Browsing by Author "Satalkar, Priya"

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Mixing methods, tasting fingers: notes on an ethnographic experiment
(© 2011 School of Social and Political Sciences, 2011) Mann, Anna; Mol, Annemarie; Satalkar, Priya; Savirani, Amalinda; Selim, Nasima; Sur, Malini; Yates-Doerr, Emily
This article reports on an ethnographic experiment. Four finger eating experts and three novices sat down for a hot meal and ate with their hands. Drawing on the technique of playing with the familiar and the strange, our aim was not to explain our responses, but to articulate them. As we seek words to do so, we are compelled to stretch the verb "to taste."Tasting, or so our ethnographic experiment suggests, need not be understood as an activity confined to the tongue. Instead, if given a chance, it may viscously spread out to the fingers and come to include appreciative reactions otherwise hard to name. Pleasure and embarrassment, food-like vitality, erotic titillation, the satisfaction or discomfort that follow a meal - we suggest that these may all be included in "tasting." Thus teasing the language alters what speakers and eaters may sense and say. It complements the repertoires available for articulation. But is it okay? Will we be allowed to mess with textbook biology in this way and interfere, not just with anthropological theory, but with the English language itself?
Mixing methods, tasting fingers: notes on an ethnographic experiment
(© 2011 School of Social and Political Sciences, 2011) Mann, Anna; Mol, Annemarie; Satalkar, Priya; Savirani, Amalinda; Selim, Nasima; Sur, Malini; Yates-Doerr, Emily
This article reports on an ethnographic experiment. Four finger eating experts and three novices sat down for a hot meal and ate with their hands. Drawing on the technique of playing with the familiar and the strange, our aim was not to explain our responses, but to articulate them. As we seek words to do so, we are compelled to stretch the verb "to taste."Tasting, or so our ethnographic experiment suggests, need not be understood as an activity confined to the tongue. Instead, if given a chance, it may viscously spread out to the fingers and come to include appreciative reactions otherwise hard to name. Pleasure and embarrassment, food-like vitality, erotic titillation, the satisfaction or discomfort that follow a meal - we suggest that these may all be included in "tasting." Thus teasing the language alters what speakers and eaters may sense and say. It complements the repertoires available for articulation. But is it okay? Will we be allowed to mess with textbook biology in this way and interfere, not just with anthropological theory, but with the English language itself?
Perceptions of mental illness in a Bangladesh village
(BRAC University, 2008) Selim, Nasima; Satalkar, Priya
In this paper, we discuss the perceptions of people from a Bangladeshi village about what they considered to be 'mental illness'. Observations, informal conversations, interviews, focus group discussions, and illness narratives include the perspectives of both the caregivers and the patients in Kakabo. The villagers provided us with local terms (e.g., paglami), their beliefs about illness causation, treatment, and its effects. Some illnesses were believed to be present from birth and mostly incurable. Supernatural causation and local cure were mentioned for some other categories of illness. There were very few instances when they accessed the existing mental health care in the big city. Widespread abuse of various substances was reported. In general, the participants showed broader acceptance of these conditions, excepting certain forms of substance abuse. We discus these findings in relation to defining their perceptions in terms of explanatory model(s). Our analysis is also concerned with the way people 'embody' their 'illness experience', and how this is made relevant for the process of coping with 'mental illness' in the family. Further investigation, however, is required to clarify some of the questions and ambiguities arising from this small-scale exploratory qualitative study.