Session at the 16th EASA Biennial Conference: New anthropological horizons in and beyond Europe

What does it mean to consider 'being in cultural time' ethnographically (Munn 1992)? How do we treat time as both epistemological category and ethnographic object? This roundtable invites short contributions which reflect on temporalities as ethnographic problems, resources, and analytics.


We invite participants to reflect on what it means to use a notion of being in cultural time ethnographically, and to consider how we treat time as both epistemological category and ethnographic object. Nearly 30 years have passed since Munn declared that 'people are in cultural time, not just conceiving or perceiving it'. Since then questions of time have been repeatedly explored by anthropologists to understand chronotopes/cultural rhythms/temporal registers as devices which orient both perspectives and actions.

This roundtable focuses on time as an ethnographic rather than metaphysical problem. We solicit 4 minute contributions which address questions of ideologies, affects, and practices, and their relation to (different conceptions of) time, and contributions from those taking time and its manifestations (material, cultural, social) as their ethnographic object.

Questions to consider may include but are not limited to:

  • How do different or incommensurable temporal registers manifest themselves within shared cultural spaces?
  • How do particular political, religious, or social acts orient themselves in relation to postulated pasts or futures?
  • How might the shared temporality of fieldwork inform ethnographic representations?
  • What temporal dimensions must we take into account in our ethnographic renderings of place?

Convenors:

  • Helen Cornish (Goldsmiths College, University of London)
  • Martyn Wemyss (Goldsmiths)
  • Narmala Halstead (University of Sussex)