage and premature school-leaving in the Global South more widely.

Life amidst Rubble

While previous studies have documented the trials of rural-to-urban migration in post-reform China, little is known of the consequences of urban demolition and attendant uncertainty on migrant mental health. Exploring the affective and subjective dimensions of life lived amidst rubble in a migrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Shanghai, this essay describes and analyzes small-scale practices of endurance through dynamics of time, place, and sociality. We understand these modes of dwelling in a ruined environment as key to what we refer to as the management of subjectivity, producing moments of being that potentially enable to feel and act otherwise. Considering the management of subjectivity in its own rights rather than as mere echoes of postsocialist governmentalities, we sustain a dialogue with recent writing on the production of happy and self-reliant marginalized subjects through the Chinese authorities' turn to “therapeutic governance.”

Union exogame des descendants de migrants marocains

Culture and grief: Ethnographic perspectives on ritual, relationships and remembering

This introduction to the special issue on Anthropology and grief explores the contributions of an ethnographic approach to the interdisciplinary study of grief. After a brief overview of previous anthropological research, we identify key themes emerging from this global collection of case studies: the benefits of long-term fieldwork in nuancing the complexity of grief and complicating cultural narratives that surround it; the ways in which emotional aspects of grief are shaped by cultural norms and by the manner of death; and the relationships between the living and dead, including ontologies of the dead and culturally sanctioned forms of remembering and forgetting.

Transforming Vulnerability into Power: Exploring Empowerment among Women with Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in the Context of Migration in Belgium

This paper discusses an aspect of empowerment in relation to the central human capabilities for women with FGM/C in the diaspora. Many women who have undergone the practice of FGM/C come from societies where gender inequalities and gender-based discrimination between men and women persist, which compromises their capabilities, and many find themselves in vulnerable positions in their relationships with men, at work and in their everyday-life. The participants in this study however appeared somehow to have been empowered through certain health-promoting activities where they exercised agency in the western social context, they reside in. This paper examines the empowerment gained by the migrant women with FGM/C after participating in health-promoting activities. We compared this form of empowerment to the reinforcement of their capabilities according to Nussbaum's central human capabilities. Drawing on Nussbaum's list as a starting point we explore the relationship between capabilities and empowerment. We found that some central human capabilities appeared to be reinforced through health-promoting activities, whereas issues relating to asylum seeking became a determinant of empowerment in the women's own terms. Although the activities aimed to empower women, the participants themselves felt that they would only truly be empowered if they obtained full citizenship.

2019

L'hospitalité des hoarders :

Research on Us storage space and accumulation reveals that hoarded objects are not only mementos of former sociality, but are often felt by their hosts as entities with whom ongoing social relationships of obligation and care must be negotiated. In this essay, I consider what it might mean to conceptualize storage (and its more extreme form, hoarding) as a kind of hospitality towards objects. This leads me to envision relations with objects in terms of hospitality rather than property. When objects become parasitic guests that take over the social space of the home, as in the case of compulsive hoarders, how does this encroach upon their ability to host actual people ? Examining the shifting balance between hospitality-toward-things and hospitality-toward-humans, between retention and redistribution, I consider the various ways that accumulations of social relations with material things and those with humans (wealth-in-people) entangle with one another.

Esclavage, créolisation et constitution des identités en Afrique de l'Ouest : le cas des Agudàs du Bénin

Medically Unnecessary Genital Cutting and the Rights of the Child: Moving Toward Consensus

Constructions of the ‘educated person' in the context of mobility, migration and globalisation

This special issue showcases ethnographies with young people in the Global South which draw on the common conceptual umbrella of the ‘identity of the educated person' to unpack novel intersections between mobility, migration and education in the context of globalisation. Overarching themes include how definitions of the educated person are shaped by diverse identity constructions and axes of difference, notions of discipline and hardship, and global discourses and concepts which travel across international space. Definitions of the educated person are contested through migration processes, and young people's agency within and beyond schools, through consumption practices and appropriation of popular culture.

