Cultural Activism Research Articles

A Gladdening Vision of a Dancing Christ: Findings of a Ritual Ethnography of Intercultural Icons

The cultural renaissance in 20th-century India has fostered an aesthetic integration of contemplative mysticism with popular religious practices, influencing various artistic and theological movements. This paper examines Christian artist Joy Elamkunnapuzha’s use of Indian classical and mythical elements in his religious artworks, particularly in two North Indian churches. These intercultural icons, which incorporate symbols from Hindu traditions like mandalas and mudras, have been central to the worship practices of local Catholic communities for over three decades. Through ritual ethnography, the study reveals how these visual representations mediate ritual affectivity and communal imagination, impacting identity formation and spiritual engagement in a multi-religious context. Respondents—including worshippers, ministers, and religious students—attest to the transformative impact of these images, as they negotiate between Christian metaphors and Hindu aesthetic traditions. The research is grounded in practical theology, liturgical theology, and ritual studies, contributing to the works of Indian Christian cultural activists like Jyoti Sahi. By exploring the creative dynamics of visual approach, visual appeal, and visual affinity within worship spaces, the study elucidates the complex processes of meaning making through symbolic mediation in interreligious environments.

Shared anthropology of the Middle East: Essays on media in honor of Faye Ginsburg

AbstractThe articles in this special issue are the outcome of the panel: “Papers in Honor of Faye Ginsburg: Visual and Media Anthropology in the Middle East,” which was held virtually for the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings of November 2021. The reach of Ginsburg's work as well as her mentorship through the creation of NYU's Graduate Program in Culture & Media has shaped the ethnography of media and visual anthropology across a diversity of geographic regions. In this particular issue, we bring together scholars of SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa, a term that more broadly encompasses what is often referred to as the Middle East) whose projects are deeply influenced by Ginsburg's scholarship on shared anthropology, collaborative media practices and cultural activism. This introduction includes excerpts from a conversation with Ginsburg.

Singing songs for a secular society? The elusive politics of cultural activism in contemporary Bangladesh

Abstract In Bangladesh, many secularists pursue their political goals through cultural activism. While committed to achieving a secular, progressive, and non-communal society, they often refrain from explicitly articulating their politics due to the sensitivity of their goals. Instead, cultural performances allow them to instantiate and embody a secular ethos with transformative potential, expressed through distinct cultural genres that become recognized as secular aesthetics. While activists consider culture to be a morally superior and ‘purer’ way to promote their political aims than party politics, which they perceive as ‘dirty’ and corrupt, cultural traditions are hardly neutral ground from which to enact secular aspirations. This article explores the ethical struggles that emerge from this position to illuminate what it means to act politically while trying to avoid politics, and why people might choose comparatively elusive forms of political engagement despite their strong commitment to a cause. Attending to less tangible forms of politics encourages us to rethink the role of political messages and visibility in social movements by highlighting the significant role, as well as contradictory implications, of aesthetics, embodiment, and gestures in political action. Conversely, the elusive politics of cultural activism underlines the need to go beyond analysing national discourses to understand the contested nature of secularism in Bangladesh.

Becoming cultural and disability activists who challenge dominant narratives: The parallax effect of survivors of chemical warfare in Iran

AbstractThis article discusses how Faye Ginsburg's work on ethnographic filmmaking, cultural activism, disability studies, and the parallax effect inspired me to collaborate over two decades with survivors of chemical warfare in Iran and Iraq. In order to continue to advocate for their needs for subsidized medical treatment, survivors of chemical weapons in Iran took up disability rights and carved out an important spaces as cultural activists to advocate for peace over war. Their creation of the Tehran Peace Museum and the many attendant media products it has produced, serve as an important parallax effect that has been instrumental in making critical dents into the extremely well‐funded state produced media about the war in Iran.

