“Belonging, Suffering and the Body of Others. Practices of ‘We-Formation‘ During Mourning Rituals Among Shia Muslims in Myanmar”
Judith Beyer (University of Konstanz) develops an existential anthropological approach towards understanding mourning practices of Shia Muslims in Myanmar. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the country’s former capital Yangon, she designates Shia mourning rituals as existential situations through which individuals come to experience themselves and others. Drawing on Jean-Paul Sartre’s theory of the body and Tine Gammeltoft’s framework of belonging as well as an ethnomethodological analysis of micro-interactions, she develops how in such existential situations a largely pre-reflective self-consciousness can lead to what she calls ‘we-formation‘ — the forming of groups that does not rely on ethno-religious or other classifications along the lines of identity, race or class.
Burma Studies Group 