Mobilités dans le Sud globalisé : altérités, racialisation et fabrique des identités

Partant du constat que la fabrique de l'altérité dans les mobilités transnationales est trop souvent saisie sous l'angle des migrations Sud-Nord, ce dossier propose de s'intéresser aux mobilités au sein du Sud globalisé. Les articles rassemblés dans ce dossier explorent des espaces géographiques variés et des formes diverses de mobilité et de circulation en lien avec le travail, les crises économiques et politiques, les pratiques artistiques, les mariages transnationaux ou encore la traite esclavagiste. Ils permettent de saisir comment l'altérité se construit dans différents contextes coloniaux et post-coloniaux, tout en pointant les effets performatifs qui en découlent. Ce dossier s'inscrit dès lors dans les débats en sciences sociales sur la globalisation, les mobilités, l'imbrication des rapports de pouvoir et la fabrique des identités racialisées.

Othering mechanisms and multiple positionings: children of Thai-Belgian couples as viewed in Thailand and Belgium‪

Studies on the so-called “second generation” mainly focus on individuals whose parents are both migrants. This overlooks the situation of the children of “mixed” couples, in which one parent is a migrant and the other a citizen of the country in which they live. These mixed-parentage young people mostly inhabit cross-border social spaces that connect their parents' respective countries of origin. Given this situation, how are these young people viewed in the countries in which they are enmeshed? How do they position themselves in relation to the viewpoints and stereotypes about them in these social spaces that traverse the borders of nation-states? To answer these questions, the present study examines the case of children of Thai-Belgian couples, who are called "luk-kreung" (half-child) in Thailand and "métis" in Belgium. Analysis of the empirical data gathered using qualitative methods shows that the study informants had access to citizenship in both of their parents' countries of origin. Nonetheless, they remained widely subjected to othering due to their phenotypic characteristics, which are perceived as “different” from those of the majority population. This othering prompted them to adopt multiple positioning strategies: invisibilising their ethnic roots, accepting and highlighting their supposed “Otherness”, and acquiring Thai nationality (for those who did not yet have it).

Ethnography in a shell game:

This essay considers ethnography in a social world rife with quotidian duplicity, where the pretense of ongoing sociality must continue even when betrayers have been unmasked and deceptions unraveled. The article follows my unintentional entanglement in a series of confidence schemes in Abidjan to explore the ways in which such scams develop their own agentive force beyond the control of their participants. Driven by the performative efficacy of its own narrative and role-play structure, the frame of duplicity sometimes exceeds the control of its authors. My own participation involved a spectrum of roles progressing from 1) innocent passerby, 2) an unwitting set piece meant to convey legitimacy, 3) an ethically compromised ethnographer, and 4) the target of the scam, all the way through to 5) an active participant in deception- with several of the roles converging at times. Ethnography inside a scam allows for reflection into the role of deception in everyday social interaction, as well as within the engagements of fieldwork itself.

Pourquoi faut-il débrider et hybrider les sciences sociales ?

"Those who died are the ones that are cured". Walking the political tightrope of Nodding Syndrome in northern Uganda: Emerging challenges for research and policy

