PROJECTS

ART AND ANIMISM

This public anthropology-art project is designed to increase the public's awareness of indigenous peoples, animism and anthropogenic change through collaborations between artists, film-makers and social scientists. Together with celebrated artist John Hurford, I am working towards producing a series of illustrated multi-species ethnographies and photo-journalistic essays about the changing lives of the Bateks and Manya' of the Malay Peninsula.

Stage 1 of this project, ‘Walking with Tigers’, is currently being funded by an ESRC Impact Cultivation Award.

In July 2019, John and myself visited several Batek communities living on the edges of the Taman Negara National Park in preparation for the project.

Anticipated Outputs: 2 illustrated ethnographies, 1 graphic novel, 1 film, 1 exhibition.

ANIMISM AND INTER-CONNECTIVITY

I have conducted ethnographic research with the Batek and Manya', two small-scale hunter-gatherer groups from Peninsula Malaysia since 2006.

My monograph Animism and Interconnectivity is an ethnographic study of Batek Dè’ and Manya’ religion on the periphery of the Malaysian rainforest. In the twenty-first century, the lives of these two small-scale groups of former hunter-gatherers take place on the interconnected frontier between forest and the outside world, a nexus of different ideas, peoples and objects of diverse origins. Contesting views of animism as an objectified and timeless ontology, the study adopts a politicizing and historicizing approach. It explores how political marginalization, rapid environmental change and historical conditions of subordination and violence have shaped changes and continuities in shamanistic practices, myths, cosmologies and relations with other-than-human beings. Through an examination of specific events in particular places on the forest periphery, I highlight the many qualities and shades of interconnectivity to show the depth and breadth of its impact on animistic forms and practices.

Buy my Monograph Here!

AFP/Getty Images

project elpis

Hope is the only good god remaining among mankind;
the others have left and gone to Olympus.
Trust, a mighty god has gone, Restraint has gone from men,
and the Graces, my friend, have abandoned the earth.
Men's judicial oaths are no longer to be trusted, nor does anyone
revere the immortal gods; the race of pious men has perished and
men no longer recognize the rules of conduct or acts of piety

(Theognis of Megara, 6th century BC)

Elpis, the Greek embodiment of hope, was the last spirit to leave Pandora's box. In the current epoch, as Earth's 6th mass extinction event unfolds before our eyes, we are in dire need of her help. Across the planet entire lineages of plants, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and arthropods are disappearing every day. What does the disappearance of a species mean for different organisms, ecosystems and bio-cultural communities? This art-science project attempts to raise public awareness about the impacts of extinction events by drawing upon extinction studies, philosophy, ecology, anthropology and the environmental humanities. While indigenous peoples are on the front lines of the battle to protect the last remaining zones of bio-diversity, many other human groups feel overwhelming anxiety and powerless about extinction events. This project aims to replace the public's sense of helplessness with feelings of hope as a means to action.

TAILS FROM THe STREETS

Tails from the Street is concerned with documenting and understanding the lives of former stray dogs (where ‘stray’ is defined as a free roaming dog, not under the control of a human).

The project team (Samantha Hurn [PI], Tom Rice, Alexander Badman-King, Jessica Groling, Teo Manea, Fenella Eason, Ivan Tacey, Alexandra Onofrei, Chris Calvert) utilised a range of methodological approaches including interviews, participant observation, audio-visual recording and media analysis.

Phase 1 took place during an intensive period of pilot research in Romania (2-14 April 2017) and sought to investigate and understand the impact of the 2013 Stray Dog Euthanasia Law (SDEL) which was passed by the Romanian government in response to growing concerns regarding the number of stray dogs living in the country, and the perceived threats they posed to humans. During the SDEL (or ‘cull’), tens of thousands of strays were rounded up and either killed or placed in temporary shelter accommodation. In response, NGOs and individuals in Romania and internationally attempted to save as many dogs as possible.