The state as metonym of the self

n the most recent edition (38.3) of American Ethnologist, which I’m just getting around to reading, I see this very interesting notion of the state as a metonym for the self.

It is worth considering the subjectivity that informs an understanding of one’s actions as heroic. I believe it is best described by what Gayatri Spivak (2004) calls the ability to “metonymize” the self, to imagine the self in an active relationship with the state, the opposite of…

Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory

There is a cult radio show in the United States, ruling among the urban youth. (It’s funny to write about the First World with phraseology usually reserved for the Third). A few Saturdays ago,…

Describing Tradition: A Problem in Anthropological Method

It's that time of year again. Mitsusawa High Town, the condominium complex in Yokohama, where my wife and I have lived since coming to Japan in 1980, has once again held its annual omochitsuki (pounding of the rice cakes). On Saturday I pitched in and helped to pull the necessary equipment out of the storage shed and get it washed and ready for use. That was a job for the men to do, outside, scrubbing and rinsing with cold water. Inside the High Town's public meeting room women…

An impression of the Arab contributions at the Venice Biennial 2011

http://fhs1973.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/an-impression-of-the-arab-contributions-at-the-venice-biennal-2011/

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