Rosalind C. Morris

Bio: Rosalind C. Morris is an academic researcher from Columbia University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Deconstruction & Proletariat. The author has an hindex of 15, co-authored 43 publications receiving 1434 citations.

Can the subaltern speak? : reflections on the history of an idea

Abstract: Introduction, by Rosalind C. Morris Part 1 Text "Can the Subaltern Speak?" revised edition, from the "History" chapter of Critique of Postcolonial Reason, by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Part 2 Contexts and Trajectories Reflections on "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Subaltern Studies after Spivak, by Partha Chatterjee Postcolonial Studies: Now That's History, by Ritu Birla The Ethnical Affirmation of Human Rights: Gayatri Spivak's Intervention, by Drucilla Cornell Part 3 Speaking of (Not) Hearing: Death and the Subaltern Death and the Subaltern, by Rajeswawri Sunder Rajan Between Speaking and Dying: Some Imperatives in the Emergence of the Subaltern in the Context of U.S. Slavery, by Abdul JanMohamed Subalterns at War, by Michele Barrett Part 4 Contemporaneities and Possible Futures: (Not) Speaking and Hearing Biopower and the New International Division of Reproductive Labor, by Pheng Cheah Moving from Subalternity: Indigenous Women in Guatemala and Mexico, by Jean Franco Part 5 In Response In Response: Looking Back, Looking Forward, by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Appendix Can the Subaltern Speak? Bibliography Contributors Index

All Made Up: Performance Theory and the New Anthropology of Sex and Gender

Abstract: This review considers the impact of recent performance theory, especially the theory of gender performativity, on anthropological efforts to theorize sex and gender. In brief, the theory of performativity defines gender as the effect of discourse, and sex as the effect of gender. The theory is characterized by a concern with the productive force rather than the meaning of discourse and by its privileging of ambiguity and indeterminacy. This review treats recent performance theory as the logical heir, but also the apotheosis, of two anthropological traditions. The first tradition is feminist anti-essentialism, which first distinguished between sex and gender in an effort to denaturalize asymmetry. The second tradition is practice theory, which emphasized habitual forms of embodiment in its effort to overcome the oppositions between individual and society. In concluding, questions are raised about the degree to which current versions of performance theory enact rather than critically engage the political ec...

In the Place of Origins: Modernity and Its Mediums in Northern Thailand

Abstract: Acknowledgments vii Note on Transcription x Introduction 1 1 Writing, Exchange, Translation: A Poetics of the Modern 13 2 Ruin, or, What the New City Remembers 55 3 First, Forgetting 80 4 The Appearance of Order 107 5 The Secret of the Dish 150 6 Transmissions, or, the Appearance of Culture 181 7 Representations: Locality and the Spirit of Democracy 240 8 Outside, Eyeless, and on Fire: The Apotheosis of Representation 287 9 After All Else: The End of Mediumship? 332 Bibliography 351 Index 371

Educating desire : Thailand, transnationalism, and transgression

Abstract: Les echanges au sein de la « diaspora » homosexuelle internationale sont censes avoir des effets de liberalisation. L'A. montre que ce n'est pas le cas en Thailande en ce qui concerne les pratiques sexuelles des hommes. Par exemple, la principale institution de formation des enseignants en Thailande, l'Institut Ratchabat, pratique une segregation envers les homosexuels depuis quelques annees. L'A. analyse egalement les multiples interpretations qui ont cours autour du terme « kathoey » concernant aussi bien la transsexualite que l'homosexualite

The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure

Abstract: Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are trafficked. In this article I trace the range of anthropological literature that seeks to theorize infrastructure by drawing on biopolitics, science and technology studies, and theories of technopolitics. I also examine other dimensions of infrastructures that release different meanings and structure politics in various ways: through the aesthetic and the sensorial, desire and promise.

Qualitative Inquiry: Tensions And Transformations

Abstract: The domain of qualitative inquiry offers some of the richest and most rewarding explorations available in contemporary social science. This bounty is the outcome of a host of historical convergences. The area has welcomed scores of scholars who have found their disciplinary traditions narrow and constraining. Despite potential peer criticism, they have entered the qualitative world brimming with energy. Other denizens have found outlets for expressing particular commitments or skills; here there is space for societal critique and political activism, just as there are clearings for literary, artistic and dramatic expressions. Further, scholars from diverse arenas -AIDS researchers, market analysts, ethnographers and more -have entered in search of ways to bring new vitality to their customary pursuits. Perhaps most significantly, the tidal wave of theoretical and metatheoretical debates sweeping across the intellectual world variably indexed as post-foundational, post-structural, postEnlightenment, and postmodern has swept into the qualitative harbor. Here these turbulent interchanges have produced profound challenges to the ways in which the social sciences are understood and practiced.

The Commodification of the Body and its Parts

Abstract: ▪ Abstract The human body—and its parts—has long been a target for commodification within myriad cultural settings. A discussion of commodification requires that one consider, first, the significance of the body within anthropology and, second, what defines a body “part.” After exploring these initial questions, this article outlines dominant theoretical approaches to commodification within anthropology, with Mauss and Marx figuring prominently. The discussion then turns to historically well-documented forms of body commodification: These include slavery and other oppressive labor practices; female reproduction; and the realms of sorcery and endocannibalism. An analysis here uncovers dominant established approaches that continue to drive current studies. The remainder of this article concerns emergent biotechnologies, whose application in clinical and other related scientific arenas marks a paradigmatic shift in anthropological understandings of the commodified, fragmented body. The following contexts are...