BACKGROUND: Nodding Syndrome was first reported from Tanzania in the 1960s but appeared as an epidemic in Northern Uganda in the 1990s during the LRA civil war. It is characterized by repetitive head nodding, often followed by other types of seizures, developmental retardation and growth faltering with onset occurring in children aged 5-15 years. More than 50 years after the first reports, the aetiology remains unknown and there is still no cure. The recent hypothesis that Nodding Syndrome is caused by onchocerciasis also increases the relevance of onchocerciasis control. Northern Uganda, with its unique socio-political history, adds challenges to the prevention and treatment for Nodding Syndrome. This article aims to show how and why Nodding Syndrome has been politicised in Uganda; how this politicisation has affected health interventions including research and dissemination; and, the possible implications this can have for disease prevention and treatment. METHODOLOGY: Ethnographic research methods were used triangulating in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, informal conversations and participant observation, for an understanding of the various stakeholders' perceptions of Nodding Syndrome and how these perceptions impact future interventions for prevention, treatment and disease control. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Distrust towards the government was a sentiment that had developed in Northern Uganda over several decades of war and was particularly linked to the political control and ethnic divisions between the north and south. This coincided with the sudden appearance of Nodding Syndrome, an unknown epidemic disease of which the cause could not be clearly identified and optimal treatment had not clearly been established. Additionally, the dissemination of the inconclusive results of research conducted in the area lacked sufficient community involvement which further fueled this political distrust. Disease perceptions revolved around rumours that the entire Acholi ethnic group of the north would be annihilated, or that international researchers were making money by stealing study samples. This discouraged some community members from participating in research or from accepting the mass drug administration of ivermectin for prevention and treatment of onchocerciasis. Such rumour and distrust led to suspicions concerning the integrity of the disseminated results, which may negatively impact future disease management and control interventions. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Trust must be built up gradually through transparency and by de-politicising interventions. This can be done by engaging the community at regular intervals during research and data collection and the dissemination of results in addition to involvement during service delivery for prevention and treatment. Maintaining a regular feedback loop with the community will help control rumours, build trust, and improve the preparations for adequate dissemination.

Constructing, Negotiating, and Performing Chicano Manhood as a Borderland Masculinity

Stigma and epilepsy in onchocerciasis-endemic regions in Africa: A review and recommendations from the onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy working group

Background: In onchocerciasis-endemic areas, particularly in those with a sub-optimal onchocerciasis control programme, a high prevalence of epilepsy is observed. Both onchocerciasis and epilepsy are stigmatizing conditions. The first international workshop on onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy (OAE) was held in Antwerp, Belgium (12-14 October 2017) and during this meeting, an OAE alliance was established. In this paper, we review what is known about epilepsy-associated stigma in onchocerciasis-endemic regions, and present the recommendations of the OAE alliance working group on stigma. Main body: For this scoping review, literature searches were performed on the electronic databases PubMed, Scopus and Science Direct using the search terms "epilepsy AND onchocerciasis AND stigma". Hand searches were also undertaken using Google Scholar, and in total seven papers were identified that addressed epilepsy-related stigma in an onchocercisasis-endemic area. Due to the limited number of published research papers on epilepsy-associated stigma in onchocerciasis-endemic areas, other relevant literature that describes important aspects related to stigma is discussed. The thematic presentation of this scoping review follows key insights on the barriers to alleviating the social consequences of stigma in highly affected onchocerciasis-endemic areas, which were established by experts during the working group on stigma and discrimination at the first international workshop on OAE. These themes are: knowledge gaps, perceived disease aetiology, access to education, marriage restrictions, psycho-social well-being, burden on the care-giver and treatment seeking behaviour. Based on the literature and expert discussions during the OAE working group on stigma, this paper describes important issues regarding epilepsy-related stigma in onchocerciasis-endemic regions and recommends interventions that are needed to reduce stigma and discrimination for the improvement of the psycho-social well-being of persons with epilepsy. Conclusions: Educating healthcare workers and communities about OAE, strengthening onchocerciasis elimination programs, decreasing the anti-epileptic treatment gap, improving the care of epilepsy-related injuries, and prioritising epilepsy research is the way forward to decreasing the stigma associated with epilepsy in onchocerciasis-endemic regions.

Mental health, subjectivity and the city

Ethnography, with its focus on everyday experience, can yield significant insights into understanding migrant mental health in contexts where signs of severe mental distress remain largely imperceptible, and more generally, into how stresses and strains are lived through the spaces, times and affective atmospheres of the city. Migrant ethnography can help us reconsider the oft-made connection between everyday stress and mental ill health. In this contribution, drawing on field evidence in central and peripheral Shanghai, we highlight the importance of attending to the forms of spatial and temporal agency through which migrants actively manage the ways in which the city affects their subjectivity. These everyday subjective practices serve to problematize the very concept of ‘mental health'. The paper engages in a critical dialogue with sociological and epidemiological research that assesses migrant mental health states through the lens of the vulnerability or resilience of this social group, often reducing citiness to a series of environmental ‘stressors'. Distinct from methods ascertaining or arguing against the prevalence of mental disorders among urban migrants, the insight of urban ethnography is to open up a space to explore the mediations that operate dialogically between the city as lived by migrants through particular places and situations and forms of distress.

