Lecture by Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi (Rutgers University) within the Berlin Anthropology Seminars

Life in Fatehvadi. Naming and Omission
In a small neighborhood in India (Gujarat), a tension is palpable between the imperatives
of regularly engaging in formal Muslim prayer (namaz) and the unfinished lives in which
residents are caught. In worship, Muslims are supposed to be equal while new forms of
class relations based on labor exploitation in the city harshly contradict this ideal. There is,
then, a complicated relation between two types of activity, which, for the time being, I refer
to as “labor” (Arbeit), one secular, the other religious. Their mutual relation offers a
window into an understanding how rural migrants appropriate new religious styles, move
in and out of formal prayer and informal labor, and what this means for social organization
in Ahmedabad and conceptualizations of the sacred.

This lecture is part of the bi-weekly Berlin Anthropology Seminars. This series constitutes a joint initiative by anthropologists from the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at FU Berlin, ZMO, and Ethnologisches Museum. It intends to shape and cultivate an inclusive platform and open regular meeting point for exchange and discussion on current research by Berlin-based anthropologists. Please spread the word among colleagues, junior or senior, who may be interested. For further questions contact m.oschwald@fu-berlin.de
Organizers: Paola Ivanov, Claudia Liebelt, and Kai Kresse.