Abstract
In this paper I reflect on the relationship between temporality, historicity and material culture looking at ritual action. I focus my attention on the pivotal role of artefacts in establishing a particular experience of time among ritual participants and in guiding the anthropologist in the exploration of ‘traces of history’, which might not be evident when considering solely ritual action and words. My reflections are based on the ethnographic study of the role of artefacts in a collective ritual carried out by Guna people living in Guna Yala, Panama. Looking at the material and visual qualities of these artefacts, at how they are engaged with and attended to by specialists and laypersons, as well as at the imaginary that such engagements generate, allows shedding light on important aspects of Guna historicity.
Drawing inspiration from works re-assessing Warburg’s notion of ‘survival’ and Deleuze’s discussion of ‘repetition’, I suggest artefacts as ‘material indexes of time’ have the capacity to render visible and mask different aspects of history, generating complex images of time. More broadly, I consider how time is navigated by means of artefacts and the images they generate, and I discuss the relation between time and the image and its implications for a consideration of historicity.
Bio
Paolo Fortis is Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department at Durham University. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews and has conducted fieldwork with Guna people from the San Blas Archipelago of Panama over the past twenty years. His research and publications explore the intersections between material and visual systems, art, ontology, personhood, temporality and historicity. He has collaborated with ethnographic and art museums and was editor of the Anthropology of Art Publication Series of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Recently he has become part of a collaborative project with Guna researchers exploring health, food security and climate change in Guna Yala. The Anthropology Virtual Field Course that Dr Fortis has taught with Gillian Bentley since 2022, was recognized with a Teaching and Learning Award by Durham University in the category of Most Impactful Innovation in Teaching and Learning.