CONTACT US: Contact info
|
Citation |
Wilmore M. Aust. J. Anthropol. 2008; 19(1): 41-56. |
|
Copyright |
(Copyright © 2008, Australian Anthropological Society, Publisher John Wiley and Sons) |
|
DOI |
|
PMID |
unavailable |
|
Abstract |
This paper examines how political identities in the town of Tansen in the central western district of Palpa, Nepal, are mediated by contrasting forms of cultural and material practice: religious and secular processions and programs made by a local, cable-television production organisation. These practices and their materiality are conceptualised as ‘technologies of enchantment’ (Gell 1992) through which political culture is made manifest in urban space. Paradigmatically ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ technologies are juxtaposed in order to analyse the different ways that political action is embodied within the community. The loss of life in Tansen and the destruction of buildings associated with these practices in the course of the 10-year Maoist insurgency provide a tragic confirmation of the conclusions reached in this paper. |