Canvases of Political Competition: Image Production as Politics in Tamil Nadu,India

In this article, I explore the production of political images in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The state is known for the ubiquitous presence of banners, murals and posters in its public spaces, featuring prominent politicians and actors. It is commonly argued that these images help to convey the heroic or exclusive status of political leaders. However, such images are actually produced by party workers and therefore do not simply transpose status and image. Instead, political supporters praise their leader via these images and act as ‘kingmakers’ in constructing reputation and power. Simultaneously, by putting political images on display, supporters also authorise their own power. While praise is important in showing a person's dedication to a political party, the images, in the motivations of their producers, are suffused with ambivalence and competition as well. Hence, I argue, political image practices are not representative of politics, they are politics.     

The invader,the enemy within and they-who-must-not-be-named: how police talk about minorities in Italy,the Netherlands and France

How people talk about ethnic minorities is a sensitive subject, especially in law enforcement. We know little about it as far as continental Europe is concerned. This article is about how police officers talk about minorities in France, in Italy and in the Netherlands. How do speech norms (‘political correctness’) apply outside the anglophone world? Is there a relation between speech norms and practices? This exploratory study is based on interviews with fifty-five police officers from France, Italy and the Netherlands. In these countries, police officers are aware that displaying overt racism is not socially desirable. Interviews show that there are vastly different speech norms governing decent race talk in the three countries. Specifically, we compare: how police use ethnic categories; how police anticipate accusations of discrimination; and how police theorize the over-representation of ethnic minorities in crime. French respondents respect much stricter speech norms than Dutch or Italian ones.     

Power and phase properties of oscillatory neural responses in the presence of background activity

Natural sensory inputs, such as speech and music, are often rhythmic. Recent studies have consistently demonstrated that these rhythmic stimuli cause the phase of oscillatory, i.e. rhythmic, neural activity, recorded as local field potential (LFP), electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG), to synchronize with the stimulus. This phase synchronization, when not accompanied by any increase of response power, has been hypothesized to be the result of phase resetting of ongoing, spontaneous, neural oscillations measurable by LFP, EEG, or MEG. In this article, however, we argue that this same phenomenon can be easily explained without any phase resetting, and where the stimulus-synchronized activity is generated independently of background neural oscillations. It is demonstrated with a simple (but general) stochastic model that, purely due to statistical properties, phase synchronization, as measured by ‘inter-trial phase coherence’, is much more sensitive to stimulus-synchronized neural activity than is power. These results question the usefulness of analyzing the power and phase of stimulus-synchronized activity as separate and complementary measures; particularly in the case of attempting to demonstrate whether stimulus-synchronized neural activity is generated by phase resetting of ongoing neural oscillations.     

Understanding Power in Indigenous Protected Areas: the Case of the Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks

This article draws on concepts of power from political ecology and political sociology to describe the ways that the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation (a Canadian indigenous people) have attempted to realize their goals under the broad rubric of their Tribal Parks initiative. Like some other Indigenous peoples’ and Community Conserved territories and Areas (ICCAs), the Tribal Parks example features de facto legal pluralism, lack of clear tenure and/or legal recognition, oppositional and/or cooperative relationships with other actors, and situations where local actors are influenced by intersecting global discourses on conservation and indigenous rights and culture. Globally, ICCAs are a form of protected area and are potentially critical in terms of meeting ambitious global protected area targets as well in addressing issues related to the rights and well-being of indigenous peoples. As such, understanding the ‘customary law or other effective means’, or the dynamics of power through which indigenous groups are able (or not) to realize their protected area goals is of global significance. This article illuminates the contours of power through two specific Tribal Parks case studies: the first involves contestations over industrial logging, while the second focuses on the establishment and implementation of what came to be called an ‘ecosystem services fee’ paid by ecotourism outfitters operating within a Tribal Park. Results highlight that the Tla-o-qui-aht have drawn power from different sources and exercised it by different means including turning to the Courts in a context of legal uncertainty, protest and direct action coupled with appeals to public opinion, developing and drawing on relationships with both local and non-local interests, and by strategically ‘tapping into’ prominent discourses.     

