Suicide and Agency: Anthropological Perspectives on Self-Destruction, Personhood, and Power (Studies in Death, Materiality and the Origin of Time)

Suicide and Agency offers an original and timely challenge to existing ways of understanding suicide. Through the use of rich and detailed case studies, the authors assembled in this volume explore how interplay of self-harm, suicide, personhood and agency varies markedly across site (Greenland, Siberia, India, Palestine and Mexico) and setting (self-run leprosy colony, suicide bomb attack, cash-crop farming, middle-class mothering). Rather than starting from a set definition of suicide, they empirically engage suicide fields-the wider domains of practices and of sense making, out of which realized, imaginary, or disputed suicides emerge. By drawing on ethnographic methods and approaches, a new comparative angle to understanding suicide beyond mainstream Western bio-medical and classical sociological conceptions of the act as an individual or social pathology is opened up. The book explores a number of ontological assumptions about the role of free will, power, good and evil, personhood, and intentionality in both popular and expert explanations of suicide. Suicide and Agency offers a substantial and ground-breaking contribution to the emerging field of the anthropology of suicide. It will appeal to a range of scholars and students, including those in anthropology, sociology, social psychology, cultural studies, suicidology, and social studies of death and dying. PART I Introduction The anthropology of Suicide: ethnography and the Tension of agency Daniel Münster and Ludek Broz PART II Suicide, Personhood and Relationality Personhood, agency and Suicide in a neo-Liberalizing South India James Staples The Lonely un-dead and Returning Suicide in northwest Greenland Janne Flora Between demons and disease: Suicide and agency in Yucatan, Mexico Beatriz M. Reyes-Foster Four Funerals and a Wedding: Suicide, Sacrifice, and (non-)Human agency in a Siberian Village Ludek Broz PART III Self-Destruction and Power: Bodies, Resistance and Crises Farmers’ Suicide and the Moral economy of agriculture: Victimhood, Voice, and agro-environmental Responsibility in South India Daniel Münster Dying to Live in Palestine: Steadfastness, Pollution and Embodied Space Deen Sharp and Natalia Linos Accumulating Death: Women’s Moral Agency and Domestic Economies of Care in South India Jocelyn Chua Learning Suicide and the Limits of Agency: Children’s “Suicide Play” in Sri Lanka Tom Widger Suicide, Agency and the Limits of Power Katrina Jaworski PART IV Afterword Afterword: Taking Relationality to Extremes Marilyn Strathern Index The Anthropology Of Suicide : Ethnography And The Tension Of Agency / Daniel Münster And Ludek Broz -- Personhood, Agency And Suicide In A Neo-liberalizing South India / James Staples -- The Lonely Un-dead And Returning Suicide In Northwest Greenland / Janne Flora -- Between Demons And Disease : Suicide And Agency In Yucatán, México / Beatriz M. Reyes-foster -- Four Funerals And A Wedding : Suicide, Sacrifice, And (non-)human Agency In A Siberian Village / Ludek Broz -- Farmers' Suicide And The Moral Economy Of Agriculture : Victimhood, Voice, And Agro-environmental Responsibility In South India / Daniel Münster -- Dying To Live In Palestine : Steadfastness, Pollution And Embodied Space / Deen Sharp And Natalia Linos -- Accumulating Death : Women's Moral Agency And Domestic Economies Of Care In South India / Jocelyn Chua -- Learning Suicide And The Limits Of Agency : Children's Suicide Play In Sri Lanka / Tom Widger -- Suicide, Agency And The Limits Of Power / Katrina Jaworski -- Afterword : Taking Relationality To Extremes / Marilyn Strathern. Edited By Ludek Broz And Daniel Münster. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.