Abstract
Being a part of our sociocultural history, stories and narratives help us make sense of our lifeworlds. Stories, rumors, and conspiracy theories offer deep meanings when analyzed in specific contexts, and prominently appear in the face of looming uncertainties, anxieties, and fears. Similarly, many narratives have surrounded the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic at the global and local levels as people try to make sense of this invisibly spreading virus and its multidimensional effects. Drawing on the media reports, I show and analyze global-level narratives that reveal geopolitics in play. To present the local level narratives in Pakistan, I build on my long-term ethnographic fieldwork, recent telephone interviews, and content analysis to discuss why these tales emerge and spread. As the pandemic unfolded, local people started drinking "miraculous" tea as a form of prevention, shaving their heads, and/or praying to God to undo His "punishment" and conceptualizing the pandemic as an invented "plot." With my analyses, I compare the "viral rumors" with the virus and argue that these narratives are social phenomena, carrying multiple meanings that need the thorough attention of social scientists, for example, anthropologists, just as we need experts to study a virus.
Highlights
Being a part of our sociocultural history, stories and narratives help us make sense of our lifeworlds
When these narratives take the form of rumors and conspiracy theories, it is indispensable to document them for a thorough understanding of how people make sense of a looming threat, and most crucial to question the underlying reasons for these speculations and their impacts on the preparedness programs: Why do these narratives start and what do they reveal? How do people culturally construct, generate meanings, and negotiate the outbreaks of disease, COVID-19? What implications will these have on programs of preparedness at a local, national, and global level?
Studying viral rumors and conspiracy theories is as crucial as researching the virus to lucidly comprehend the content, sources, modes of spread, and impacts of these narratives
Summary
Being a part of our sociocultural history, stories and narratives help us make sense of our lifeworlds. Before the invention of writing, tales were the best sources to preserve and share specific meanings.[1] Narratives are social phenomena, and many are created and reworked to make sense of and to deal with uncertain and challenging situations The rapidity of their spread reveals the intensity of the challenge faced. People brainstorm probable causes of COVID-19 and circulate advice about preventions and “cures,” and at all levels, rumors have spread about the potential agents behind this virus When these narratives take the form of rumors and conspiracy theories, it is indispensable to document them for a thorough understanding of how people make sense of a looming threat, and most crucial to question the underlying reasons for these speculations and their impacts on the preparedness programs: Why do these narratives start and what do they reveal? Studying viral rumors and conspiracy theories is as crucial as researching the virus to lucidly comprehend the content, sources, modes of spread, and impacts of these narratives
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