Introduction: blood will out

Abstract

What is blood? The many meanings of blood vividly attest to its polyvalent qualities and its unusual capacity for accruing layers of symbolic resonance. Life and death; nurturance and violence; connection and exclusion; kinship and sacrifice – the associations multiply, flowing between domains in a quite uncontainable manner. Whether expressed in the rhetoric of familial, racial, ethnic, or national exclusion, or in calls to violent action, idioms of blood often have exceptional emotional force. Drawing together the historical and ethnographic case studies presented in this volume – from the literal presence of blood in spaces of blood donation to the metaphorical deployment of sanguinary idioms in depictions of the economy – this introduction examines blood's special qualities as bodily substance, material, and metaphor. In sketching out a ‘theory of blood’, it suggests why such a comparative undertaking might be of value.

(In)visible Blood: menstrual performances and body art

“…In her discussion, she stresses the interpenetration of the metaphorical and literal meanings of blood, observing that blood has some special material qualities (besides just color) such as liquidity and fungibility, that lend it an "unusual capacity for accruing layers of symbolic resonance" (Carsten 2013: S1).…”

“…Departing from the exceptional emotional force behind idioms of blood (Carsten 2013), we would also like to highlight some of the processes that are helping to re-frame menstrual blood as a potent aesthetic and political agent.…”

Muslim Modernities: Interdisciplinary Insights Across Time and Space1

“…He observed that "the Sultans of Sulu and Maguindanao, and many of the leading men recognized at once what such a request [for Muslim teachers] meant, and were overjoyed." 48 Indeed, the pursuit of "modern Mohammedanism" would help to counteract "vicious habits" such as "running amuck and taking the magsabil or juramentado-to kill 44 47 Finley, "A Review of the Moro Petition," 4; Finley, "The Mohammedan Problem in the Philippines," 360. 48 Finley, "The Mohammedan Problem in the Philippines," 360-2.…”

“…10 In 1902, when the Sultan of Kelantan reflected on this period, he described it as one of "friendship [with], but not of subjection" to Siam. 11 In the 1780s, however, this period of "friendship" gave way to a rapid sequence of new developments, all of which made the tributaries targets for expansionist powers and threatened to erode their independence. 18 These early approaches, however, were not reciprocated by Britain, whose officials later claimed not to have understood the nature of peninsular tributary politics.…”

“…10 A protracted forty year war of conquest and pacification waged by Dutch invading forces against the Muslim kingdom of Aceh in the far northwest corner of what would become Indonesia brought a staggering toll of destruction, costing the lives of 75,000, or fifteen percent of the local population. 11 Meanwhile about three thousand kilometers away across the littoral spaces the specter of the solitary martyr, a lone assailant motivated by perang sabil recitations who performed ritual ablutions and swore an oath to God before ambushing unsuspecting Dutch or Spanish or American troops with a deadly blade, killing as many as he could before meeting his inevitable reward of death and eternal salvation amid a hail of bullets. 16 This relatively infrequent attack, known…”