Inquiries raised by the living

Se faire sur mesure

Sacred objects and transformations of museum ethics: Origins, problems, solutions

The article deals with the problematic of sacred objects in museums. It analyzes the political and intellectual reasons for the transformation of museum ethics in Western countries, and provides examples of the difficulties in dealing with sacred objects. The first section of the article summarizes the historical reasons for the marginal position museums had until recently allocated to religion as a living phenomenon. The second and third sections analyze the reasons for the growing presence of religion in Western museums in the last few decades: first, the rethinking of the relationship between indigenous peoples and their heritage within the framework of decolonization; and, second, the epistemological shifts in the social sciences that have shaped a new understanding of "museum pieces" as social agents. The new museum ethics is therefore based on both the principle of respect for the objects themselves and the recognition of indigenous peoples' rights to a living relationship with their heritage, especially with "sensitive materials", such as religious objects and human remains. Nevertheless, implementing these principles often reveals contradictions between the universalist values of museum work, such as the conservation and the access to heritage, and the particularistic logic of religious and ethnic groups. The fourth part of the article provides examples of some of the difficulties encountered by Western museums in exhibiting, storing and repatriating sacred objects, and describes how they have been dealt with. Finally, the conclusion elaborates on the special position of regional museums in Russia's autochthonous republics in rethinking the religion in museum space and in implementing new museum ethics in dealing with sacred objects.

Interacting legal norms and cross-border divorce: stories of Filipino migrant women in the Netherlands

The Philippines is one of only two states in the world in which absolute divorce remains largely impossible. Through its family laws, it regulates the marriage, family life and conjugal separation of its citizens, including its migrants abroad. To find out how these family laws interact with those in the receiving country of Filipino migrants and shape their lives, the present paper examines the case of Filipino women who experienced or are undergoing divorce in the Netherlands. Drawing from semi-structured interviews and an analysis of selected divorce stories, it unveils the intertwined institutions of marriage and of divorce, the constraints but also possibilities that interacting legal norms bring in the life of Filipino women, and the way these migrants navigate such norms within their transnational social spaces. These findings contribute interesting insights into cross-border divorces in the present age of global migration.

2018

Purity, cleanliness, and smell: female circumcision, embodiment, and discourses among midwives and excisers in Fouta Toro, Senegal

Since the 1980s, a multiplicity of medical, social, and anthropological research has looked into different aspects of female genital cutting (FGC), with outcomes that are used as justifications for, or objections to, different forms of intervention on a global level. Yet there is limited research looking at local indigenous medical knowledge, and how potential health problems resulting from cutting are understood and treated by those who perform female circumcision as a profession. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Fouta Toro, Senegal, this article shows that despite some medical professionals' genuine commitment to stop FGC, their aesthetic notions of cleanliness and repulsion often still conform to dominant discourses and beliefs around purity. This article explores contradictory conceptions of female anatomy, purity, and olfactory differences between excised and unexcised women. It shows that instead of there being a one-dimensional opposition between different forms of knowledge (local/indigenous vs biomedical), as frequently implied in public health messages, people can assimilate seemingly contradictory viewpoints that correspond to their social identities, embodied manners, and the sensory and olfactory perceptions of their social environment.

Report of the first international workshop on onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy

The influence of migration on the educational aspirations of young men in northern Senegal: Implications for policy

Ethnographic data from northern Senegal show that many young men expect to succeed through manual work overseas, and doubt the economic utility of school diplomas, leading to minimal investment in secondary schooling. Popular alternatives are Islamic education, and learning to trade with the possibility of migrating afterwards. Youth who invest in diplomas, and aspire to formal employment in Senegal, tend to be from lower castes lacking migration networks and capital. These findings contradict several assumptions about the relationships between education and particularly irregular migration within Senegal's migration policies, demonstrating that policy-makers should pay more attention to youth's perspectives and agency.

