Bringing Subalterns into Speech? Investigating Anarchic Resistance to Hegemonic Modernity

Fuente: Redalyc
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Philipp Zehmisch
Format: Artículo científico
Language:en
Published: Universidad de Caldas 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1876432462182088704
author Philipp Zehmisch
author_facet Philipp Zehmisch
contents Bringing Subalterns into Speech? Investigating Anarchic Resistance to Hegemonic Modernity Philipp Zehmisch Antropología Anarchy Adivasi Resistance Chotanagpur Subalternity This article aims to critically examine Gayatri Spivak’s (1992) demand to undo subalternity by inserting subalterns into the circuit of hegemonic modernity. For Spivak, working for the subaltern does not demand speaking for them, rather it entails facilitating their speech acts. From the perspective of an anthropology of anarchy, the opening up of political communication towards inclusion of subaltern speech is, on the one hand, an essential goal. It is congruent with the basic democratic principles of consensual decision-making among social groups living outside or at the margins of state influence. On the other hand, the insistence on including subalterns into hegemony entails an inherent paradox: many subalterns, who resort to anarchic ways of life, escape from the state and its communicational structures as a cultural and political survival strategy. My ethnographic example from the Andaman Islands in India addresses this tension. I focus on the subaltern history and resistance practices of the so-called Ranchis, Adivasis (first settlers, Indigenous Peoples) from the Central Indian hill region, who migrated to the Andamans as contract labourers and settled in marginal forests. The Ranchis’ evasion from the state into the margins, enabled by subsistence practices, presents an alternative to Spivak’s compelling demand to bring subalterns into speech: an inclusion of the Ranchis into the circuits of hegemony would moderately benefit them in terms of getting access to the state and the economy, but, at the same time, it would also imply a loss of their partial autarky, as well as cultural and socio-political autonomy from the outside world. 2022 artículo científico 2462-9782 https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=738180599007 en http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=7381 Revista de antropología y sociología: VIRAJES application/pdf Universidad de Caldas Revista de antropología y sociología: VIRAJES (Colombia) Num.2 Vol.24
format Artículo científico
id redalyc_738180599007
institution Redalyc
language en
publishDate 2022
publisher Universidad de Caldas
spellingShingle Bringing Subalterns into Speech? Investigating Anarchic Resistance to Hegemonic Modernity
Philipp Zehmisch
Antropología
Anarchy
Adivasi
Resistance
Chotanagpur
Subalternity
Bringing Subalterns into Speech? Investigating Anarchic Resistance to Hegemonic Modernity Philipp Zehmisch Antropología Anarchy Adivasi Resistance Chotanagpur Subalternity This article aims to critically examine Gayatri Spivak’s (1992) demand to undo subalternity by inserting subalterns into the circuit of hegemonic modernity. For Spivak, working for the subaltern does not demand speaking for them, rather it entails facilitating their speech acts. From the perspective of an anthropology of anarchy, the opening up of political communication towards inclusion of subaltern speech is, on the one hand, an essential goal. It is congruent with the basic democratic principles of consensual decision-making among social groups living outside or at the margins of state influence. On the other hand, the insistence on including subalterns into hegemony entails an inherent paradox: many subalterns, who resort to anarchic ways of life, escape from the state and its communicational structures as a cultural and political survival strategy. My ethnographic example from the Andaman Islands in India addresses this tension. I focus on the subaltern history and resistance practices of the so-called Ranchis, Adivasis (first settlers, Indigenous Peoples) from the Central Indian hill region, who migrated to the Andamans as contract labourers and settled in marginal forests. The Ranchis’ evasion from the state into the margins, enabled by subsistence practices, presents an alternative to Spivak’s compelling demand to bring subalterns into speech: an inclusion of the Ranchis into the circuits of hegemony would moderately benefit them in terms of getting access to the state and the economy, but, at the same time, it would also imply a loss of their partial autarky, as well as cultural and socio-political autonomy from the outside world. 2022 artículo científico 2462-9782 https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=738180599007 en http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=7381 Revista de antropología y sociología: VIRAJES application/pdf Universidad de Caldas Revista de antropología y sociología: VIRAJES (Colombia) Num.2 Vol.24
title Bringing Subalterns into Speech? Investigating Anarchic Resistance to Hegemonic Modernity
topic Antropología
Anarchy
Adivasi
Resistance
Chotanagpur
Subalternity
url https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=738180599007