Tupilat Metaphysics: Exploring Other-Than-Human Subjectivity through the Lens of Rhizomatic Indeterminacy ...
This paper examines three tupilak assemblages made by Kalaallit angakkok Mitsivarniannga in 1905 and1906, by request of Danish ethnographer William Thalbitzer, as well as “tupilat” carvings sold as souvenirs throughout Kalaallit Nunaat. Drawing upon a framework of rhizomatic indeterminacy, Kalaallit...
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| Format: | Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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University of Chicago
2024
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.11843 https://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/11843 |
| Summary: | This paper examines three tupilak assemblages made by Kalaallit angakkok Mitsivarniannga in 1905 and1906, by request of Danish ethnographer William Thalbitzer, as well as “tupilat” carvings sold as souvenirs throughout Kalaallit Nunaat. Drawing upon a framework of rhizomatic indeterminacy, Kalaallit and post-reformation European understandings of Mitsivarniannga’s tupilat are understood to come from incompatible metaphorical systems (Nadasdy 2011) and thus differ in their realities. Despite this incommensurability, perceptions of tupilat are complementary phenomena (Nadasdy 2021); they both make up tupilat truths. These different routes of perception allow for a multiplicity of perspectives of tupilat and “tupilat”, adding to the inbetweenness of their qualities. Understanding this, one can frame Mitsivarniannga’s tupilat as something similar to material ghosts, as tangible forms of afterlife (Dawdy 2020), or as metapersons (Sahlins 2022)—though solely when in spirit form—as they lose their agential magic ... |
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