ANTHMETHGRP2-2425-BELA-SHARMA

[Last modified: November, 27 2024 12:34 PM]

We are sitting in our warm kitchen on a cold night for dinner, in another country away from home, eating my favourite dal from home — a simple and flavourful lentil soup made with multiple spices and peanuts, served with rice. My partner cooked it for us and it is our first time eating this traditional recipe since leaving home. This experience is rich in love, feeling and memory.

‘Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ is playing gently on our chunky old-fashioned house speaker—a soft and familiar sound. The light is soft and orange. As we heat up the food, the smell of spices floods the small apartment, creating a smell-atmosphere as an all-encompassing base from which we begin our eating experience. The smell is warm, exciting and familiar—of cinnamon and cumin and star-anise—and it prepares the body for food.

We sit at our small table with deep bowls of steaming rice and dal, and in silence begin to eat. Our body relaxing and grounding as we eat, more and more with every bite. We are immersed in the smell, taste and sight and touch of the warm dish, cupped in our hands. The tastes are warm and subtly spicy, the textures are soft and moist, balanced with a crunch from the peanuts. The sensory experience is too overwhelming to speak at first, so we remain in silence. It tastes like home and I am transported in brief moments. In this immensely embodied experience, we are totally imbued in the present moment, welcoming the nourishing food into our bodies. Experiencing nourishment happen at the experiential level. I feel a flood of appreciation for the warmth and love of life, for my partner in creating this experience for us, and I express gestures of gratitude to him.

Rituals and experiences of eating across cultures fascinate me. I think their are a multitude of multimodal methods to communicate these experiences. Film and photography can capture the embodied attention to the food, in particular body gestures, movements and facial expressions. Colour pallets can capture elements of smell and taste, for example to convey spicy warm food I would use a diversity of reds, oranges, yellows. Soundscapes can capture the general atmosphere as well as our silence while eating, conveying the levels of immersion in this experience. Abstract ‘feeling’ drawings may be able to convey the totality of this experience. Finally, sensory mapping can convey simply the diversity of sensory experience of these moments. All these creative methods used simultaneously would be able to capture the subtleties of this embodied experience, and its deep meanings that words and thought alone cannot capture.

[Last modified: November, 20 2024 12:47 PM]

Walking to the climbing gym, it is cold and I am wrapped up in layers and scarves. Unfamiliar to winter climates, the cold makes me curl up into myself. I feel the freshness on my skin, enhancing the feeling I have on my moving legs, but my mind too, feels frozen and in limitation. I can’t think properly, only focus on my destination, although the changing leaves never fail to catch my awe and attention.

Arriving at the gym, my body slowly starts to warm up and my brain defrosts. Warming up is a routine—I move my head in circles, stretch my arms up high and move gently through my entire body, feeling each sensation and muscle stretch, focusing on the areas of tension, all the while watching other climbers and their unique styles—warming up the mind. As I move intentionally in this way, I connect with my body and feel myself entering new levels of embodiment. My awareness dissipates throughout my body, leading to more inclusive perceptions of the environment and my being in it.

I begin with easy routes, as I gradually feel into my body and practice movements, focusing on nuances. When climbing, there are learned ways of moving the body that focus on balance, flexibility, orientation and control, all which require and reinforce a highly embodied, subtle and intentional movement. Actions are performed in this way. When on the wall, one’s entire focus (mind and body) is on the route and it is a moment of deep presence. There are multiple senses engaged in navigating the route—eyesight and mind to think it through, and the touch of the fingers and hands to feel the holds. There are so many diverse ways that climbers climb—some more embodied and elegant, some less, relying instead on explosiveness, strength and determination.

Gradually progressing to more challenging routes, frustrations arise as well as feelings of accomplishment and bliss as I complete a route. After descending in less elegant ways, I take periods of rest and grounding, usually sitting on the mats. I feel the soreness of my muscles as the mind wanders or blanks or observes other climbers and their techniques—learning what I am able from them and this culture of movement. After the session, I cool down with stretching, turning inwards and observing my tired and engaged body. I am in an embodied, connected and satisfied state.

[Last modified: November, 13 2024 04:46 PM]

My pilot research project is embedded with political dimensions in its engagements with the politics of knowledge production, epistemic violence and colonial legacies of modern top-down conservation practices. The research will actively challenge power structures, capitalist management systems including those of the government and international organizations, and their colonial legacies. Moreover, it will represent challenges towards modern epistemologies regarding their orientation to nature, the culture-nature separation and ‘control’ of the natural world. 

In attempting to unearth the problems of current conservation practices, and give voice to suppressed alternative and indigenous means of living with nature and nature stewardship, the research is rooted in de-colonial and feminist approaches and political positions. I aim to engage with the radical threads anthropology has to offer including in political ontology, for example as articulated in Fergusons ‘Anti-Politics Machine’ (1990). 

The interaction of my own positionality with the political dimensions are complex—being part of a contradictory colonial history of Indians in Kenya—which may effect my legitimacy for local peoples in carrying out a de-colonial research project. Moreover, my own personal ecofeminist orientations, means that I have an active hope to uncover other ontologies and ways of doing nature conservation. I must be aware to not let my desires and biases influence my research and interviews—in imposing radical assumptions on the field, and to not devalue those who engage in colonial conservation practices but to humanise them and understand their reasonings.

