Touched: Hunter-Gatherers and the Anthropology of Power

Theories of power and value are precisely that: theories.  We use them as frameworks to enable the recognition and sharing of empirical patterns and connections.  But real power, real value, is located first in the body.  When we transport principles which are viscerally, ritually embedded into an academic framework, we lose them.  This talk asks how it is possible to 'carry' valuable connecting terms such as 'n/om', ekila or even prana - deep body-thoughts - into theory without losing all but the husk.  Touch, one of the human fundamentals (now increasingly under attack) may be where the shared body becomes visible.  This talk will develop my writing on corporeal morality by looking at ways in which African hunter-gatherers in particular offer insight into systems of power and value which are inalienable from the collective body.