Artistic practice today is uniquely situated to pose critical, alternative responses to contemporary ecological problems. A compelling example from Mexico City is the 2015 performance piece Plan...Show moreArtistic practice today is uniquely situated to pose critical, alternative responses to contemporary ecological problems. A compelling example from Mexico City is the 2015 performance piece Plan Acalote by contemporary art collective Plan Acalli, which reenacted the journey of a traditional acalli boat across Mexico City, crossing highways and avenues that were once canals. This thesis examines the ecological potential of this artwork by studying the performance and its context through a framework of materialist posthumanism. I argue that Plan Acalote crucially enabled human participants to develop environmental skills and awareness and involved ritual, pilgrimage-like encounters. I propose that, in this way, the acalli boat’s journey can thus be read as a material transformation or “becoming” of paved urban roads into an acalote, or Nahua waterway: a collaborative, situated and performative strategy towards research, environmental awareness and art. Therefore, Plan Acalote ultimately demonstrated the potential of a shift in cosmovision through art as a viable approach to furthering ecological goals.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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Asking grand questions has long been found problematic in anthropology. The focus is usually put on the smaller issues. This thesis will research how we can unpack these trends. I investigate a...Show moreAsking grand questions has long been found problematic in anthropology. The focus is usually put on the smaller issues. This thesis will research how we can unpack these trends. I investigate a macro‐approach by using literature on shamanism and cosmovision. Grand questions are a compelling topic. Various disciplines, from history to archaeology and anthropology, have developed great talents in focusing on grassroots problems and micro‐issues. Small‐scale and area‐fixed studies are the norm. Not only is the focus put on the smaller issues, it is also considered too risky to present grand statements and promises, for it almost seems to beg for criticism. My criticism is that although these processes are essential, in that they provide the data for larger research questions, these studies often do not themselves get back to the broader perspectives. The hybridity, as well as the larger implications, thus easily remain obscured. In this thesis I take on the challenge to combine and reconnect the richness of different types of data with the theory‐based literature. Through a critical assessment of the literature, I will research how we can look at small‐scale issues from a broader perspective. Simultaneously, I will analyse how research with a focus on large‐scale issues can be analysed. This brings me to the connections that exist among the various approaches and perspectives used in anthropological and interdisciplinary research. It is precisely the combining of divergent approaches that challenges us, anthropologist, in our research and that is the topic of my research. The idea of interconnectedness will be put on the agenda by discussing how the topic can or cannot be studied. This means that I will look at approaches used in the literature and make an attempt in reconnecting the concepts that have been disconnected by researchers in the past. In conclusion, the main question of this thesis will focus on how we can research large topics by bringing research outcomes of projects that focus on small‐case issues together. One could say that in these small‐scale projects there is a trend to work within a fixed set of boundaries. This raises the question whether we, as anthropologists, are able to cross the boundaries of such delimited thinking.Show less