The potential outcomes of your research findings are that indigenous and local epistemologies and ontologies in relation to nature conservation, protection and social-ecological living are essential in ensuring better long-term conservation practices, true sustainability, in achieving balance with the natural world and ensuring humanities’ survival. The political implications of this research finding is that it challenges the legitimacy and therefor power of ‘business as usual’ top down development and conservation approaches and the institutions and the governments who propel them. It will most probably face pushback, or the work will not be engaged with and have minimal impact. Nonetheless it is important to contribute in building these wider understandings of how things can be done differently.

Given these political dimensions, I aim to adapt my research methods in various ways including in interviews; to be curious and questioning of interlocutors position, instead of combative and assumptious (not productive). Moreover, I aim to focus on stories and life histories to achieve an expansive understanding encompassing all the complexities of real life. Finally, with an understanding that my research engagement will inevitably have a political impact and transform the contexts through which I enter, I aim to creatively co-engage with existing epistemic communities in the field to generate a productive knowledge production for both the communities and research. Thereby co-engaging in world-making through the research project, drawing on Friere and Graebers’ methodologies. 

[Last modified: October, 28 2024 05:42 PM]

Interconnection and embodiment at Momo’s cafe, Gorden Square

Walking into Gordon square, a natural garden space amongst bustling university campuses in central London, I settle at ‘Momo’s café’—a quaint garden kiosk that cultivates an atmosphere of peace, ease and connection. It is a small wooden hut, decorated with signposts and pots with flowers and plants. It serves a variety of hot drinks and fresh cooked food, and is in itself bustling, yet calm, with customers and efficient serving. The cafe has simple wooden seats and tables surrounding it, allowing for people to sit together and enjoy their food in the garden.

This hut somehow symbolises the small, complex and harmonic entities and relationships that make up the living world. It represents an example of the potentials of compatibility of human creation and activity with the natural world, a pertinent statement of our time of anthropogenic imbalance. The grounded essence of the café reminds people to embed themselves into the environment. Its friendliness is inviting, drawing people together and to the park, to eat tasty food or drink warming beverages, encouraging them to connect with their senses in a natural environment of heightened sensitivities. I am therefore interested in how this cafe invokes the values of embodiment and interconnection between human, non-human and natural worlds.

There are a diversity of people who interact with the cafe, in different ways, and all with a notable level of respect and patience for each other. Some come with their friends or colleagues to discuss life or academic topics in between study sessions and lectures, others come alone for a moment of respite, some come into this peaceful space to work and others to eat and enjoy their food. There are two friends who eat mostly in silence, occasionally making conversation but mostly looking up into the trees and admiring their state of embodied connection, at the fruitful intersection of tasting, eating and being with nature.

Reflecting on my notes, I realise some difficulties in engaging with your environment and carrying out detailed observation. Feeling distracted, uninspired and tired on this day, I found myself reflecting on how to be continuously engaged and inspired by the everyday of ethnography? How to find the creativity to make sense of the world and form meaningful stories. In working through this challenge in this exercise, I let the field take the lead in directing my experience and interpretations. 

[Last modified: October, 28 2024 12:22 PM]

My positionality as a 4th generation Indian Kenyan woman in Kenya.

In reflecting on my positionality in my research; exploring how diverse understandings and epistemologies of nature and consequent conservation practices are contested amongst different actors in Kenya—a topic that aims to contribute to a decolonising anthropology in dealing with questions of land repatriation, inequality, structural violence and politics of knowledge production, several meaningful parallels emerge.

Firstly, I am a fourth generation Indian Kenyan—my great-grandfathers and their families were moved from India by the British before World War 1, along with a significant Indian population to work primarily on building rail roads, and later to dominate business. There now exists a signification Indian diaspora in Kenya, many who occupy the middle-upper class. Therefore, my positionality in Kenya is very nuanced, having privilege initiated by colonialism and its structures of power. Simultaneously, Indian Kenyans have become embedded in society, particularly in the big cities of Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, and they are even recognised as one of Kenya’s many ‘tribes’ in the constitution. Nonetheless, my position stands out and is separate from the local population and is important when considering my positionality in research.

I believe my unique positionality may help me in my research question in the following ways. My family history of migration and integration means that I have grown up with a plurality of cultures and interpretations of the world. This history is in is itself a contested phenomenon, rooted in colonial histories and processes, and resulting in the inequalities of power that persist today. Similarly, dominating conservation practices in Kenya are rooted in these colonial histories, legacies and epistemologies. In unearthing and understanding the colonial legacies, politics of knowledge production and contestations of conservation in Kenya, I will be able to simultaneously explore my own personal and historical contested legacies.

