Toward an Anthropology of the Imaginary: Specters of Disability in Vietnam

In this article, I discuss the analytical potential that the notion of the imaginary holds for anthropology as a concept that may capture some of the more subdued, yet socially vigorous, moods and sensations that hover where personal experience and socially salient forms of power merge. The ethnogra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ethos (Berkeley, Calif.) Calif.), 2014-06, Vol.42 (2), p.153-174
Main Author: Gammeltoft, Tine M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Conceptualization
Cultural anthropology
Disability
Disorders
Emotional states
Ethnographic research
fantasy
Field work
Fieldwork
imagination
New technology
Politics
population
Power
Reproduction
Reproductive technologies
Society
state
Uptake
Vietnam
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Summary:In this article, I discuss the analytical potential that the notion of the imaginary holds for anthropology as a concept that may capture some of the more subdued, yet socially vigorous, moods and sensations that hover where personal experience and socially salient forms of power merge. The ethnographic occasion for my inquiry is the eager uptake of new technologies for selective reproduction in Vietnam; technologies that are actively promoted by the party-state as an element in efforts to enhance "population quality." Drawing on nearly three years of fieldwork conducted in Vietnam's capital Hanoi, I frame selective reproduction as an issue of power and politics, investigating how people's fantasies, fears, and imaginings blend with the workings of state power in this realm. Attention to imaginary constructions of self and society, I argue, can further anthropological understanding of the ways in which state policies are shaped, implemented, justified, and received.
ISSN:0091-2131
1548-1352
DOI:10.1111/etho.12046