Spectres of the Anthropologist

The Digital Images of a Delayed Ritual

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36950/tsantsa.2021.26.7155
Keywords: cinematographic essay, fiction, delayed archive, spectrum, Sega, Mauritius

Abstract

Landslides is a cinematographic essay/poem where fictional images are created from a research about a Mauritian ritual born during the slavery period. The contemporary Mauritian dancer Jean-Renat Anamah crosses mythical territories of Sega which combine with intimate places of my own story. From the pixel of digital image and the shadow of electronic rhythm, this film exhumes in layers of landscapes the spectrum of a ritual erased by History through a personal genealogy: between hauntological memory and delayed archive.

Author Biography

Caroline Déodat, Centre Georg Simmel (EHESS / CNRS)

Holding a PhD in anthropology from EHESS Caroline Déodat is also a filmmaker who explores the fictionality and spectral dimensions of moving image. She is interested in the fabrication of colonial archiving through invisible historiographies, questioning power systems such as race, gender, sexuality, and the way they can be subverted or diverted. She is currently working on an essay on the Mauritian sega, linking colonial discourses on race and their incorporation into oral poetry practices, as well as the queer imaginary of créolité. Her first short film Landslides was selected for the Jumping Frames International Dance Video in Hong Kong (2020).
Published
2021-06-30
How to Cite
Déodat, Caroline. 2021. “Spectres of the Anthropologist: The Digital Images of a Delayed Ritual”. Swiss Journal of Sociocultural Anthropology 26 (June):172-85. https://doi.org/10.36950/tsantsa.2021.26.7155.
Issue
Vol. 26 (2021): Dis/connection Matters: Natural, Synthetic, Digital
Section
Contributions in Audio-Visual Anthropology

License

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