Abstract

This article explores the sounds of trauma in anthropology. I ask: when, where, and under what circumstances do unmoored sounds and voices gain salience in anthropology? In particular, can methodological insights prepare anthropologists for the intense military scrutiny that societies endure in violent borderlands? Recalling the long tradition of orality in anthropology, I suggest that the slippery registers of sound and voice in trauma is generative not only of location and culture, but also of a perennial sense of dislocation. Writing anthropology demands the iterative re-dwelling and reliving of sound and voice that continually haunt, emerge, flow, and resurface across different stages of ethnographic labour. Disembodied sounds and voices generate indescribable languages. Based on my long term ethnographic fieldwork in the Northeast India-Bangladesh borderlands, I show how sensory modalities not only nourish divergent possibilities of meaning and emplacement but also register impasses of interpretation and displacement.

Highlights

  • ABSTRACT | This article explores the sounds of trauma in anthropology

  • A new battalion of troops had recently to quell the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), a revolutionary organization demanding an independent state of Assam

  • During my fieldwork Muslim, Christian, and Hindu border societies all related to the metaphysical in the form of disembodied voices

Read more

Summary

Introduction

ABSTRACT | This article explores the sounds of trauma in anthropology. I ask: when, where, and under what circumstances do unmoored sounds and voices gain salience in anthropology? In particular, can methodological insights prepare anthropologists for the intense military scrutiny that societies endure in violent borderlands? Recalling the long tradition of orality in anthropology, I suggest that the slippery registers of sound and voice in trauma is generative of location and culture, and of a perennial sense of dislocation. From within an Indian border outpost in Assam in May 2007, two months into my dissertation fieldwork, I stared at India’s newly constructed border fence with Bangladesh. The heavy footsteps of troops, screeching sirens from patrolling jeeps, and the baritone voices of commanders dominated the landscape. Often for weeks, I had no phone connectivity in the Indian villages that were located within three miles of the border.

Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.