사운드스케이프 개념에서 본 지역문화자원의 관광콘텐츠 활용 방안 연구: 국립대관령치유의숲을 중심으로

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the concept of soundscape through its ecological, social, and cultural characteristics, exploring its value as a local cultural resource and strategizing its utilization as a region-specific resource. This study highlighted the significance of soundscapes as local resources, emphasizing their integration with regional cultural assets and proposing strategies for their expansion and future use to enhance regional interaction. Methods: The study was conducted through field research and focus group interviews (FGI) at the National Center for Forest Therapy, Daegwallyeong, targeting six local cultural activists in the arts sector from August 2, 2021, to December 20, 2021. This study explored the potential connections and utilization strategies between soundscapes and local cultural resources, based on theoretical considerations. Results: The findings revealed a connectivity between local cultural resources and soundscapes. Soundscapes interact with the history, traditions, and cultural activities of communities, suggesting that they can serve as unique tourism content that enhances a region's identity and competitiveness, offering various uses and value. Secondly, soundscapes serve as a bridge between a region's past and present, highlighting their potential for expansion as a local cultural resource. From this foundation, key discussions on scalability generated practical and applicable ideas for using soundscapes as tourism attractions. Conclusion: This research identified a positive correlation between utilizing soundscapes and enhancing regional identity and competitiveness, as well as stimulating the local economy through tourism.

La cerimònia dels Jocs Florals i la «glorificació» dels poetes catalans morts: del Parc de la Ciutadella al «Parc del Renaixement»

In 1908, the poet and publisher Francesc Matheu proposed the permanent public “glorification” of a group of Catalan poets he considered symbols of Catalonia’s 19th-century literary renaissance, through the installation of a series of monumental busts in Barcelona’s Ciutadella Park, continuing thereby the initiative to erect there a monument to Bonaventura Carles Aribau in 1884. The proposal resulted in the unveiling of six busts between 1908 and 1913 with the aim to transform a space that had been a symbol of the military repression of the city into a site of memory for the movement known as Renaixença resorting to the symbolic capital of the Jocs Florals as a pacifying and “civilising” device. This article aims to analyse the controversies triggered by Matheu’s proposal and the forcefulness with which it was questioned by the different political and cultural actors in the context of the Solidaritat Catalana movement, the political campaign that would culminate in the constitution of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya in 1914, and the construction of the “ideal Barcelona” as the capital of the imagined “Catalunya-Ciutat”.

Median line: A century of border violence and the alluvial geopolitics of the Evros/Meriç/Maritsa River border

AbstractThe border river of the Evros/Meriç/Maritsa has been shaped during the century since its demarcation by the Lausanne peace treaty. Over this period, a dense overlap of environmental, geopolitical, legal and cultural actors has turned it into both a riverised border and a borderised river. The border regime appropriates the riverine characteristics of flow, erosion, mud, turbulence and fog as much as it is founded on military technology, international law, agricultural and conservation practices, resource logistics, border crossing and the denial thereof. Here, the river's movement of sand and alluvium has become an agent in the policing of the river border. Drawing on interviews with asylum seekers, locals, forensic pathologists, legal scholars and fish scientists, this paper weaves field research, primarily undertaken on the Greek side, with a historic and ecosystemic perspective of a century‐old border that has become a hotspot for violent practices. These practices themselves harness the uncertain physical conditions that the riverscape affords. In this article we argue that the disjunctures of the river's dynamic geomorphology and the history of demarcation of the median line frame the contemporary politics of mobility of those illegalised by the border regime. In the ambiguous territorial pockets produced by the movement of the river away from the median line of 1926, islands of hyperlegality have been produced where state violence takes place with impunity.

Pesantren Intellectual Activism Outside of Islam and Muslims: Study of the Jalan Dakwah Pesantren (2016) Documentary Film

This research tries to reexamine the meaning of Pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) as inclusive spaces by reinterpreting the film Jalan Dakwah Pesantren (2016). As a prophetic space born from a long process of Indonesian cultural and educational history, Pesantren is often attached simply as a label for traditional Islamic education and ignores its role outside of Islam, which also uses the Pesantren education model. This article strengthens the historical perspective of ​​ Pesantren as inclusive spaces that can be used and applied by people outside of Islam and Muslims in Indonesia and the world. This research uses an interdisciplinary approach (interdisciplinary studies), including literature reviews and in-depth interviews, by exploring relevant historical forms of Indonesian educational experience, starting from Hindu, Buddhist, and Kapitayan education to Islam in the Archipelago and then similar models in other parts of the world. This research shows that the normalization of Pesantren traditions as intellectual activism has been widely absorbed by cultural actors outside of Islam and Muslims as a basis for deepening character and insight. Pesantrens, as examples of education, have been in the position of cross-cultural institutions and carry out the mission of transmitting religious and cultural knowledge outside of Islam.

