Together with Serena Bindi (Canthel, Université Paris Cité), we organise a panel at the ECSAS (European Conference for South Asian Studies) to be held from 26th to 29th July 2023 in Turin.
The panel aims to approach beginning and end of life experiences, when they are characterized by violence. We are interested in how families and professionals, such as ritual and medical specialists, cope with and represent such experiences in South Asia.
The high biomedicalisation and institutionalisation of births have led to an increase in obstetrical violence, particularly against women from disadvantaged backgrounds. Sudden and unnatural deaths, due to natural disasters, distress leading to suicide, accidents, are common events, and the recent Covid-19 pandemic has greatly contributed to these episodes. Such experiences can challenge the worldviews of individuals in different ways. The panel aims at exploring the practices implemented to cope with the bodily and psychological violence experienced, as well as the representations that normalize or contest these types of birth and death. Violence and other related concepts are analyzed as a cultural construct. When and how is the notion of violence mobilized? How do cultural responses to such events unfold and develop? Do different actors share the same representations and practices? How do local responses to violence articulate with understandings of subjectivity, personhood and meaning making? To whom is ‘trauma’ a meaningful category? Which other notions are mobilized to describe and deal with such experiences?
Through an intersectional and multidisciplinary approach, we seek to map cultural responses to violent births and deaths. The panel aims to open a space for dialogue and collaboration between researchers from different disciplines (anthropology, psychology, history, literature, etc.). Contributions proposing interdisciplinary reflections will be particularly welcome.
Presentations
“Mother’s sorrow of losing a child is like a river, it won’t stop”: experiencing violence through the grief of an autistic son in Bangalore (South India) Manganelli Marie - Université Paris Cité, Anthropology, Paris, France
Choice and need: Women’s experiences of birthing in hospitals in India Majumdar Sreya - Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Department of Liberal Arts, Hyderabad, India
‘Diya’: A Spectral Haunting of the Patriarchal Society on Abortion and Reproductive Agency in India M Swathi - Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai Campus, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Chennai, India
Feelings of impurity emanating from death : mental sickness or possession, case of a patient in north India Halder Florence - Paris Cité, Anthropology, Paris, France
Obstetric violence in Bhuj (Gujarat): differential treatment and avoidance strategies in a context of social inequalities Gentile Lucia - Institut Convergence Migration (ICM) and the Centre National de Ressources et de Résilience (CN2R)
Phantoms or fantasies ? Dealing with grief and violent death in Uttarakhand Bindi Serena - Université Paris Cité, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
Obstetric experience of indigenous woman in institutionalized spaces: A case study of Paroja women in Koraput, Odisha. Bhal Deekshya - Universität Heidelberg, Anthropolgy, Heidelberg, Germany
