Toward an Anthropology of the Imaginary: Specters of Disability in Vietnam

TY - JOUR

T1 - Toward an Anthropology of the Imaginary

T2 - Specters of Disability in Vietnam

AU - Gammeltoft, Tine

PY - 2014/6

Y1 - 2014/6

N2 - In this article, I discuss the analytical potential that the notion of the imaginary holds for anthropology as a concept that may capture some of the more subdued, yet socially vigorous, moods and sensations that hover where personal experience and socially salient forms of power merge. The ethnographic occasion for my inquiry is the eager uptake of new technologies for selective reproduction in Vietnam; technologies that are actively promoted by the party-state as an element in efforts to enhance "population quality." Drawing on nearly three years of fieldwork conducted in Vietnam's capital Hanoi, I frame selective reproduction as an issue of power and politics, investigating how people's fantasies, fears, and imaginings blend with the workings of state power in this realm. Attention to imaginary constructions of self and society, I argue, can further anthropological understanding of the ways in which state policies are shaped, implemented, justified, and received.

AB - In this article, I discuss the analytical potential that the notion of the imaginary holds for anthropology as a concept that may capture some of the more subdued, yet socially vigorous, moods and sensations that hover where personal experience and socially salient forms of power merge. The ethnographic occasion for my inquiry is the eager uptake of new technologies for selective reproduction in Vietnam; technologies that are actively promoted by the party-state as an element in efforts to enhance "population quality." Drawing on nearly three years of fieldwork conducted in Vietnam's capital Hanoi, I frame selective reproduction as an issue of power and politics, investigating how people's fantasies, fears, and imaginings blend with the workings of state power in this realm. Attention to imaginary constructions of self and society, I argue, can further anthropological understanding of the ways in which state policies are shaped, implemented, justified, and received.

U2 - 10.1111/etho.12046

DO - 10.1111/etho.12046

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0091-2131

VL - 42

SP - 153

EP - 174

JO - Ethos

JF - Ethos

IS - 2

ER -