In my research I must be aware of how class, race, and gender inform my approach to the research. Occupying a privileged class and of contested Indian race, will allow access into some institutions, and may limit interactions with local populations as they remain suspicious or distrusting owing to continuing political, social and economic inequalities and subsequent local assumptions. Moreover, Kenya being a highly patriarchal society, institutionalised during colonial rule, being a young female researcher will bring its own sets of challenges in accessing spaces and being taken seriously. Nonetheless, I believe the ‘problematic’ aspects of my positionality may help unearth the many problematic logics behind political and social structures, epistemological hegemonies and subjugations, and how these shape people’s relationship to the natural environment and conservation practices in Kenya.

Aside from this, I aim to engage with a methodology of storytelling, important in Swahili and Bantu cultures of Kenya, and in order to overcome points of separateness (Michael Jackson), make and unmake knowledge paradigms. This way, I will be able to explore questions of what story is being told, who is telling it and why? What power structures are being produced or reproduced through this work? Finally semi-fluency in Swahili is something I would like to improve before my research in order to make space for a greater level of interaction with my interlocutors.

[Last modified: October, 16 2024 01:10 PM]

Sat in Russel Square Park on a Friday mid-morning, I am immersed in an environment of natural elements within the big concrete city of London. Although aesthetically designed by men, the old, tall trees define this park, reminding us of what existed before the city. The trees stand large, elegant, integral — they possess history and meaning, tell a story, create an atmosphere. 

The atmosphere is one of peace, calm, tranquility, safety. Sounds of water flowing from the fountain, birds chirping, people walking and talking at ease. This atmosphere is amplified in contrast to the busy, noisy urban chaos around—cars and construction. I watch as people enter and immediately slow down, are eased and opened in the softness of the natural environment. People are drawn to the grandness of the trees and the sweetness of the squirrels. Nature invites them to connect, to be transformed and infused with awe, just for a moment and a photo (to capture these precious experiences), before they continue along their ways. 

Some people sit on benches, enjoying moments of rest and respite. Some are absorbed by their digital devices in online worlds, albeit seeming at ease. Some are interested in the man-made elements of the central fountains and other people as they walk about. A little boy is captivated by a squirrel, he follows it where it takes him, under a grand tree and amongst fresh autumn leaves. Hands on the earth, is whole world is engrossed by the natural world in this moment, as he interacts with it at the most innocent level.

There is a diversity of interest and interaction, as people engage with the natural environment in divergent ways. Similarly, people are moved and transformed by nature in different ways. I wonder what the principles shaping these differences are (life history, upbringing, experience, attitude), the non-identical ways and degrees people are changed by interactions with nature, and how they influence how individuals and communities feel responsible for protecting, conserving and cultivating their natural environment. 

In this context of a park in cosmopolitan central London, it is evident that no one feels a particular personal attachment to questions of conservation in this location. Instead, most people simply exist in and appreciate the small beauty’s of this environment, allowing their perception to be expanded and their mood to be elevated to a state of peace and joy. In itself, evidence of the multifaceted power of interaction with nature, of which I will explore.

[Last modified: October, 8 2024 06:13 PM]

Topic/themes: 

Exploration of alternative (e.g. local, indigenous) epistemologies and ontologies in relating to the world, specifically in the diverse ways nature is perceived and consequent conservation is practiced. Using the approach of political ecology.

Research Question:

How are different epistemologies of nature and methods of conservation amongst diverse actors contested in Nairobi, Kenya? Top down vs bottom up?

Methods:

• Art (drawing, painting), photography, video, audio — I believe ethnographic art has the potential to break down barriers between the anthropologist and their interlocutors, act as the first point of immersion and interpretation for the anthropologist. The methods of photography, video and audio are essential in capturing the essence of realities that otherwise cannot be captured through words alone.
• Walking in natural environments with interlocutors — movement offers a fruitful opportunity for dynamic dialogue, processing of thoughts and creative thinking. Moreover, walking in natural environments allows one to observe what people are interested in, where they are drawn to — thereby understanding the environment through their lens.
• Hanging out
• Interviews
• Conservation organization data analysis 

Potential findings: 

There are multiple and diverse ways that people interpret and relate to the environment, with local perceptions differing considerably from top-down understandings. This has political consequences for how conservation is practiced in Kenya. 

Relevancy: 

The area now known as Kenya has always been the home of rich and diverse natural environments. Although the country has experienced rapid development in the past 100 years, it still nurtures a great amount of natural environment — owing to persistent environmental and conservation efforts and the country’s high reliance on environmental tourism. These are nonetheless in constant risk as the force of modernity continues its offense. Therefore, there are diverse groups of people in both Nairobi and Kenya who have long been engaged in working with, nurturing, protecting and conserving the natural environment in diverse ways. 

However, conservation efforts have tended to be dominated by top-down approaches influenced by modern development’s conceptions and practice, rooted in the country’s settler colonial history. Consequently there has been rising concern about local people’s history, livelihoods, rights and knowledge in these natural environments that require further attention. 

What are the possibilities of this knowledge to improve socio-ecological wellbeing?

Ethics:

Uncovering the layers of the politics of conservation to work towards a more equal and cohesive socio-ecological context.

Literature:

West, P. (2005) “Translation, Value and Space: Theorizing an Ethnographic and Engaged Environmental Anthropology.” American Anthropologist Vol 207, Issue 4. 

 

[Last modified: October, 1 2024 05:58 PM]

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