Premium
The wall and the wash: Security, infrastructure and rescue on the US‐Mexico border
Author(s) -
Jusionyte Ieva
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
anthropology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.419
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-8322
pISSN - 0268-540X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8322.12349
Subject(s) - trespass , materiality (auditing) , software deployment , militarization , border security , assemblage (archaeology) , ethnography , terrain , desert (philosophy) , computer security , sociology , political science , law , archaeology , history , engineering , politics , geography , aesthetics , computer science , cartography , philosophy , software engineering
Based on ethnographic research with firefighters trained as EMTs (emergency medical technicians) or paramedics in northern Sonora and southern Arizona, this article takes the vantage point of emergency responders on both sides of the US‐Mexico border to trace the harmful effects of the security assemblage on those who inhabit and trespass this militarized landscape. Interested in the materiality of security – how its discursive and affective qualities are anchored in urban and desert terrain by means of infrastructure and technology – this article focuses on two such ‘anchors’, the wall and the wash, in order to address the legal and ethical issues that result from the deployment of tactical infrastructure on the border.