They Prefer White Men: Three Portrayals of Filipina Class and Sexuality by Youtube Users

Women's empowerment or disempowerment?

Introduction. Saisir les transformations des conditions enseignantes dans leur diversité et leur complexité

Reproductive Commodities. Work, joy and creativity in Argentinean Miniature Fairs

This article explores the Kolla cosmology of commodity exchange and creativity in the Argentinean Andes by looking at the circulation of miniatures during the feast day of Saint Anne. An ethnographic description of miniature fairs discloses a complex transactional system involving different entities and fields of action, which creates an extension of the devotee's subjectivity in space and time. The cosmoeconomics of Saint Anne fairs stress the importance of fuerza (life strength) and alegría (joy) as key values channelled by miniatures circulation, across the mundane and spiritual worlds. In this light, the increased amount of work encapsulated in delightful miniatures is interpreted as a local form of sacrifice to non-human entities, ultimately intended to enhance human creative potential. In its whole, the paper points to the fruitfulness of a cosmoeconomics approach to explore the entanglement between the creation of moral and material values in this Andean context.

Interspecies Respect and Potato Conservation in the Peruvian Cradle of Domestication

This paper explores people and tuber affective encounters, as they unfold in a biodiversity conservation programme in the Peruvian Andes. It draws on ethnographic data from the Potato Park, renowned worldwide as one of the most successful in-situ initiatives for the conservation of biocultural diversity. Concerned with interspecies relations, the paper focusses on the circulation of respeto that is both an affect and a normative stance posited locally as necessary for the conservation of the potato. Addressing first expressions of respeto in daily potato practices by highland peasants, the paper then explores its importance within the context of the Park's conservation policy. Agricultural investigations and seed-banking are indeed enmeshed in activities intended to intensify potato-people regard. Throughout the paper, the concept of non-human charisma is used to point out the different kinds of potato appraisals experienced in the Park; as well as how the Park concretely works toward human beings' learning 'how to be affected' by tuber agrobiodiversity. The article finally explains how potato affective agency is extended beyond the Park, to reach the international scene. Exploring the Potato Park from the perspective of respeto, and using charisma as a heuristic tool, it enlightens a mode of conservation initiative; creating flourishing ecologies through affective encounters, that cannot be accounted for with an instrumental approach.

The blackfly vectors and transmission of Onchocerca volvulus in Mahenge, south eastern Tanzania

Addressing FGM with multidisciplinary care

Dean Worcester's Fantasy Islands

Étudier l'État au prisme du genre : réflexions éthiques et méthodologiques transatlantiques

De la nostalgie comme vecteur d'utopie : le cas du retour à l'activité rurale dans le Massif central

The Affectiveness of Symbols: Materiality, Magicality, and the Limits of the Antisemiotic Turn

In response to an oft-encountered stance against semiotic or symbolic analysis in current anthropological theory, I argue for a broader understanding of semiosis as inherently both affective and material. Affect theory and new materialism move away from conceptualizations of human subjectivity and cultural construction and toward an ontological framework focused on material entities and vital flows. By meshing their language with that of classic symbolic anthropology, I demonstrate how the materiality of symbols produces and transmits affect and that, indeed, the efficacy of ritual is based on the manipulation of affect. Rather than thinking of signs as delimited representations fixed in structures, I emphasize their indeterminacy and ambiguity as the source of their social efficacy. Drawing on my research on affectively charged material objects in the storage spaces of US homes, I demonstrate that the affective force of these things stems from their open-ended and often unrecognized chains of semiotic associations. Ultimately, I present semiotic affect as a way to return to theorizing the social as an intercorporeal force that precedes the conscious determination of the subject.

