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Lamenting the real and crying for the really real: Searching for silences and mourning martyrdom amongst Iranian volunteer militants
Author(s) -
Saramifar Younes
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the australian journal of anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.245
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1757-6547
pISSN - 1035-8811
DOI - 10.1111/taja.12271
Subject(s) - unsaid , subjectivity , ethnography , sacrifice , mysticism , trace (psycholinguistics) , craft , order (exchange) , sociology , conversation , literature , psychoanalysis , art , philosophy , anthropology , psychology , epistemology , theology , visual arts , finance , economics , communication , linguistics
Martyrdom, sacrifice, and the dedication of one's life to fight for a higher cause are central themes of Shi'i militancy. I recount my journey among Iranian Shi'i youth who fought or enlisted to fight in Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria, to trace their ineffable experiences and silences, which they used to justify desires for martyrdom. I explore by way of an ethnography of mourning and the lamentation ceremonies of Muharram how individuals’ ineffable experiences and perplexities emerge as explanations of their own commitment to the cause. I call on the Lacanian Real to discuss how people craft the unarticulated, the unsaid and networks to navigate their subjectivity while they encounter the divine. I broaden the Lacanian Real through an exploration of Shi'i mystical notions, in order to address how Lacan's work can be applied in non‐European traditions of the unsaid and the unarticulated.