Divergent modes of address and (re)contextualization in Loma ritual prayer

This article explains the ritual symbolism of a sacrificial rite characteristic of the so-called 'secret societies' of the conflict-ridden Upper Guinea forest and coastal region of West Africa. Whereas the political dimension of these secret societies or cults is relatively well known, very little knowledge exists about the ritual communication with imperceptible beings around which the cults are organized. It appears from the study of Loma ritual prayer that secret mask cults are typical self-referential entities constituted by a symbolism emerging from a reconfiguration in ritual speech of modes of relationships characteristic of the social structure of the Loma of Guinea and Liberia. Against recent anthropological theories of ritual which reject the idea that ritual can be defined as communication of meaning, it is argued that Loma sacrificial prayer conveys an essential 'message' about the secret cult's constitution. In addition to an analysis of the recontextualization of modes of relationships that typifies Loma ritual prayer, the article also pays attention to indexical expressions in prayer which serve to negotiate social relationships and power relations external to the ritual context.     

Secular morality, village law, and Buddhism in Tibetan societies

Contrary to assumptions frequently made about Buddhist societies and to models promoted by Tibetan elites, not all Tibetans understand their religion in an ethical way. This article demonstrates that, for a community of villagers in Ladakh, Buddhism is not a source of moral guidance nor is it regarded by them as providing authority for the exercise of political or judicial power. Comparing the findings of ethnographers elsewhere in the Tibetan region, it is apparent that many Tibetans regard the cosmos and its inhabitants as having little relevance for the moral order of their community or its political organization. It is suggested that such understandings have a profound effect on local understandings of the ambit and significance of Buddhism and on the course of its assimilation in the region.     

The Collapse of the Classic Maya: A Case for the Role of Water Control

This article focuses on the role of water control in the emergence and demise of Classic Maya political power (c. C.E. 250-950), one that scholars have long underestimated. The scale of water control correlates with the degree of political power, reflected in three levels of Maya civic-ceremonial centers—regional, secondary, and minor. Such power derives from a complex relationship among center location, seasonal water supply, amount of agricultural land, and settlement density. Maya kings monopolized artificial reservoirs and other water sources during annual drought, providing the means to exact tribute from subjects. Climate change undermined the institution of rulership when existing ceremonies and technology failed to provide sufficient water. The collapse of rulers' power at regional centers in the Terminal Classic (c. C.E. 850-950) had differing impacts on smaller centers. Secondary and minor centers not heavily dependent on water control survived the drought and the collapse of regional centers. [Keywords: political power, water control, Classic Maya collapse]     

Meeting with Ancestors—Contesting Borders in Indonesian Religion and Politics

Ancestors have often played an important role in the exercise of politics in Indonesia. However, from a situation in which they were highly influential and present in ritual, as well as in the everyday lives of both commoners and kings, ancestors and traditional lifestyles have been increasingly marginalised through the impact of secular politics and Islamist movements. An era of political reformation began after the fall of Indonesia's former political regime, Orde Baru. Reform meant the decentralisation of political power, and this led to a revival of local traditions. This article takes this revival of tradition as a framework to understand meetings that took place with ancestors at local pilgrimage sites on West Java. It is concluded that meetings of this kind are not simply about fulfilling personal goals, but they also show features of resistance and subversion in relation to the dominant political and religious leadership in Indonesia.     

Mediated speculations in the genomics futures markets

This article examines the interactions between the media and genomics, with particular reference to the case of deCODE Genetics in Iceland. It focuses on the role of "forward-looking statements" and other forms of speculation as they operate in the science of genomics, in the social relations that happen around genomics, and in the commercial genomics economy. The article discusses how these fundamentally anticipatory speech acts uttered or written by genomic corporate executives, journalists, or social scientists are simultaneously volatile, exceeding any formal practices of accounting or analysis, and demanding to be accounted for, analysed, or valued. The article discusses four speculative events or cases in the genomics economy: the March 2000 bursting out of the genomics bubble, prompted in part by remarks by President Clinton and Prime Minister Blair to the media concerning gene patenting; the new disclosure requirements of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding "forward-looking statements" as they appear in genomics press releases; deCODE Genetics' registration statement with the SEC that discloses a settlement of a dispute over the ownership of a fragment of DNA; and the entanglement between the author's ethnographic fieldwork and the breaking news story of reported payoffs from deCODE to the Icelandic political parties.     

