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Ethnography, art, and death
Author(s) -
Irving Andrew
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of the royal anthropological institute
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1467-9655
pISSN - 1359-0987
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9655.2007.00420.x
Subject(s) - centrality , ethnography , representation (politics) , consciousness , the imaginary , sociology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , anthropology , gender studies , aesthetics , psychology , epistemology , psychoanalysis , political science , medicine , art , philosophy , mathematics , family medicine , combinatorics , politics , law
A problem facing anthropologists, given the centrality of memory and imagination to all social life, is how to access memory and the imaginary when there is no independent access to consciousness. Moreover, the discipline has ‘largely failed to distinguish itself’ in response to understanding HIV/AIDS ( Annual Review of Anthropology 30 , 2001: 163). In response to these observations I would argue that orthodox approaches are limited and we need to create new forms of collaborative research and representation with regard to understanding experiences of illness. Accordingly this article attempts to bring to life the interior dialogue of persons living with HIV/AIDS through performance by ‘mapping’ the city of Kampala through its emotions and memories rather than buildings and streets.