Acting with things

Ishii, Miho

doi:10.14318/hau2.2.019

Cited by 32 publications

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“…The term indicates the chiasmic relation between an actor and its umwelt, as well as its transformations; the characteristics of the umwelt are specified and transformed by a certain mode of action, and at the same time, the mode of the act is specified by the characteristics of the umwelt that emerges in the action (see Kawamoto 2006, pp. 82-83;Ishii 2012).…”

Section: Deleuze Writesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modernity and Spirit Worship in India

Ishii¹

2019

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This book investigates the entangled relations between people's daily worship practices and their umwelt in South India. Focusing on the practices of spirit (būta) worship in the coastal area of Karnataka, it examines the relationship between people and deities.Based on extensive fieldwork, this book links important anthropological theories on personhood, perspectives, transactions, and gift-exchanges together with the Gestaltkreis theory of Viktor von Weizsäcker. First, it examines the relations between būta worship and land tenure, matriliny, and hierarchy in the society. It then explores the reflexive relationship between modern law and current practices based on conventional law, before examining new developments in būta worship with the rise of mega-industries and environmental movements. Furthermore, this book sheds light on the struggles and endeavours of the people who create and recreate their relations with the realm of sacred wildness, as well as the formations and transformations of the umwelt in perpetual social-political transition.Modernity and Spirit Worship in India will be of interest to academics in the field of anthropology, religious studies and the dynamics of religion, and South Asian Culture and Society. List of illustrationsvii Preface ix 1 Introduction: towards an anthropology of the umwelt PART ONE Humans and the wild śakti of deities 2 The land of paddy fields, forests, and deities 3 The būta shrine and deities in Perar 4 Pāḍdana: the oral epics of deities 5 Dances, oracles, and blessings in the ritual 6 The transaction of wild śakti 7 Playing with perspectives PART TWO Social transformations and the emergence of a new umwelt 8 Būta's agency in conflicts over the village shrine 9 Historical changes in land tenure in South Kanara 10 Modern law, customary law, and the reflexive imagination 11 Land reforms and deities as the 'owners of land' 12 Būtas in the midst of the development project Contents vi Contents 13 The new umwelt in the industrial plant 14 Conclusion: being, pathos, and the umwelt Glossary Bibliography IndexIn the month of māyi during the hottest and driest season, būta rituals are held in many villages in South Kanara, a coastal area in Karnataka. 1 Accompanied by drums and wind instruments played by Puruṣa musicians, spirit mediums of the Pambada or Nalike castes dance around the precincts of local shrines, issue oracles, and interact with people.As apotheosised local heroes or heroines or as the spirits of wild animals dwelling in forests, būtas are generally regarded as deities. While būtas may travel across regions, they are generally believed to be closely linked to the land and nature of localities. Though normally invisible, their power, or śakti, 2 fills the deep forests, hangs over the bush and ponds, and circulates through the woods, agricultural fields, and villages. Consequently, būtas are considered to originate from-and embody-a realm of sacred wildness.Fieldwork for this monograph was mainly carried out in the two adjoining villages of Mudu Perar and Padu ...

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Section: Deleuze Writesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Actuality arises only between itself and virtuality, or as its difference from virtuality. See also Ishii (2012).…”

Section: Deleuze Writesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modernity and Spirit Worship in India

Ishii¹

2019

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“…For example, Marshall (2009) begins her study of Nigerian Pentecostalism by claiming: "Whether religion is seen as symbolic, metaphoric, or metonymic, or even in terms of an imaginary, it is more or less reduced to its function of signification, forgetting that it is, perhaps above all, a site of action, invested in and appropriated by believers" (Marshall, 2009, p. 22, emphasis in original). This more phenomenological approach tries to abandon semiotics by shifting its attention from meaning to practice (Ingold, 2000) or to ontology (Ishii, 2012), with the implicit aim of addressing the epistemological paradox of the rationality debate.…”

Section: Ontology Phenomenology and Semioticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More broadly, such interpretive perception and resulting action depends both epistemologically and ontologically on the human experience of, and interaction with, the wider world (Ishii, 2012), which establishes that something is present. In practice, and as part of presencing as characterized so far, people in the Commune of Cobly visually perceive a stone or a heap of stones at the foot of a tree or in the mountains.…”

Section: Presencing As Experience and Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on the discussion so far, presencing not only attributes semiotic and representational meaning through perception and interpretation, but also makes entities present and accessible in the world through action and interaction (Ishii, 2012). People in the Commune of Cobly, for example, see stones on a regular basis.…”

Section: Presencing As Experience and Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Making Meaning Present: Semiotics and the Ontological Life of Stones in West Africa

Merz

2017

SMC

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Semiotics, which is a foundational principle of scientific thought, has also shaped anthropology's understanding of live stones that serve as shrines in the savannah region of West Africa, such as in the Commune of Cobly of northwestern Benin. Semiotics either reduce live stones and other religious and ontological phenomena to a function of signification or they recast them as semiotic anomalies attributable to the Other. Either way leads to an epistemological paradox in which such phenomena can be rationally understood yet existentially denied. I propose to counter this by introducing a new type of entity, which I call the "onton." Building on the notion of presence and the anthropology of ontology, I understand ontons as indivisible and non-representational entities that cannot be broken down into different sign components. Ontons are more than meaningful; they are made present in the world when other entities relate to them through the process of presencing that shifts the focus from meaning to action. Presencing, which builds on semiotics, is guided by different practices, which, in turn, can account for ontological diversity and differentiation. I claim that presencing, which allows for ontonic entities, leads to a deeper understanding of ontology and human experience more broadly. Meaning as a basis for communication is thus extended to include presence as a basis for a wider engagement with the world, thereby breaking down difference between humans, animals and things.

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Color, Song, and Choice Diction: Using Chromomancy to Summon Worlds

Mizer

2019

Tabletop Role-Playing Games and the Experience of Imagined Worlds

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Acting with things

Cited by 32 publications

References 10 publications

Modernity and Spirit Worship in India

Modernity and Spirit Worship in India

Making Meaning Present: Semiotics and the Ontological Life of Stones in West Africa

Color, Song, and Choice Diction: Using Chromomancy to Summon Worlds

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