Calling through the water jar

Domestic objects in Nahua emotional assemblages

Bibliographic Data

ID2227337
AuthorsDominique Raby (El Colegio de México, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume9
Issue3
Pages529-544
Publication date2019-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHau Journal of Ethnographic Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2049-1115 • E-ISSN: 2575-1433
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/706762
OpenAlexW3005529981
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited49

This article re-examines human-object relations in an Indigenous Nahua context in Mexico. Inspired by the Deleuzian notion of assemblage, the study shifts the focus from the agency of objects to emphasize the emotions of human and nonhuman animals as "persons." Artifacts like clothes and water jars emerge as intersubjective connectors that transfer human substance and voice in short-lived, but emotionally charged, domestic assemblages. The focus on quasi-plain domestic artifacts defines love, the Nahuas' mode of relating, and motherhood, as central to their understanding while, more broadly, reframing the status of objects beyond anthropomorphism

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