January 2014 - Doctoral Network Meeting
This month's meeting is a lecture on anthropological approaches to climate and culture in Himalayan India. This will be presented by Heid Jerstad and chaired by Rhys Howell.
GESA Doctoral Network
The main doors of the building close at 6pm.If you arrive later, please call or text Sergio at 07880 903733 to be let in.Some pizzas and refreshments will be provided as usual.
Friday 24 January 2014, 6.30pm
Friday 24 January 2014, 8.30pm
Informatics Forum: 2.33 (2nd floor)
Causing the weather
- Topic
- Causing the weather: anthropological approaches to climate and culture in Himalayan India
- Speaker
- Heid Jerstad
- Chair
- Rhys Howell
Abstract
Cold, hot, wet and windy. Weather or seasons, these atmospheric forces come out of the sky and impact on human bodies.
What is it about the weather that means something for us?
How, beyond poetry and daylight, does it shape our lives?
Based on ten months fieldwork in a small village in the Indian Himalayas this project aims to interrogate the importances and intertwinedness of weather with our lives which, I argue, are not always apparent to us.
From domestic/somatic thermal regulation to the use of space and the health risks of rain, weather dimensions are many and various.
The question is: which line of enquiry(s) will be most useful and interesting?
Suggested readings:
Hornborg, A. (2008) Machine fetishism and the consumer's burden. Anthropology Today, 24: 4-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8322.2008.00610.x
Ingold, Tim. (2012) Toward an Ecology of Materials. Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 41, pp. 427-442, 2012.
Optional reading
Maeda T, Sugawara A, Fukushima T, Higuchi S, Ishibashi K (2005) Effects of lifestyle, body composition, and physical fitness on cold tolerance in humans. J Physiol Anthropol Appl Human Sci 24: 439-443