How to think about the instrumental politics of mass rape: a critical appraisal of feminist approaches

ABSTRACT Mass rape and other forms of sexual violence in ethnic conflict, as their incidence in Bosnian and Kosovo wars in former Yugoslavia showed in the 1990s, cannot be relativised along some strategy of either ‘victimization’ or ‘everyone is guilty’ within an antiquated framework of ethnic-religious hatred. In this case as in others, the local notions of honour and blood cannot be taken uncritically to be binding cultural traits that ought to determine social behaviour. Incidentally, they cannot either account for a structured ideology of ‘men’s war against women’, or for a postmodern feminist ideology of gender and the moral panic of a ‘patriarchal dream-order’ restored. In this article, I offer a critical appraisal of the stereotyped and relativising accounts of feminist and human rights scholars, a critique very much needed for an anthropological approach attentive to cultural ideology and activism. To understand the effectiveness of mass rape in a military strategy of ethnic cleansing, I suggest local cultural concepts and moral relativist ideas are not culturally given, but instrumental resources deliberately mobilised.

Campagnes et poésie contemporaine : lecture, écriture et terrain dans les pratiques pédagogiques

In this article, based on an ecocritical approach of literature, poems are considered as knots in the tissue of our relations with the living environment, our relations and attachments with territories and (mostly rural) inhabitants. The poems written by Estelle Ceccarini, Aurélie Olivier, Sonia Moretti, Laetitia Gaudefroy Colombot, about and from rural territories, enrich our cartographies of countryside – emptied by our urban ways of thought. These contemporary poems, situated in singular places, could be extended by meetings – with places, territories, animals, inhabitants, cultural actors – in order to tie social relations around the poetry book. They connect the striding of space and language and show that learning to observe, to care, and to be curious, can be developed through poetic practice.

Representasi Budaya Jember dalam Jember Fashion Carnival: Pendekatan Teori Representasi Stuart Hall

This article aims to analyze the representation of Jember culture in the Jember Fashion Carnival (JFC) using Stuart Hall's representation theory approach. The main concepts applied in this analysis are change and resistance, which are used to understand how cultural symbols are represented and interpreted in JFC. The data collection process was carried out through literature study. Where the data obtained comes from the results of research and scientific work of other people which is studied and then developed. Data analysis was carried out by combining the concepts of Stuart Hall's representation theory with the findings found in the JFC event. The results of the literature study analysis show that JFC is an important forum for representing Jember's cultural identity through costume modifications, dance, music and other performances. In addition, the media plays an important role in the spread and influence of these cultural representations. In the context of Stuart Hall's representation theory, change refers to the transformation of cultural symbols in the JFC, while resistance describes the process of building cultural representations through interactions and agreements between JFC actors, the government and society. Through this process, Jember's cultural identity is represented and interpreted in JFC events. The implication of the results of this research is the need for continuous support in developing and promoting Jember culture through collaborative efforts between the government, cultural actors and the community. In this case, JFC can be an effective means of strengthening and expanding understanding and appreciation of Jember's cultural identity.

Jugong as Traditional Fishermen's Formal Aesthetics in Karangtalun Village, Cilacap

Jugong as Traditional Fishermen's Formal Aesthetics in Karangtalun Village, Cilacap

Toppling statues and making space: prospects for anti-racist cultural activism

ABSTRACT Statues have long been recognized as impositions of a particular past that legitimize a power-laden present. Consequently, toppling statues, and engaging with the space they once occupied, opens up the possibility of new and multiple narratives. This article takes this moment of possibility as its starting point. Drawing from nine case studies in five countries, and from thirty-one interviews with cultural activists and other stakeholders, we identify three patterns that emerge in the aftermath of removing statues. First, removing a statue changes the hegemonic narrative of the space it once occupied. Second, stakeholders resist the imposition of a singular new narrative on that space. Third, policymakers and institutions attempt to regulate the space and the narratives it carries. We argue, further, that whilst attempts to impose a new, single narrative on the same site are widely met with obstacles, empty plinths become multivocal sites of memory in their own right.

