Body and Affect in the Intercultural Encounter
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Body and affect in the intercultural encounter Langaa & African Studies centre Body and affect in the intercultural encounter René Devisch Langaa Research and Publishing Common Initiative Group PO Box 902 Mankon Bamenda North West Region Cameroon Phone +237 33 07 34 69 / 33 36 14 02 [email protected] http://www.langaa-rpcig.net www.africanbookscollective.com/publishers/langaa-rpcig African Studies Centre P.O. Box 9555 2300 RB Leiden The Netherlands [email protected] http://www.ascleiden.nl ISBN-10: 9956-764-01-9 ISBN-13: 978-9956-764-01-3 © Langaa & African Studies Centre, 2017 Contents Acknowledgements................................................................................................. ix Plates .................................................................................................................... xi Preface, Koen Stroeken ........................................................................................xv 1. Introduction: the co-implication of anthropologists and their hosts ........................................................................... 1 The book and this chapter ......................................................................... 1 The intercultural encounter: perspectives and challenges ...................... 3 The anthropologist and the host groups........................................................ 5 Feeling affected and questioned ..................................................................... 9 Ethical commitment and shared humanity .................................................12 The Yakaphone people ..............................................................................18 Reciprocal anthropology and innovative research ...............................24 Reversal of perspective: seeing here from there ............................................24 The body-group-world weave .....................................................................31 Towards an ontology of resonance and co-naturality ..................................36 A matrixial understanding of subjectification............................................38 Overview ....................................................................................................40 Part 1 The shock of the multicultural 2. The multicentric world: interview by Jan Van Pelt ................. 53 3. In praise of Jean-Marc Ela, advocate of the people of below ................................................................................... 71 4. Frenzy, violence and ethical renewal in Kinshasa .......................77 Method of inquiry .....................................................................................81 Kinshasa.......................................................................................................82 v Body and affect in the intercultural encounter An orgy of violence and ruptures in the 1990s ...................................89 From illusion to fury .................................................................................90 Proletarian uprisings .................................................................................92 Positions of failure ....................................................................................94 Predatory economy of the street ................................................................96 Violence seeking to reverse social injustice ...................................................97 Ideals and norms fade away ......................................................................99 Poor and wealthy in a common void ....................................................... 101 The ethical dawn of oniric regeneration............................................. 102 Mimesis ends in exhaustion ................................................................... 104 Frenzy and ostentation........................................................................... 106 Critique and creativity ........................................................................... 111 The dawn of a new cosmology .......................................................... 114 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 116 Part 2 Cultural embedding of the body, senses and meaning 5. A dancing mask, estranged in the museum ................................ 119 The dancing masks ................................................................................. 120 A cult enactment turned into a curio ................................................... 122 The masculine gaze and its incipient deconstruction......................... 124 The mask’s view upon the observer ................................................... 127 6. Affects and senses in healing .......................................................... 131 Affliction cults’ life-bearing meaning ................................................... 132 Blending of sensory capacities ............................................................. 134 Borderlinking and the dynamic of homeopathy .............................. 141 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 144 vi Contents Part 3 The moral economy of the intercultural 7. Salvation of souls: the Belgian masculine missionary ........... 149 The “civilising mission” ......................................................................... 151 The Belgian missionary endeavour in the Congo.............................. 153 Christian modernisation in the homeland ................................................ 153 The missionaries’ styles and strategies.................................................. 155 Indigenising or the adaptation effort........................................................ 155 The assimilation strategy ....................................................................... 159 Harmonious association attempts ........................................................... 160 The whitening trap ................................................................................ 161 The educational endeavour ................................................................... 163 Schools and books as subjugation ........................................................... 165 Different styles of education ................................................................... 166 The indigenising approach to education ................................................... 167 Towards a practical education, but unsuccessful ....................................... 169 The association option ............................................................................ 169 Higher learning and university .............................................................. 170 Epilogue ................................................................................................... 172 8. Anthropology cataloguing classical African medicine René Devisch and Mbonyinkebe Sebahire ................................. 175 Classical African medicine and health care ......................................... 176 Local cultural perspectives on body and health ................................ 182 The life-force and life-flow ....................................................................... 182 The gendering of health ......................................................................... 186 Symptoms and cultural etiology .......................................................... 189 Diagnosis............................................................................................... 189 Cultural idioms of distress ..................................................................... 191 Divinatory etiology ................................................................................ 194 vii Body and affect in the intercultural encounter Treatment ................................................................................................. 197 Affliction and healing cults ..................................................................... 198 The synergism of healing procedures ....................................................... 201 Transforming devices and cultural inducers ............................................. 203 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 211 9. Plural health care in Kinshasa René Devisch, Lapika Dimonfu, Jaak Le Roy and Peter Crossman ............................................................................ 213 The action-research ................................................................................ 216 Research setting...................................................................................... 216 Research techniques ................................................................................ 217 Findings ................................................................................................ 221 From data to interpretation ................................................................... 226 From research to action ........................................................................ 228 Quality of care ...................................................................................... 232 Organisation of the healers.................................................................... 233 Benefits for the community ...................................................................... 233 Collaboration with biomedical care ........................................................