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‘Live has an atmosphere of its own’: azadari, ethical orientation, and tuned presence in Shi‘i media praxis

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Cooper, TPA 

Abstract

Among producers of Shi’a Islamic media in Pakistan, the quality of being live as an atmosphere capable of mediation has gained efficacy along with changes in mediums for religious dispensation. Central to the importance of live recordings are the ways they are perceived to most effectively mediate the ethical, ritual, and transhistorical contours of azadari, a word that describes the ways in which the personages held in esteem by the Shi’a are mourned and commemorated. What are these qualities of being live that see recordings attributed the qualities of a good, moral atmosphere? By building on ethnographic research into the relationship between Shi’a practices of azadari and their technological mediation, this essay aims to provide greater insights into what atmosphere can do for anthropology, with the suggestion that atmosphere acts as a way of recognizing different thresholds of intensity and change.

Description

Keywords

4301 Archaeology, 4401 Anthropology, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, 44 Human Society

Journal Title

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1359-0987
1467-9655

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley
Sponsorship
ESRC (ES/V011669/1)