Locations of Envy. an Ethnography of Aguabuena Potters Daniela Castellanos Montes
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47-+<376; 70 /6>?" +6 /<26719+82? 70 +1=+,=/6+ 87<</9; .@LHDJ@ -@PQDJJ@LMP 5MLQDP + <GDPHP ;RAKHQQDC EMO QGD .DFODD ME 8G. @Q QGD =LHSDOPHQV ME ;Q +LCODTP &$%' 0RJJ KDQ@C@Q@ EMO QGHP HQDK HP @S@HJ@AJD HL 9DPD@OBG*;Q+LCODTP)0RJJ<DUQ @Q) GQQN)##ODPD@OBG!ODNMPHQMOV"PQ!@LCODTP"@B"RI# 8JD@PD RPD QGHP HCDLQHEHDO QM BHQD MO JHLI QM QGHP HQDK) GQQN)##GCJ"G@LCJD"LDQ#%$$&'#'($( <GHP HQDK HP NOMQDBQDC AV MOHFHL@J BMNVOHFGQ Locations of Envy. An Ethnography of Aguabuena Potters Daniela Castellanos Montes Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Social Anthropology School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies University of St Andrews October 2012 Declarations 1. Candidate’s declarations: I, Daniela Castellanos Montes, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 84,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in September, 2008 and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in Social Anthropology in May, 2009; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2008 and 2012. Date …… signature of candidate ……… 2. Supervisor’s declaration: I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in Social Anthropology in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. Date …… signature of supervisor ……… 3. Permission for electronic publication: (to be signed by both candidate and supervisor) In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I have obtained any third-party copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo below. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the electronic publication of this thesis: (i) Access to printed copy and electronic publication of thesis through the University of St Andrews. Date …… signature of candidate …… signature of supervisor ……… ABSTRACT This thesis is an anthropological exploration of the envy of Aguabuena people, a small rural community of potters in the village of Ráquira, in the Boyacá region of Andean Colombia. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork among these potters, I propose an understanding of envy in Aguabuena as an existential experience, shaping relationships between the self and others in the world, crosscutting metaphysical and physical spheres, and balancing between corrosive and more empathetic ways of co-existence. Disclosing the multipresence of envy in Aguabuena‟s world, its effects on people (including the ethnographer), and the way envy is embodied, performed, reciprocated and circumvented by the potters, I locate envy in various contexts where it is said to be manifested. Furthermore, I discuss the complex spectrum of envy and its multivalent meanings, or oscillations, in the life of Aguabuena people. I also present interactions with people surrounding potters, such as Augustinian monks, crafts middlemen, and municipal authorities, all of whom recount the envy of potters. My research challenges previous anthropological interpretations on envy and provides an alternative reading of this phenomenon. Moving away from labelling and regulatory explanations of envy, performative models, or pathological interpretations of the subject, I analyse the lived experience of envy and how it encompasses different realms of experience as well as flows of social relations. While focusing on the tensions and entanglements that envy brings to potters, as it constrains social life but also activates and reinforces social bonds, I examine the channels through which envy circulates and how it is put into motion by potters. Additionally, my thesis intends to contribute to anthropological studies of rural pottery communities in Andean Colombia. I present my unfolding understanding of envy by using both the potters‟ concept and material detail, punto, location, referring to a spot from where Aguabuena people enter different vistas of the world, or denoting a precise time when things or materials change their physical qualities. Through this device, I disclose realms of envy, while seeking to immerse the reader in the lived experience of envy. Key words: envy, potters, Aguabuena, punto/location, entanglements, craft Table of Contents Acknowledgements................................................................................................ 4 Notes on the use of language .................................................................................. 7 Opening: The Envy of Aguabuena’s Potters ............................................................ 8 Approaching envidia ........................................................................................................... 9 The making of Aguabuena ................................................................................................ 12 Rustic potters and pots ...................................................................................................... 16 Ceramic transformations and gender ............................................................................... 19 A methodology for envy .................................................................................................... 24 Puntos, locations for envy ................................................................................................. 27 CHAPTER 1 ....................................................................................................... 33 The Realm of Envy: Short Stories of Envious Beings and the World ....................... 33 The Devil‟s envy and the Virgin‟s envy ............................................................................ 34 Santa Mónica‟s envy ......................................................................................................... 38 Two days of preaching by the priest on envy .................................................................... 40 The envy of the clay .......................................................................................................... 44 The envy of the pot ............................................................................................................ 46 An unused aqueduct .......................................................................................................... 48 The envy of the anthropologist .......................................................................................... 50 Closing thoughts ............................................................................................................... 52 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................... 54 Oscillations on Envy ............................................................................................ 54 Oscillation 1: Destructive, creative .................................................................................. 55 Oscillation 2: Etymology, definition ................................................................................. 58 Oscillation 3: Being for oneself and being for others ...................................................... 61 Oscillation 4: Incompleteness, plasticity .......................................................................... 65 Oscillation 5: Passion, the driving force of life ................................................................ 67 Oscillation 6: Emotion, sin, intersubjective experience ................................................... 68 Oscillation 7: A Telos, a body .......................................................................................... 72 1 CHAPTER 3 ....................................................................................................... 75 The (An) Anatomy of Envy .................................................................................. 75 Seeing and being seen ....................................................................................................... 76 The eye‟s tail ..................................................................................................................... 81 A potter‟s dream ............................................................................................................... 82 A visual corner .................................................................................................................. 83 Smelling and tasting envy ................................................................................................. 84 Sound tracks .....................................................................................................................