Inhabiting the Postcolony: Personhood, House and Configuration of Houses
Abstract
Although the empirical entity called “house” has been long depicted in various ethnographic contexts, it is only recently that, as a category, is has migrated to the core of the ethnographic enterprise to provide an account of family life of marginalized, if not excluded, populations. This is because, historically, social science, particularly anthropology, took a long time to move beyond society/individual pair and “Western” and “primitive/barbaric” opposition at the core of its philosophical theories, among other epistemological flaws, that informed family and kinship constructs in societies. This rupture is paving the way for the emergence of new ethnographies of “the” house, constructed as a basic empirical and analytical sociocultural unit; exploring the forms of the social relations that the house translates, circumscribes and expresses, as well as the modes of production and reproduction of identities and hierarchies in the contexts studied.
House, however, is never an isolated, self-sustained entity. The house only exists as part of a network of households, thought and lived in interrelations with other houses that partake its production — in the symbolic and concrete sense: houses only exist within particular figurations. In the same way that the house by itself creates mechanisms for regulating the individualism of its members, expressed within its internal space, which organizes the collective and the person, the configuration of houses controls a space whose boundaries are paradoxically blurred (from the observer’s viewpoint) and clear (from the house member’s viewpoint). The process of the house is also a co-production of the politico-economic dynamics of the society within which it is inscribed. Thus, from this perspective, the ethnographic enterprise of the house and its configuration is an ever ending endeavor which always engenders discovery of human ingenuity in its quests to both inhabit and transcend their conditions. To talk about “house” in substantive or in purely abstract way would lead to an abusive reification of the co-construction processes (by the configuration of houses, its members, and by forces of society where they are inscribed) that create their possibilities and contexts of emergence at the first place. This paper brings to bear ethnographic materials and contexts that evidence the need to think about houses as relational processes between members originating from various houses, across times, spaces and boundaries as well as within the power dynamics in the social milieu that structures the conditions of their emergence in configurations, their development, as well as their future.
Bio
Dr. Marcelin is a sociocultural anthropologist whose research focuses on health and human security, and the roles of power, violence, and marginalization in society (particularly in Brazil, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the United States). He began his career conducting extensive field research on family, kinship, and religious practices in rural and urban areas of Haiti. He later expanded his research on family in the Caribbean, Brazil as well as in the United States.
In furtherance of these research interests he was awarded NIH/NIDA research grants to implement the Haitian Adolescent Study over 8 years to investigate the intersections of marginalization, health risks, drug use, gang violence, family, and immigration processes in the United States (South Florida).
The constant questioning of academic disciplines’ limitations and their epistemologies also led him to place collaboration at the center of his works. With these in mind, in 2007, he led the creation of the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development-INURED (www.inured.org) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. INURED is a transnational and transdisciplinary institute with the mission to contribute to the development of high-level research and scientific training in Haiti and the Caribbean with the aim of improving the educational, socio-economic, and political condition of these societies. INURED has served as a conduit for cross-disciplinary collaborations between students and faculty, their peers from many universities, with local community stakeholders through participatory research. More info visit: http://haiti.miami.edu/building-foundations-for-success.html
[email protected]
Although the empirical entity called “house” has been long depicted in various ethnographic contexts, it is only recently that, as a category, is has migrated to the core of the ethnographic enterprise to provide an account of family life of marginalized, if not excluded, populations. This is because, historically, social science, particularly anthropology, took a long time to move beyond society/individual pair and “Western” and “primitive/barbaric” opposition at the core of its philosophical theories, among other epistemological flaws, that informed family and kinship constructs in societies. This rupture is paving the way for the emergence of new ethnographies of “the” house, constructed as a basic empirical and analytical sociocultural unit; exploring the forms of the social relations that the house translates, circumscribes and expresses, as well as the modes of production and reproduction of identities and hierarchies in the contexts studied.
House, however, is never an isolated, self-sustained entity. The house only exists as part of a network of households, thought and lived in interrelations with other houses that partake its production — in the symbolic and concrete sense: houses only exist within particular figurations. In the same way that the house by itself creates mechanisms for regulating the individualism of its members, expressed within its internal space, which organizes the collective and the person, the configuration of houses controls a space whose boundaries are paradoxically blurred (from the observer’s viewpoint) and clear (from the house member’s viewpoint). The process of the house is also a co-production of the politico-economic dynamics of the society within which it is inscribed. Thus, from this perspective, the ethnographic enterprise of the house and its configuration is an ever ending endeavor which always engenders discovery of human ingenuity in its quests to both inhabit and transcend their conditions. To talk about “house” in substantive or in purely abstract way would lead to an abusive reification of the co-construction processes (by the configuration of houses, its members, and by forces of society where they are inscribed) that create their possibilities and contexts of emergence at the first place. This paper brings to bear ethnographic materials and contexts that evidence the need to think about houses as relational processes between members originating from various houses, across times, spaces and boundaries as well as within the power dynamics in the social milieu that structures the conditions of their emergence in configurations, their development, as well as their future.
Bio
Dr. Marcelin is a sociocultural anthropologist whose research focuses on health and human security, and the roles of power, violence, and marginalization in society (particularly in Brazil, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the United States). He began his career conducting extensive field research on family, kinship, and religious practices in rural and urban areas of Haiti. He later expanded his research on family in the Caribbean, Brazil as well as in the United States.
In furtherance of these research interests he was awarded NIH/NIDA research grants to implement the Haitian Adolescent Study over 8 years to investigate the intersections of marginalization, health risks, drug use, gang violence, family, and immigration processes in the United States (South Florida).
The constant questioning of academic disciplines’ limitations and their epistemologies also led him to place collaboration at the center of his works. With these in mind, in 2007, he led the creation of the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development-INURED (www.inured.org) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. INURED is a transnational and transdisciplinary institute with the mission to contribute to the development of high-level research and scientific training in Haiti and the Caribbean with the aim of improving the educational, socio-economic, and political condition of these societies. INURED has served as a conduit for cross-disciplinary collaborations between students and faculty, their peers from many universities, with local community stakeholders through participatory research. More info visit: http://haiti.miami.edu/building-foundations-for-success.html
[email protected]