Shinjima: Vulnerability, Resilience and Island Fluidity

Shinjima (‘New Island’), a relatively recent volcanic island in south-west Japan, has undergone cycles of settlement, depopulation and re-settlement, mirroring similar circumstances encountered by many small island cultures in Japan. Throughout its history, and in the vicinity of ongoing volcanic activity, the island has experienced periods of vulnerability and resilience, marked by fluctuations in its population and leading to shifts in the island’s identity. Together, these phenomena are explained using the metaphor of fluidity, emphasising continuing changes in Shinjima’s environmental, social and cultural existence. As discussed in this article, in today’s context, Shinjima has emerged as an example of small island revitalisation that is distinct to its locale, embodying a multifaceted identity centred on cultural rejuvenation, environmental activism and micro-tourism. Positioning this study within the field of Island Studies, the article foregrounds Shinjima by documenting its dynamic history and emphasising recent transformations that have augmented and revitalised the small island’s cultural narrative in the contemporary era.

Toward a Generalizable Understanding of Rightist Movements: Utilizing the Revolutionary Right’s Value Wars in Iran (1995–2009) as a Case Study

Bringing rightist movement studies into the Iranian context, this study advances a generalizable understanding of the ideological, moral, and cultural activism of Islamist movements and their rightist counterparts. While numerous studies have discussed the economic explanation of rightist movements, I integrate Islamist movements in the Muslim world and rightist movements in the West to develop a generalizable cultural and moral explanation of rightist movements. Value and ideological conflicts, as well as moral outrage, drive this integrated understanding of rightist movements. The rise of innovative and contentious forms of millennialism in Iran—especially the increasing salience of the Jamkaran mosque, the rise of new media outlets and millennial discourses, and pertinent policies—provide evidence for proposing this generalizable understanding. I argue that the rise of performative contentions surrounding millennialism, known as Mahdaviat, within the pro-regime revolutionary rightist movement in Iran was Islamists’ ideological response to liberal threat perceptions. These threat perceptions were activated before the liberal Reform era (1997–2005). After the ascent of Ahmadinejad to power in 2005, ideological millennialism became the dominant discursive field in Iran’s state politics. Drawing on narratives of prominent Islamist figures and media personalities in Iran and events surrounding Mahdaviat, this paper advances a generalizable argument of the moral and cultural explanation of rightist movements.

The Emotions of Protest: Some Examples of Anti-Yugoslav Demonstrations in Australia, Canada and the USA in 1972

The aim of the article is to describe some examples of anti-Yugoslav demonstrations in Australia, Canada and the USA during 1972 from the perspective of the history of emotions. Those demonstrations were a reaction to the repression that had been exerted in Croatia against students, cultural activists, scholars and other participants in the Croatian Spring. The research was based on unpublished archival documents and the Croatian political émigré press, primarily the periodical Nova Hrvatska edited by Jakša Kušan. The conclusions are based on an analysis of available textual and photographic materials.

