Notes for an Anthropological Study of Crises

Crisis in Crisis, Resilience, and the Uncanny

Abstract

By providing a literature review, this essay aimed to propose a fruitful anthropological approach to todayʼs crises, which are no longer an exception but a new normal. In response to Anthropocene crises such as the coronavirus pandemic and the climate change, two modes of power governing human behavior in critical situations are becoming increasingly dominant. On the one hand, the politics of crisis, which mobilizes people to overcome crises, prevents the design of politics that does not presuppose progress. On the other hand, the biopolitics of resilience, which promotes mechanical adaptation to crises, reduce the value of human life to mere survivability. An alternative to these two modes lies in the corporeal experience of crises and the imagination they evoke. Anthropology should thus explore how images can mediate the inarticulate uncanny revealed during a crisis, and how they can be guides for navigating the self in an unfamiliar world.