Between 'face' and 'faceless' relationships in China's public places

Based on thorough ethnographic descriptions, this article analyses retirees' collective activities in Beijing public parks where co-presence and interactions between formerly unacquainted individuals have evolved into achieved relations of familiarity and friendship. Focusing on how people define, enact and manage the relationships with those they ‘have fun' with, I show that the forms of mutual knowing developed through joint participation often blur the boundaries between the private, parochial and public realms on the one hand, and between community and anonymity on the other hand. While the urban experience in the Chinese context has been viewed as constituted through both ‘face' (i.e. communitarian) and ‘faceless' (i.e. anonymous) interactions, I argue that these are but two conceptual poles which cannot exhaust the complex nature of social relationships that arise from urban encounters. Activity-orientated friendships in Beijing parks involve wide-ranging forms of mutual knowing, which shape a pleasurable urban experience as much as they are infused with the ‘ethics of indifference' peculiar to city living. As retirees initiate and sustain pleasurable interactions, these forms of sociality do not entail tight reciprocal commitments. Instead of viewing the situations in which friendships are produced as an instantiation of the ‘broader contexts' in which they are embedded, I suggest that these everyday spatial practices and convivial interactions should be considered for their intrinsic analytical value rather than as a response to external processes.

Uncontained accumulation: Hidden heterotopias of storage and spillage

Domestic storage spaces are containers for the concealment of things whose value is inarticulable. Unlike the curation of collections, material accumulations grow of their own accord, accruing mass and animacy and inserting their affective hooks into the tissue of our sociality. Those who fail to contain accumulations are labelled hoarders.

La précarité : un analyseur des chantiers dans les sciences sociales critiques

Overview on a grounded précarité

Transmission intergénérationnelle et pratiques linguistiques plurielles dans les familles belgo-philippines en Belgique

Les familles « mixtes » des migrants philippins en Belgique offrent un terrain d'étude intéressant d'un point de vue empirique car les Philippines sont un pays multilingue où sont actuellement parlées plus de 100 langues différentes, tandis que la Belgique est quant à elle un pays plurilingue divisé en trois communautés linguistiques. Du fait de ces contextes sociolinguistiques pluriels, on peut s'attendre à ce que les couples belgo-philippins adoptent un comportement ouvert vis-à-vis de la question de la transmission linguistique. Est-ce vraiment le cas ? Quelles pratiques linguistiques observe-t-on dans ces familles ? Dans quelle mesure ces pratiques affectent-t-elles les enfants ? Analysant les données recueillies à travers des observations participantes et des entretiens des membres des familles belgo-philippines, le présent article montre que les interactions des facteurs macro-, meso- et micro-sociaux à différents niveaux de la vie des familles belgo-philippines se traduisent par des pratiques linguistiques plurielles au sein de leur foyer, ce qui semble suggérer un comportement linguistique ouvert. De plus, il révèle que la transmission linguistique intergénérationnelle n'agit pas seule dans la construction identitaire des enfants de couples belgo-philippins mais s'imbrique avec d'autres processus sociaux, comme l'altérisation, pendant lesquels des « catégories de différences » se chevauchent, entraînant des expériences socioculturelles diverses.

Raising citizens in ‘mixed' family setting: mothering techniques of Filipino and Thai migrants in Belgium

As states increasingly regulate ‘mixed' family formation, self-positioning has become central to the lives of migrant spouses, including women. To understand this process, the present article investigates the mothering techniques of Filipino and Thai migrant women in Belgium, that is, the decisions, actions and ways of being they consciously enact in response to state policies ‘here' and/or 'there' to secure the mother-child bond in space and time. Interviews and observations reveal these women's main techniques: obtaining Belgian nationality for themselves, prioritising a single nationality (Belgian) for their children and staying at home (in the case of Filipino migrant women) or working (in the case of Thai women). This self-positioning sets these women's own path and prepare their children's route towards full, active membership in the nation. Mothering appears therefore as a fertile site of citizenship, which from afar echoes the public-private divide but in close-up reveals the porosity of such dichotomy.