The categorization of individuals or groups as social parasites has often been treated as an example of semantic transfer from the biological to the social domain. Historically, however, the scientific uses of the term parasite cannot be deemed to be primary, as their emergence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was preceded by a much older tradition of religious and social terminology. Its social use in modern times, on the other hand, builds on a secondary metaphorization from the scientific source concept. This article charts the history of the term parasite from its etymological origins to the present day, distinguishes its metaphorical and non-metaphorical uses, and discusses the implications of these findings regarding the cognitive understanding of the relationship between (perceived) literal and metaphorical meanings. In conclusion, it is argued that metaphorization needs to be analyzed not only in terms of its conceptual structure but also in its role in discourse history.
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In Contributions to the History of Concepts
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2014
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 18–32 (15 total)
‘Moving back and forth of the I’
Parasite and Para-site in Beckett's The Unnamable
Jagannath Basu and Jayjit Sarkar
The theory of being, ontology, brings us to atoms. The theory of relations brings us to parasite. —Michel Serres, The Parasite OPENER: I open. VOICE: – falls … again … on purpose or not … can't see … he's down […] in the sand … knee
In Critical Survey
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2022
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 123–133 (11 total)
Trouble in Para-sites
Deference and Influence in the Ethnography of Epistemic Elites
Paul Robert Gilbert
Through his enduring efforts to interrogate the regulative ideals of fieldwork, George Marcus has empowered doctoral students in anthropology to rethink their ethnographic encounters in terms that reflect novel objects and contexts of inquiry. Marcus' work has culminated in a charter for ethnographic research among 'epistemic communities' that requires 'deferral' to these elite modes of knowing. For adherents to this programme of methodological reform, the deliberately staged 'para-site' – an opportunity for ethnographers and their 'epistemic partners' to reflect upon a shared intellectual purpose – is the signature fieldwork encounter. This article draws on doctoral research carried out among the overlapping epistemic communities that comprise London's market for mining finance, and reviews an attempt to carve out a para-site of my own. Troubled by this experience, and by the ascendant style of deferent anthropology, I think through possibilities for more critical ethnographic research among epistemic elites.
In Anthropology in Action
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2015
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 52–62 (10 total)
Parasites from all Civilizations
The Croix de Feu/Parti Social Français Confronts French Jewry, 1931-1939
Samuel Kalman
Refuting claims made by several historians that the Croix de Feu/Parti social français were non-exclusionary, this article demonstrates the prevalence of anti-Semitism and xenophobia throughout the league's metropolitan and Algerian sections. CDF/PSF leadership and rank-and-file alike prioritized the notion of the enemy, and their plans for les exclus augured similar developments under the Vichy regime. Although less rabidly xenophobic than his colleagues, whose opinions variously promoted denaturalization and outright elimination, group leader Colonel Françaois de la Rocque was nonetheless prone to racist and exclusionary doctrine, arguing that foreign Jews and immigrants were the enemies of la patrie, and should necessarily be expunged from the new nation. The article describes the wide range of xenophobia present in group actions and discourse, while positioning the CDF/PSF within the broader context of French and Algerian society.
In Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2008
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 46–65 (20 total)
Organic Vehicles and Passengers
The Tsetse Fly as Transient Analytical Workspace
Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga
plague (rinderpest) of 1896–1897, Southern Rhodesian colonial authorities need not, and did not, have worries about tsetse. In a typical case of “ecological imperialism,” 4 the European settler’s ox-wagons had brought in a devastating parasite against
‘True love’ as a bureaucratic utopia
The case of bi‐national couples in Belgium
Maïté Maskens
In this contribution I examine the moral roots of the contemporary (in)hospitality of the city of Brussels by exploring one area of observation in particular: the handling of the fight against marriages of convenience for migratory purposes. Based on 2012–2013 ethnographic fieldwork, I reflect on the utopian thinking underlying the work of state agents in charge of implementing this fight. Through the detailed examination of two case studies, we will see how state agents select ‘good’ couples and, in doing so, reproduce social and racial hierarchies by excluding undesirable forms of intimate relationships. The non‐conformity with local moral standards (and particularly the romantic logic), modest ways of self‐presentation or the current ideology of migrants as parasites are at the core of these practices of exclusion.
In Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale
- Published (Print):
- 01 Feb 2021
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 18–34 (16 total)
Dances with Heads
Parasitic Mimesis and the Government of Savagery in Colonial East Timor
Ricardo Roque
) study on parasitism provides me with the conceptual grounds for analyzing this form of connection. 11 By attending the headhunting ritual, by taking place in the middle of the warriors’ dances, the governor behaved as a parasite, using his dissolution
Putting Anthropology into Global Health
A Century of Anti–Human African Trypanosomiasis Campaigns in Angola
Jorge Varanda and Josenando Théophile
others. This analysis generates insight into how the politics of power functioned in Angola through health programmes during colonialism and post-independence. HAT is a vector-borne disease. The HAT parasite, trypanosome gambiense , is spread via the
In Anthropology in Action
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2019
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 31–41 (11 total)
Spaces for Transdisciplinary Dialogues on the Relationship between Local Communities and Their Environment
The Case of a Rural Community in the Calchaquí Valley (Salta, Argentina)
Marta Crivos, María Rosa Martínez, Laura Teves, and Carolina Remorini
and detection and control of risk factors, mainly individuals’ hygiene and food habits, house construction materials and sanitary conditions, such as access to drinking water and sewage disposal. We took into account the importance of parasite
In Anthropology in Action
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2016
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 27–34 (8 total)
The Editors
show how Schrauwen’s absurdist depiction of his hapless grandfather’s misadventures has resonance as a metaphor for the Belgian colonial experience – for example, his irrational fear that parasites may invade his body, and his consequent attempt to