ABSTRACT

Leather is a sensuous object marked by complex affects of desire and disgust. In India, this disgust is amplified due to the association of leather with caste. This paper examines the leather tannery as a space produced through the sensuous discourse of caste violence, which functions by marking leatherworking bodies with odors, that in turn perpetuate affectual and material possibilities of humiliation and discrimination. This violence of odors has no place in the deodorized discourse of law and yet in the sensuous ordering of caste there is nothing more repulsive than to carry the stench of tannery on oneself. The paper examines this intangible and sensual character of caste violence by closely following Paul Stoller’s methodological argument that sensuousness forms the field on which phenomena play out and through which they can be understood. Keeping in mind the value-laden and subjective nature of sensuousness, the paper also reflects on the ways in which the sensory politics of caste frames the interactions between the field and the body of the researcher – both of which are determined by the norms of caste. The ethnographic descriptions of caste and violence in the tannery on which this paper is based are thus mediated by multiple sensorial perceptions, including those of the researcher.

摘要

皮革是一种感官物品，其特征是欲望和厌恶的复杂影响。在印度，由于皮革与种姓的联系，这种厌恶情绪被放大了。本文将皮革制革厂视为通过种姓暴力的感性话语产生的空间，其功能是用气味标记皮革加工机构，从而使羞辱和歧视的情感和物质可能性永久化。这种气味的暴力在除臭的法律话语中没有地位，但在种姓的感性秩序中，没有什么比让自己身上带有制革厂的恶臭更令人厌恶的了。这篇论文通过密切遵循保罗斯托勒的方法论论证来检验种姓暴力的这种无形的和感性的特征，即感性形成了现象在其上发挥作用并通过它可以被理解的领域。牢记感性的价值承载和主观性质，本文还反思了种姓的感官政治如何构建研究人员的领域和身体之间的相互作用——这两者都是由种姓规范决定的. 因此，本文所依据的制革厂中种姓和暴力的人种学描述受多种感官知觉的调节，包括研究人员的知觉。