Narratives of Uncertainty: The Affective Force of Child-Trafficking Rumors in Postdisaster Aceh, Indonesia

Abstract

In this article, I focus on the effects and affects of the child-trafficking rumors that have circulated after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia. The perpetual uncertainty about the truth of the rumors has inserted alternative, uncertain futures into parents' narratives of loss. I argue that to grasp such a condition of uncertainty ethnographically, we have to attend not only to what rumors reveal about a particular sociopolitical context but also to the ways in which they affect the lives of our interlocutors. Doing so allows us to inquire into both the conditions in which particular rumors acquire affective power and the emotional effects of the possible truth that they articulate. I further suggest that focusing on rumor's subjunctive mode, the uncertainty about what happened and how that could affect the future, attunes us to the uneasy space between knowledge and belief in which rumors operate. [rumor, narrative, affect, disaster, child trafficking, Indian Ocean tsunami, Indonesia] ABSTRAK Pada artikel ini, saya berfokus pada dampak emosional tentang rumor perdagangan anak yang beredar paska-tsunami Samudera Hindia yang melanda Aceh, Indonesia, tahun 2004 lalu. Ketidakpastian tentang kebenaran rumor tersebut telah memasukkan pandangan masa depan yang tidak pasti dalam narasi-narasi para orang tua yang kehilangan anak-anaknya. Saya berpendapat bahwa untuk memahami kondisi ketidakpastian secara etnografis, sebaiknya kita tidak hanya berfokus kepada bagaimana rumor tersebut dapat mengungkapkan konteks sosial-politik tertentu, tetapi juga kepada bagaimana isu tersebut mempengaruhi kehidupan mereka. Hal ini dapat membantu kita menyelidiki baik kondisi di mana beberapa rumor tertentu memperoleh daya emosi maupun efek emosional yang diakibatkan kemungkinan kebenaran yang mereka artikulasikan. Lebih jauh lagi, saya menyarankan bahwa fokus kepada modus subjungtif rumor, yaitu pada ketidakpastian tentang apa yang terjadi dan bagaimana hal itu dapat mempengaruhi masa depan, dapat membawa kita ke ruang gelisah antara pengetahuan dan keyakinan di mana rumor tersebut beredar. [rumor, narasi, emosi, bencana, perdagangan anak, tsunami Samudera Hindia, Indonesia] RESUMEN En este artículo, me enfoco en los efectos y afectos de los rumores sobre tráfico de niños que han circulado después del maremoto del Océano Indico en Aceh, Indonesia. La perpetua incertidumbre sobre la verdad de los rumores ha introducido futuros inciertos alternativos en las narrativas de pérdida de los padres. Argumento que para comprender tal condición de incertidumbre etnográficamente, tenemos que prestar atencion no solamente a lo que los rumores revelan sobre un contexto sociopolítico particular, sino también a las formas en que ellos afectan las vidas de nuestros interlocutores. El hacer esto nos permite investigar tanto las condiciones en las cuales rumores particulares adquieren poder afectivo como también los efectos emocionales de la posible verdad que ellos articulan.Además sugiero que centrándose en el modo subjuntivo del r...

Living in a Makeshift World? Mobility, Temporariness, and Everyday Life in Indonesia

“…The tone in which the unnamed woman talks about her “child‐like” husband, or the singing voices “confirming” the status of Riki Wijaya's church, add to my argument in significant ways. At another level, the focus on sensory experience must be enriched with sensitivity to what is not articulated or not visible (see Samuels ). In the case of Ah Liang, it is the very lack of effective communication that turns out to be analytically productive.…”

Towards a socially situated rumouring: Historical and critical perspectives of rumour transmission

“…This rumour, which suspected that the Jews were responsible for the sickness, originated in France and spread across the whole of Europe over a period of two years (see Shibutani, 1966). Indeed, rumours are fascinating phenomena that have aroused the interest of scholars for several decades in various social sciences, such as anthropology (e.g., Samuels, 2015; Subramaniam, 1999), communications (e.g., Froissart, 1995; Garrett, 2011), sociology (e.g., Junker, 2018; Peterson & Gist, 1951), marketing (e.g., Abdelkader & Mohamed, 2018; Dubois, Rucker, & Tormala, 2011), and also crisis management (e.g., Roux‐Dufort & Pauchant, 1993; Weick, 1995).…”

“This Path Is Full of Thorns”: Narrative, Subjunctivity, and HIV in Indonesia

“…Anthropologists show that the subjunctive may be an explicit characteristic of narratives (e.g., Good ). The uncertainty, the “might‐be,” of subjunctivity may be unwanted, a result of unequal power relations (Pinto ) or haunting rumors (Samuels ). At the same time, rather than settling on one realist account of the world, those who tell stories may also be highly committed to leaving possibilities open, employing what Good and Good () have called “subjunctivizing tactics.” Such tactics may express a desire for alternative outcomes and the imagination of multiple possibilities (Good , 155; see also Mattingly , 122–49).…”