Abstract
This chapter discusses the significant contribution this archaeological volume makes to the study of emotions. It begins by identifying important themes that run across the various contributions (e.g., emotion as object of study rather than embellishment to explanation; emotion as “agent”). It offers an appreciation of the expansive disciplinary (e.g., folklore, philosophy, sociology) and theoretical roamings of the authors that complement their extensive collective culturally contextualized knowledge across space and time. Attention is also brought to the challenge of vocabulary in facing the subject of emotion when the very terms “anxiety” and “fear” are themselves culturally variable. A preliminary attempt is made to address the question of patterning concerning situations of, expressions of, understandings of, and handlings of anxiety and fear across the cultural diversity presented by the authors. Finally, some modest suggestions are offered for continuing discussion of such “troubling” matters.
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- 1.
I have borrowed this conjuring from the central highland Malagasy apotropaic practice of faditra: the use of gestures, words, and objects to distance the nefarious.
- 2.
“Constructivism: in emotion studies, the belief that emotions are culturally constructed and constituted and that even the bodily perturbations associated with emotion are experienced in culturally determined ways” (Tarlow, 2012, p. 170).
- 3.
The contributors to this volume demonstrate Tarlow’s assertion that today “… the archaeology of emotion is a sophisticated, analytical, and disciplined academic field, which properly takes emotion to be the subject, rather than the method, of study” (2012, p. 172).
- 4.
Think here about “caring and sharing” Neanderthals, for instance.
- 5.
Think here about Neanderthal cannibalism and honorably buried women warriors, for instance.
- 6.
These emotions, believed to be legible from (spontaneous) facial expression, include such things as interest-excitement, enjoyment-joy, surprise-startle, distress-anguish, disgust-contempt, anger-rage, shame-humiliation, and fear-terror (1980, p. 129).
- 7.
“Control, stability, and composure under the West African rubric of the cool seem to constitute elements of an aesthetic attitude that extends beyond the habits of the body to elements of the house and broader public landscape.”
- 8.
Consider the following analogous example of universal symbols. It would appear at first glance that certain materials and events are so striking (e.g., the sun, the waxing and waning moon, blood, stone), so experientially salient that they might sustain arguments concerning universally shared symbols. Accordingly, one might imagine that stone would recommend itself as a symbol of death, permanence, destruction, and disorder. Paul Radin’s (1957, p. 277) Oglala Sioux informant offered such a description in contrasting stone to the symbol of the circle, the symbol of life. Yet for the Merina of the central highlands of Madagascar, stone is the most celestial of all terrestrial items, associated with creator beings and monarchs (Kus & Raharijaona, 1998, pp. 53–61).
- 9.
Consider further Fernandez’ suggestion: “It will be enough if anthropologist pay attention in the field to the ways in which men are aided in conveying inchoate psychological experiences by appealing to a range of more easily observable and concrete events in other domains of their lives. There must surely be some universals involved. It is likely that the domain of corporeal experience is used everywhere to clarify the heart and the head of many inchoate matters or the warmth or coolness of any personality” (1984, p. 25).
- 10.
But then again, we are familiar with the phrase: “to be filled with fear and loathing.” It is interesting to note that the online urban dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fear%20and%20loathing offers the following definition: “To Fear and Loath—Going out for a massive night containing random adventures, multiple locations and fuelled by plenty of body and substance abuse.”
- 11.
For example, Loren says “This is not to say that anxiety is a universal emotion….” and Brown Vega maintains that “it is not my intention to assert that there are universal emotions….”.
- 12.
To be clear, the term “song” for Ifaluk societies is a “singular” concept whereas to translate it into English we are obliged to qualify our “singular” concept of “anger” with terms such as “righteous” and “justified”.
- 13.
“People in Piri and Roto are timid. It is important to note here the shape of the timidity. They are not timid when it is a matter of their personal physical skill in relation to the impersonal world. They climb tall trees, they dive in the lagoons for fish…with apparent confidence. In relation to the impersonal world they are not heroic, but they are confident. They are anxious about the spirit-invested corners of the nonliving world…. What they tend to be timid about is people and social encounters…” (1973, pp. 307–308).
- 14.
“In addressing the question of “learning non-aggression” among the Mbuti, Turnbull (1978) describes thickly and sensuously the material environment critical to this “learning”: sweet-smelling, clean, and light-colored bark cloth to wrap infants; shared beds of leaves; baths in sweet water from vines; encouraged explorations by toddlers of camp and forest edge, adolescent play of climbing trees and swinging from branches and vines, adolescent learning of ritual fire lighting and of songs to keep the forest awake, etc.” (Kus, 2010, p. 167).
- 15.
Perhaps this might include joint sessions at professional meetings.
- 16.
Latin anxietas, from anxius. First known use: circa 1525 (Merriam-Webster On-line Dictionary and Thesaurus http://www.merriam-webster.com).
- 17.
Middle English feren, from Old English fæřan, from fæř. First known use: before twelfth century (Merriam-Webster On-line Dictionary and Thesaurus http://www.merriam-webster.com/).
- 18.
