Objectification and Social Aesthetics

On 15 May 1989, the Badaga, the dominant peasant community in the Nilgiri Hills, organized a huge rally and handed over a memorandum to the government. On the basis of their culture they demanded tribal status, a guaranteed price for their agricultural products, and other privileges. I shall argue that the medium of a memorandum with its textual and material form requires and fosters the process of cultural objectification. Culture is turned into an object and becomes a form of currency in the political process. Later, 15 May was named Day, an annual context for self-representation. Performative acts like hoisting the Badaga flag, singing the Badaga hymn, and worshipping the bust of H. B. Ari Gowder contribute to an overall social aesthetics. Sounds, colors, proximity, and other culturally patterned sensory experienc[s]w (MACDOUGALL 2006, 98) contribute to the feeling of one-ness and underline the demand for cultural autonomy

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Objectification · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Philosophy