TY - JOUR
T1 - Face-to-face with the (animal) Other
T2 - An invitation to decolonize the anthropology of Pakistan
AU - Kavesh, Muhammad A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. American Ethnologist published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Anthropological Association.
PY - 2023/8
Y1 - 2023/8
N2 - The imperial underpinning of the early anthropology of Pakistan constituted “the other” as a subject of comprehension, categorization, and containment. Later, with the post-9/11 geopolitical backdrop, anthropologists focused on selected themes such as religious and ethnic disparity and political nationalism, eliding some topics or groups. What would it mean for the anthropology of Pakistan to consider alienated themes and groups while emphasizing the infinity of the Other? How would conceiving the Other beyond a political or religious other, or even beyond a human subject, create a possibility of decolonizing the anthropology of Pakistan while exploring multiple futures—emergent, imagined, and expected? Such an approach critically moots a reexamination of theoretical, methodological, and epistemological tenets and urges the discipline to engage with diverse lifeworlds. It brings the face of the Other face-to-face with anthropology beyond humanity to consider all beings, intersubjective and collaborative experiences, and shared values.
AB - The imperial underpinning of the early anthropology of Pakistan constituted “the other” as a subject of comprehension, categorization, and containment. Later, with the post-9/11 geopolitical backdrop, anthropologists focused on selected themes such as religious and ethnic disparity and political nationalism, eliding some topics or groups. What would it mean for the anthropology of Pakistan to consider alienated themes and groups while emphasizing the infinity of the Other? How would conceiving the Other beyond a political or religious other, or even beyond a human subject, create a possibility of decolonizing the anthropology of Pakistan while exploring multiple futures—emergent, imagined, and expected? Such an approach critically moots a reexamination of theoretical, methodological, and epistemological tenets and urges the discipline to engage with diverse lifeworlds. It brings the face of the Other face-to-face with anthropology beyond humanity to consider all beings, intersubjective and collaborative experiences, and shared values.
KW - Emmanuel Levinas
KW - Jacques Derrida
KW - alterity
KW - anthropology beyond humanity
KW - anthropology of Pakistan
KW - decolonization
KW - infinity
KW - multispecies anthropology
KW - the face of the other
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85164832760&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/amet.13188
DO - 10.1111/amet.13188
M3 - Article
SN - 0094-0496
VL - 50
SP - 409
EP - 418
JO - American Ethnologist
JF - American Ethnologist
IS - 3
ER -