MATERIAL PROTESTS

A CONTRIBUTION FROM THE CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY OF THINGS

Authors

  • Maria Florencia Blanco Esmoris CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES SOCIALES, CONSEJO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS Y TÉCNICAS, INSTITUTO DE DESARROLLO ECONÓMICO Y SOCIAL
  • Prof. María Jazmín Ohanian CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES SOCIALES, CONSEJO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS Y TÉCNICAS, INSTITUTO DE DESARROLLO ECONÓMICO Y SOCIAL https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2239-8796

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2022.43.3004

Keywords:

Protests, social situation, objects, anthropology, communication

Abstract

This article traces and exposes the material dimension of contemporary protests. In this piece, we consider protest as a particular type of human communication that gains intelligibility in specific social situations that are embodied in objects. This has led us to (re)think (about) the dialogue which exists between anthropology and communication in light of the role of material culture. We read and review these experiences from epistemological and theoretical frameworks of protest studies in Argentina and reconstruct social situations arising from our joint work developed at the research group Cosas Cotidianas (CoCo), which we co-coordinate, dedicated to analysing, from an ethnographic perspective, how objects ‘participate’ in social life. Our paper is structured into 3 parts. Firstly, an analysis of anthropology and communication is undertaken followed by protest(s) as social situations and finally, understanding protest through objects. We present how pots (in Spanish cacerolas) in Latin America, umbrellas in Hong Kong and waistcoats in Paris (France) appear as objects of protest in countries of the global south and north. The ‘cultural biography of things’ is proposed as a conceptual framework for our analysis

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Author Biographies

Maria Florencia Blanco Esmoris, CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES SOCIALES, CONSEJO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS Y TÉCNICAS, INSTITUTO DE DESARROLLO ECONÓMICO Y SOCIAL

María Florencia Blanco Esmoris holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the Institute for High Social Studies (IDAES) of the National University of San Martin (UNSAM). She has a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from the same institution where she also serves as Assistant Professor in Anthropology. In addition, she is a Professor in Anthropology at Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). She is affiliated to the Institute of Economic and Social Development -Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social (IDES)-. Florencia co-coordinates a research related to daily lives and materiality with María Jazmín Ohanian and is also a member of research groups connected to housing studies, intimacy and urbanism at IDES and IDAES-UNSAM. Find her on twitter: @florabsas

Prof. María Jazmín Ohanian, CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES SOCIALES, CONSEJO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS Y TÉCNICAS, INSTITUTO DE DESARROLLO ECONÓMICO Y SOCIAL

María Jazmín Ohanian is an anthropologist (UBA), Master in sociology of culture and cultural analysis (IDAES-UNSAM), and she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology (IDAES-UNSAM). She is a fellow from the Argentine National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) at the Center for Social Research (CIS) / Institute of Economic and Social Development (IDES) where she co-coordinates with María Florencia Blanco Esmoris the study group called "Cosas cotidianas" (Material Culture). She is also part of the research project "Mar de Guerra. Estudios sobre experiencias de soberanía en el conflicto anglo- argentino de 1982" (Sea of War. Studies on experiences of sovereignty in the Anglo-Argentinean conflict of 1982). Her current doctoral research topic deals with the ethnographic analysis of the technical learning experience during the training of Argentine Navy NCOs at the Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA) and the current NCO School (ESSA). 

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Graphic by Zofia Lasocka

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Published

2022-12-30 — Updated on 2023-01-26

How to Cite

Blanco Esmoris, M. F., & Ohanian, M. J. (2023). MATERIAL PROTESTS: A CONTRIBUTION FROM THE CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY OF THINGS. Ethnologia Polona, 43. https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2022.43.3004

Issue

Vol. 43 (2022): Ethnographies of Protests

Section

Articles

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