If one searches for synonyms for this term, many of the choices are equally intriguing: (1) eerie, unnatural, unearthly, preternatural, supernatural, otherworldly, ghostly, mysterious, strange, unsettling, abnormal, weird, bizarre, surreal, eldritch; informal creepy, spooky, freakish, freaky and (2) striking, remarkable, extraordinary, exceptional, incredible, noteworthy, notable, arresting (https://www.google.com/search?q=synonym+for+uncanny&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a).
- 19.
“I postulate the existence of ‘emotional communities’: groups in which people adhere to the same norms of emotional expression and value—or devalue—the same or related emotions. More than one emotional community may exist—indeed normally does exist—contemporaneously, and these communities may change over time. Some come to the fore to dominate our sources, then recede in importance. Others are almost entirely hidden from us, though we may imagine they exist and may even see some of their effects on more visible groups” (Rosenwein, 2006, p. 2).
- 20.
Auspicious comes from the Latin word auspicium means “divination by observing the flight of birds.”
- 21.
A perusal of his chapter titles (e.g., “…Metaphors of Everyman”, “the Mission of Metaphor in Expressive Culture,” “Syllogisms of Association….”) should entice some of us to look further into his arguments.
- 22.
By way of illustration, if I am allowed to continue the “gross” dichotomy of nature and culture, it is understandable why an animal as formidable as a polar bear might be a powerful shamanic ally spirit. A domesticated sheep or goat, on the other hand, lends itself as appropriate sacrifice to (an) omniscient being(s).
- 23.
For example, there are occupations and tasks (e.g., climbing tall trees, facing dangerous animals) that are more dangerous than others in most societies. Consider also traditional iron workers in sub-Saharan Africa who experienced anxiety in a situation of uncertain control of a complex technological process (e.g., Schmidt, 1997).
- 24.
The theme of “real” versus “imagined” illnesses (again, relying on a vocabulary glosses) might be an interesting theme to pursue to “complicate” the question of “biological leakages”.
- 25.
See Kus and Raharijaona (2015) for an extended discussion of the powerful trope of “dirt” that went unrecognized by not only European visitors to Madagascar, but also by some Malagasy elite detached from life in the countryside.
- 26.
For fuller discussion of the symbol of “dirt” see Kus and Raharijaona (2015).
- 27.
I want to thank my colleague, Victor Raharijaona, for his poetic decrypting skills.
- 28.
“Materiality as trope might be a very exciting entry point into our discussion of emotion in oral societies known only from their archaeological remains. It is also the case that poetic redundancy across the quotidian and the ritual is also a feature of these societies. However, we might not want to think in term of repetitive, replicated and recitative “statements” as we attempt to break a symbolic code, but rather to think of interpreting a poetry of copious iconic and indexical cross-references (e.g., Raharijaona & Kus, 2000)” (Kus, 2010, p. 171).
- 29.
In his classic work on “Baseball Magic” Gmelch argues that: “Baseball, America’s national pastime, is an arena in which players behave remarkably like Malinowski’s Trobriand fishermen. To professional ballplayers, baseball is more than a game, it is an occupation. Because their livelihoods depend on how well they perform, many use magic [ritual and fetishes] in an attempt to control the chance that is built into baseball. There are three essential activities of the game: pitching, hitting, and fielding. In the first two, chance can play a surprisingly important role” (2008, p. 127).
- 30.
“We have to strain to see the reality of the alternative through curtains of rhetoric, some dropped by the nostalgic, more by the apologists for capitalism. The old life was simple, we are told. Absurd. Life was anything but simple when people in small groups, interrupted by storms and epidemics and marching armies, managed to raise their own food, make their own clothing, and build their own shelter, while creating their own music, literature, art, science and philosophy” Glassie (2000, p. 48).
- 31.
Mea culpa.
- 32.
“How can we, however, address embodiment focusing on experience and corporeality without producing conventional representations….. I have no answer to these questions but I feel nevertheless that these questions should be posed and tackled, if we are to undermine logocentricity.”
- 33.
“The difference between style and fashion is quality.” Giorgio Armani
- 34.
Fiat money of silver was used in trade in Madagascar over the centuries. It was the case that many of the coins were melted down for jewelry or cut into smaller pieces to be used in local exchanges. For fuller discussion see Kus & Raharijaona (2011b).
- 35.
The image is of something so durable that could be swallowed by a crocodile yet not be harmed or destroyed.
- 36.
Four is a sacred and powerful number in Madagascar, so I have chosen to offer four items of sorona.
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Epilogue
Epilogue
With all this discussion of fear and anxiety, it is good that Chesson reminds us that in our lives there is, and in the lives of others there “would presumably have been plenty of room … for joy, happiness, and even boredom.” Minimally, in this volume we have escaped boredom!
I opened this contribution with a respectful nod to the apotropaic Malagasy practice of faditra: the use of gestures, words, and objects to distance the nefarious. I will now close with a respectful nod to their practice of sorona, offerings to augment the good and encourage life and growth. May your protective bundle contain (1) taninlanonana (soil from where the people were unified for a joyous occasion), (2) volatsirovitra (a complete, undamaged silver coin),Footnote 34 (3) vatonaloamboay (a stone vomited up by a crocodile),Footnote 35 and (4)Footnote 36 the bead, felatanantsifoana (the palms of the hand that are never empty).
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Kus, S. (2016). “Concern”ing Contributions to This Volume. In: Fleisher, J., Norman, N. (eds) The Archaeology of Anxiety. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3231-3_9
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