ABSTRACT

In this essay I explore the sensuous dimensions of intimacies and erotics in ethnographic field research conducted among the Dagara in northwestern Ghana. I argue that sensuous perception reveals aspects of ethnographic research that are frequently rendered inaudible, especially performative modes of expression. I theorize a conception of the erotic that moves beyond sexual activity, desire, and identity. This expansion of the erotic continuum opens up space to explore intimacy as produced through embodied knowledges. Through three sonic portraits, I demonstrate that sensuous perception is vital to understanding women’s shared intimacies and relationships. The indigenous materiality, ritual, and performative modes expressed in the portraits illuminate the myriad configurations of erotics as a source of power between women, even across identity categories. These everyday moments, the sonic intimacies that develop over time and in non-linear ways, they gesture to the performative, embodied, sensorial dimensions of ethnographic knowing, and they clarify gendered intimacies. These portraits suggest that the erotic is a manifestation of creative energy embedded in shared knowledge, history, and embodied expression such as dance, ritual, labor, and intimate gestures. By witnessing everyday sonic productions as transformative, we conceptually expand feminist praxis to be grounded in indigenous expressions, idioms, and ideologies.

摘要

在这篇文章中，我探讨了在加纳西北部达加拉人中进行的人种学领域研究中亲密关系和色情的感性维度。我认为，感性知觉揭示了人种学研究中经常被听不见的方面，尤其是表现形式的表达方式。我将一种超越性活动、欲望和身份的色情概念理论化。色情连续体的这种扩展开辟了探索通过具体知识产生的亲密关系的空间。通过三幅声波肖像，我展示了感性感知对于理解女性共享的亲密关系和关系至关重要。肖像中表达的本土物质、仪式和表演模式阐明了作为女性之间权力来源的色情的无数配置，甚至跨身份类别。这些日常时刻，随着时间的推移以非线性方式发展的声音亲密关系，它们指向人种学知识的表演性、具体化、感官维度，并澄清了性别化的亲密关系。这些肖像表明，情色是嵌入在共享知识、历史和具体表达（如舞蹈、仪式、劳动和亲密手势）中的创造性能量的体现。通过见证日常声音制作的变革，我们在概念上扩展了女权主义实践，以立足于本土表达、习语和意识形态。这些肖像表明，情色是嵌入在共享知识、历史和具体表达（如舞蹈、仪式、劳动和亲密手势）中的创造性能量的体现。通过见证日常声音制作的变革，我们在概念上扩展了女权主义实践，以立足于本土表达、习语和意识形态。这些肖像表明，情色是嵌入在共享知识、历史和具体表达（如舞蹈、仪式、劳动和亲密手势）中的创造性能量的体现。通过见证日常声音制作的变革，我们在概念上扩展了女权主义实践，以立足于本土表达、习语和意识形态。