Human rights,environment, and development: The dispossession of fishing communities on Lake Malawi

In a growing number of cases throughout Africa, communities' resource bases are being undermined or appropriated by outsiders, a process which seriously threatens the continuation of local cultures and livelihoods. In this article, we use a political ecology framework to examine how the linked processes of economic development, political power, and environmental change are transgressing the rights of fishing communities on the shores of Lake Malawi. In the cases described, these communities, or community members within them, find themselves powerless to prevent the expropriation of the resources over which they previously had either legal or customary control. Thus, it is not the economic processes of dispossession alone which lead to human rights violations but rather dispossession combined with an authoritarian political context.     

Autonomy and Leadership: Political Formations among the Ashéninka of Peruvian Amazonia

This article examines notions of hierarchy and leadership among Ashéninka people in Peruvian Amazonia. It considers the apparent disjunction between individuals' preference for a peaceful and autonomous everyday existence and the Ashéninka's renowned ability to form large-scale cooperative groups under powerful leaders. Responding to recent anthropological writings that recognise the variability of political forms both across and within Amazonian societies, the article focuses on the social and political preoccupations that can be seen to underlie both social forms among the Ashéninka. It argues that individuals believe that peaceful social reproduction is best achieved by acting independently and respecting the autonomy of others but that aggregation and differentiation remain an option in circumstances where individual action would be ineffectual. The article also examines how the Ashéninka use outsiders as effective organisers that also symbolise the problems of coercive power.     

The Middle East's majority problems: minoritarian regimes and the threat of democracy

This article examines the phenomenon of minoritarian regimes in the Middle East, focusing on Bahrain, Syria and Israel/Palestine. It considers, in each, how minority rule was established, the mechanisms through which it is maintained, and the means through which it is legitimated. Although these regimes are not typically analyzed as a category, they have important features in common. In all three, the state's political and security institutions are controlled by members of an ethnic/religious group that is a numerical minority in the country, at the expense of a majority group with a competing claim to indigeneity. While the legal and political mechanisms that these regimes use to restrict access to power vary, they employ similar strategies for legitimating minority rule, presenting democracy as a threat not only to the regime's survival, but also to the security of the group whose interests it claims to represent.     

Social learning spreads knowledge about dangerous humans among American crows

Individuals face evolutionary trade-offs between the acquisition of costly but accurate information gained firsthand and the use of inexpensive but possibly less reliable social information. American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) use both sources of information to learn the facial features of a dangerous person. We exposed wild crows to a novel 'dangerous face' by wearing a unique mask as we trapped, banded and released 7-15 birds at five study sites near Seattle, WA, USA. An immediate scolding response to the dangerous mask after trapping by previously captured crows demonstrates individual learning, while an immediate response by crows that were not captured probably represents conditioning to the trapping scene by the mob of birds that assembled during the capture. Later recognition of dangerous masks by lone crows that were never captured is consistent with horizontal social learning. Independent scolding by young crows, whose parents had conditioned them to scold the dangerous mask, demonstrates vertical social learning. Crows that directly experienced trapping later discriminated among dangerous and neutral masks more precisely than did crows that learned through social means. Learning enabled scolding to double in frequency and spread at least 1.2 km from the place of origin over a 5 year period at one site.     