Етнографізм малої прози Богдана Лепкого

The article explores the ethnographic elements in the prose of B. Lepky, a multifaceted Ukrainian poet, novelist, translator, and cultural activist, who authored over 80 books. The purpose of the article to examine the characteristics and significance of ethnography in Lepky's short prose, identifying the methods he employed to incorporate ethnographic details. This analysis seeks to reveal how these elements contribute to creating a distinct national image and reflect the depth of the writer's creative world. The research methodology The main methods of our research are historical and comparative. First of all, we strive to find analogies of the ethnographic realities mentioned in the work of B. Lepkyi, in the scientific literature, published and commented sources describing the life of Podillia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is connected with the wide use of works containing specific ethnographic materials, historical references, and local history descriptions. For the same purpose, reference books and encyclopedias containing information about the places described by B. Lepkyi are used. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time an analysis of the artistic works of B. Lepky as an ethnographic source of everyday life in Podillia has been carried out. Conclusions. After analyzing the short prose of B. Lepkyі, we concluded that a literary work can serve as a valuable ethnographic source. In our research, we paid attention to the following ethnographic elements of the writer's short prose: ethnopedagogy, beliefs and worldview of the Ukrainian peasant, celebrating Christmas in Podillya, customs and traditions related to the Easter holidays. Using the example of B. Lepkyi’s short prose, it becomes clear that the object of direct ethnographic descriptions for a realist writer is not only the events that the author perceives as the archaic, but also the description of traditional everyday life, which gives special value to this ethnographic source. The reliability of ethnographic descriptions is confirmed by the research of Ukrainian ethnographers.

When ‘the broken’ breaks through: politics of struggle and solidarity in Manchadikkari

ABSTRACT Manchadikkari is a region in central Kerala occupied primarily by Dalit Christian communities. The majority of the people in the area are agricultural daily wage workers who have been economically and culturally marginalized. Caste discrimination and exploitation mark their past and present. The people in Manchadikkari articulate powerful anti-caste politics through their creative cultural productions like songs, stories, and plays that take shape in their community groups. The remembrance and reiteration of caste experiences in these community groups keep alive the history of caste exploitation and transmit these memories to the next generation. This paper analyses the play Azhakante Kutil (‘Azhakan’s Hut’), authored by Thankamma Titus from Manchadikkari in 2021 and performed by a group of women who are members of the community group ‘Sanjeevani.’ This study considers the processes of conceptualization, production, and performance of the play to show how these processes embody anti-caste politics. The play dwells on the community’s caste history to show that caste is not an anachronism of the feudal era but actively determines the present cultural and material conditions. When contextualized in the community, the play exists as a moving narrative of the community’s cultural activism.

Making Waves in Academia: Asian/Asian American Feminist Mentoring as Activism

Multicultural Feminist Mentoring (MFM) models have provided an important foundation to address the further need for conceptualizing a mentoring model that is specific to Asian/Asian American (A/AA) experiences. In this collaborative autoethnography, six researchers in three mentor-mentee dyads explored what it means to pursue Asian/Asian American feminist mentoring (A/AAFM), through dyadic and group interactive dialogues and collaborative analysis. A/AAFM can be conceptualized as anti-racist praxis, where each mentor attempted to consider mentoring as activism within academia, being grounded in values stemming from A/AA experiences and feminism. Results yielded a model of A/AAFM which emphasizes a convergence of multifaceted racial and cultural identities, feminist values, and activism. Three specific processes emerged: being holistic, relational, and mutual; a focus on community and intergenerational generosity; and intentional flattening of the power hierarchy. Implications for training and activism are discussed.

Who’s streets, our streets: the evolution of street asphalt art and the transformation of liminal spaces for social change

ABSTRACT The betwixt and in-between spaces in urban environments help define the zeitgeist. In transforming liminal spaces into memorials, public art provides an opportunity to assert the voice of the people and helps to catalyze social change. In recent years, the informal and formal claiming of urban liminal spaces has been central to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. This article explores the use of informal placemaking and how claiming liminal space can lead to transformative social reactions for sustained social change in subtle and direct ways. By situating asphalt art within the cultural activism literature where “art, activism, performance, and politics meet, mingle and interact” (Verson, 2007, p. 172), one of the roles of asphalt art can be understood. Existing scholarship in this area “has focused on the role of creative practices such as culture jamming, subversion, public art, performance, and rebel clowning” (Buser et al., 2013, p. 606). This article considers the relationship between asphalt art’s creative praxis in the processes of urban placemaking and how meaning is constructed in urban space that presents opportunities for new political, social, and cultural dialogues to resonate the causes some liminal spaces represent that bring activities and existing narratives that develop new civic narratives.