Dear all,
I am delighted to share the next Anthro Talk seminar, University of Birmingham, of the semester.
Farhan Samanani, UCL
Cyphers of Britishness: Indirectness, colonial interests, and a new anthropology of Britain
Wednesday, 12 October, 3:15-4:45 pm via Zoom
Register in advance: https://bham-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvdeygqjopGtOXOqjqt1mRiw0g94ZIqiNG
ABSTRACT
Although the anthropology of Britain is now a rich, lively and well-established field, very little anthropological work substantively examines Britishness itself. Instead, anthropologists studying the UK have focused on tracing the particularities of distinctive communities, irreducible individuals, or particular areas; on the discursive construction of national identity; on Britain as socio-economic context for political inequities and struggles; and/or on British culture as synonymous with modern, western individualism. An understanding of Britishness as a distinctive cultural orientation จC even one which is not unchanging or deterministic, but a matter of history and practice จC has largely fallen between the cracks of these approaches.
In this paper, I hope to develop two claims. First, I argue that this lack of a substantial cultural account may, in certain ways, be an artefact of Britishness itself. That is to say, the very intellectual tools that have enabled anthropologists to focus on situated particularities, the workings of governmental and discursive power, and so on, may be shaped by a particularly British set of interests. Where anthropologists have sought to provincialize Europe by conducting ethnography in the UK, this argument reaches further and seeks to provincialize the dominant preoccupations of anthropology itself.
Secondly, I attempt to make a partial contribution towards the sort of cultural account I argue is lacking, by focusing on the crucial, mediating role of indirectness in British ethical and political life กช that is, in the way the British articulate and pursue their interests. I do so with particular attention towards British slavery and imperialism จC touching on both their historical emergence, as well as their contemporary legacies. To do so, I draw on a combination of historical and ethnographic data. Historically, I examine how colonial interests often came to be represented, or championed indirectly. And ethnographically, I examine how forms of indirectness and tacit knowledge continue to play a pivotal role in British politics today จC shaping ideas of authenticity, possibility and belonging. By examining how indirectness informs a distinctively British political and ethical imagination, I attempt to account for the success of a brutal colonial project, within a nation that positioned itself as a beacon of civilisation, and for the stubborn inability to confront the legacies of this project today.
Best wishes,
Leslie
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Dr. Leslie Fesenmyer
Assistant Professor in Social Anthropology and African Studies
Principal Investigator, Kenya Project/ ERC Research Fellow, Multi-religious encounters in urban settings (2019-2025)
University of Birmingham
Birmingham B15 2TT
Publications:
(2022). Ambivalent belonging: Born-again Christians between Africa and Europe. Journal of Religion in Africa.
(2020) กฎLiving as Londoners doกฏ: bornฉ\again Christians in convivial East London. Social Anthropology 28(2): 402-417.
(2020) Crossing religious and ethnographic boundaries จC the case for comparative reflection with co-editors Ammara Maqsood and Giulia Liberatore Social Anthropology. Special issue. 28(2) 386-401.
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