Valorizing racial boundaries: Hegemony and conflict in the racialization of Filipino migrant labour in the United States

This article analyses the growth of a new revivalist, internationally orientated Islam in Tower Hamlets. It moves beyond discussions of identity to look at the roles of ideology and socio-economic background, and to assess the effect of the new identities and ideologies on social and political action. It looks at why young Bengalis are being increasingly attracted to Islam, and at how this can benefit both themselves and the wider Bengali community; and it also explores where the impact of the new Islam is less positive, ending with an examination of the limits of its power as a vehicle for radical change in a deprived area of London. The article is based on interviews carried out in 2000 and 2001 as part of a wider historical study of political mobilization of Jewish and Bengali immigrants in London's East End.     

The politics of Eros: ritual dialogue and egalitarianism in three Central African hunter‐gatherer societies

It has become standard practice within feminist anthropology to repudiate any essential relationship between the biological body and cultural identity. In recent years, the ongoing deconstruction of the body has come to seem the only ‘natural’ fact. By contrast, this article seeks to reconnect sex, power, and culture in a positive sense, by identifying a political system in which power is kept in motion through the body. Literally dancing it out, organized Mbuti or Yaka gender groups perform a recurrent ritual repartee where power is continually churned up and funnelled back and forth between coalitions. The graphic somatic language that emerges through these dances suggests an alternative power‐principle: kinetic, erotic, and fundamentally non‐coercive. Here, the drawing back of the collective eye to the anatomical nature of power, with the simultaneous ritual de‐privatization of ‘biology’, explodes the body out into a collective political force. The cultural visibility of the female procreative body in such contexts is striking. Using the core theme of dialogism, I rethink the creative potential of sexual duality, and work towards a new understanding of gender, power, and the body.     

Health Care Politics and Policy: The Business of Medicine: A Course for Physician Leaders

This article is a condensed and edited version of a speech delivered to The Business of Medicine: A Course for Physician Leaders symposium presented by Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Medical Directors Leadership Council at Yale University in November 2012 and drawn from Politics, Health, and Health Care: Selected Essays by Theodore R. Marmor and Rudolf Klein [1]. It faithfully reflects the major argument delivered, but it does not include the typical range of citations in a journal article. The material presented here reflects more than 40 years of teaching a course variously described as Political Analysis and Management, Policy and Political Analysis, and The Politics of Policy. The aim of all of these efforts is to inform audiences about the necessity of understanding political conflict in any arena, not least of which is the complex and costly world of medical care.     

Hearing and seeing meaning in speech and gesture: insights from brain and behaviour

As we speak, we use not only the arbitrary form–meaning mappings of the speech channel but also motivated form–meaning correspondences, i.e. iconic gestures that accompany speech (e.g. inverted V-shaped hand wiggling across gesture space to demonstrate walking). This article reviews what we know about processing of semantic information from speech and iconic gestures in spoken languages during comprehension of such composite utterances. Several studies have shown that comprehension of iconic gestures involves brain activations known to be involved in semantic processing of speech: i.e. modulation of the electrophysiological recording component N400, which is sensitive to the ease of semantic integration of a word to previous context, and recruitment of the left-lateralized frontal–posterior temporal network (left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), medial temporal gyrus (MTG) and superior temporal gyrus/sulcus (STG/S)). Furthermore, we integrate the information coming from both channels recruiting brain areas such as left IFG, posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS)/MTG and even motor cortex. Finally, this integration is flexible: the temporal synchrony between the iconic gesture and the speech segment, as well as the perceived communicative intent of the speaker, modulate the integration process. Whether these findings are special to gestures or are shared with actions or other visual accompaniments to speech (e.g. lips) or other visual symbols such as pictures are discussed, as well as the implications for a multimodal view of language.     

Spectators to the Spectacle of Law: The Formation of a ‘Validating Public’ at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

While the ethnography of contemporary courtrooms has been dominated by a concern with speech, this article considers how a silent, validating public is constructed within court complexes. Drawing on fieldwork at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Arusha, Tanzania), I explore how the court's threshold practices form validating witnesses whose embodied deference contributes to the constitution of the courtroom as a space of privileged speech. I suggest, therefore, that court spectators are not incidental, but are integral to juridical spectacle and the authority of law.