Papers by Mikkel Bunkenborg
Anthropological theory, Feb 27, 2024
Positions, Jun 1, 2014
Classical descriptions of popular religion in China have noted how religious imagery presents the... more Classical descriptions of popular religion in China have noted how religious imagery presents the cosmos itself as a statelike bureaucratic hierarchy. This has conventionally been interpreted either as a reflection of the apparatus of imperial rule or as a representation that offers critical purchase on the state. This article challenges the idea that popular religion is best conceptualized as a distinct domain centered on reflections and representations of the state. Popular religious movements claim to enact the state as a metaphysical entity rather than represent the state as a mundane system of governance, and this idea, the article argues, merits consideration as a theory in its own right. Instead of being separated into distinct domains, the mundane state and popular religion are cast as parallel enactments of a single metaphysical state. The equivalence ascribed to popular religious movements and the institutions of the mundane state is particularly evident in the field of health.
Health & Place, May 1, 2016
The rapid growth of the Chinese economy in the post-Mao era has been accompanied by a sharp incre... more The rapid growth of the Chinese economy in the post-Mao era has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the prevalence of diabetes and recent studies suggest that there is now more than a 100 million diabetics in China. This article explores how biomedical diabetes treatment contributes to configure subjectivities and collectivities in contemporary China. Based on an ethnographic study of diabetics, it argues that biomedical knowledge of diabetes is subtly inflected as it is transmitted by doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and patients, and that these differentiated modes of transmission work against the emergence of a singular diabetic subjectivity and biosociality.
Mobilities, Nov 1, 2012
Abstract We usually think of roads as tools of social and material connection which serve to ench... more Abstract We usually think of roads as tools of social and material connection which serve to enchain places, things and people that have not before been as directly, or intensely, linked up. Yet, in the sparsely populated grasslands and deserts of the Sino-Mongolian border zone, it is equally much the other way around. Rather than facilitating more interaction between local Mongolians and the growing number of Chinese employed in mining and oil companies, the many roads that are now being built or upgraded to transport natural resources, commodities and labour power between Mongolia and China serve to curb both the quantity and the quality of interactions taking place between Mongolians and Chinese. Thus, roads here act as technologies of distantiation, which ensure that the two sides become less connected as time passes.
Antropologi, May 22, 2005
Journal of Southern African Studies, Apr 28, 2020
In their search for precious hardwood in the forests of northern Mozambique, Chinese logging comp... more In their search for precious hardwood in the forests of northern Mozambique, Chinese logging companies employ locals with knowledge of the forest to scout for trees. Known as olheiros, these tree scouts are indispensable to both Chinese and Mozambican participants in the industry, but, strangely, they are also regarded with scepticism and sometimes even hostility from both sides. Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Mozambicans and Chinese involved in the local logging industry of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique, this article traces the social and cultural ramifications of natural resource extraction in a rural environment that is currently undergoing radical changes. We begin the article by discussing the economic and political transformations brought about by opening up the local logging industry to foreign agencies. By outlining the genealogy and increased importance of the olheiro figure, we then move to examine the cosmological implications of this intensified form of resource extraction in a rural universe. Acquiring new skills and capacities working for Chinese companies, many olheiros are seen as embodying Chinese spirit forces and, along with locating hardwood, they are assigned the task of mediating between Chinese and local spirit worlds. In a context where logging companies operate largely unchecked by state agents and often collude with local elites, however, the hunt for hardwood has affected local communities in ways that cannot be repaired by the untrained ritual efforts of the olheiros.
Social Analysis, Sep 1, 2020
A statue of stainless steel cast in China and placed at the entrance of the new National Stadium ... more A statue of stainless steel cast in China and placed at the entrance of the new National Stadium in Mozambique sparked controversy between Chinese donors and Mozambican recipients in the period leading up to the stadium's 2011 inauguration. Based on ethno graphic fieldwork among the Mozambican and Chinese nationals involved in the project, we explore the multiple misunderstandings surrounding the statue and show how they came to define Sino-Mozambican relations. Entextualized through materiality, the misunderstandings assumed a monumental form in the statue, and the message of mutual incomprehension continued to reverberate across the social terrain of Sino-Mozambican relations long after the statue itself had been removed. Misunderstandings, we argue, should not be dismissed as ephemeral communicative glitches, but seen as productive events that structure social relations.
Cornell University Press eBooks, Jan 19, 2022
China Information, Oct 21, 2012
Over the past three decades, rural China has seen a resurgence of ritual and religious practices ... more Over the past three decades, rural China has seen a resurgence of ritual and religious practices involving lineage halls, temples, and novel sectarian movements. This revival of rituals is well documented in ethnographic literature, and a case in point is the establishment of a temple for a local dragon deity in the Hebei township of Fanzhuang. Descriptions of this particular revival focus on a score of males involved in the practical organization of the annual temple fair, while largely ignoring the contributions of a group of spirit mediums and middle-aged women attending rituals in private homes and neighbouring villages throughout the year. The locals often compare the gendered division of labour evident in the temple to households where men are said to be responsible for external matters while women take care of internal affairs. Based on 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork, the article argues that religious practices in both temples and households evince a gendered division of labour: men take charge of the public exterior and relations with the authorities and women see to the private interior and relations with deities. The ongoing revival of rituals is thus gendered in such a way that the significant role of women tends to be hidden from public view.
The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, Dec 8, 2021
Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Chinese nationals working in Mongolia, this research note e... more Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Chinese nationals working in Mongolia, this research note explores various forms of gardening that unfolded as side-projects at sites where Chinese enterprises were engaged in the extraction of oil, zinc and fluorspar. At first, the organisation and activities of these Chinese operations appeared to stem from a penchant for walled compounds and gardening. However, on closer inspection, the horticultural enclaves were not really a unilateral imposition of a culturally determined aesthetics, but rather the outcome of a negotiation, informed by prevailing ethnic stereotypes, of the proper form a Chinese presence could assume in Mongolia.
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, Dec 1, 2019
This themed issue examines morality through the medium of food. In the sociology and anthropology... more This themed issue examines morality through the medium of food. In the sociology and anthropology of China, morality has become a prominent topic in recent years along with claims that contemporary Chinese society is troubled by a pervasive sense of moral crisis (Feuchtwang and Bruckermann, 2016: 31). Arthur Kleinman (2011) and Yunxiang Yan (2009, 2011), in particular, have described the moral predicaments that characterise Chinese society and the ongoing formation of new ethical subjects in a moral landscape shaped by dramatic socioeconomic transformations. Other authors have found inspiration in the ordinary ethics approach of Michael Lambek (2010) to focus on the ethnographic study of everyday ethics in particular communities (Oxfeld, 2010; Stafford, 2013), and finally, Xiaotong Fei (1992 [1948]) classical depiction of a Chinese relational morality has been revisited to inform current discussions (Lee, 2014; Yan, 2011, 2012). We wish to contribute to these debates in two ways. First, we argue that food is a medium simultaneously expressive and constitutive of ethical relations and therefore a productive focal point for discussions of morality. Second, we put to use the meso-level concept of moral economies (Thompson, 1971) in the plural to conceptualise the coexistence of different and often conflicting ethical repertoires that are enacted and invoked by different actors.
Medical Anthropology, Feb 10, 2014
In this article, I explore contemporary medical and popular discourse on subhealth (yajiankang) i... more In this article, I explore contemporary medical and popular discourse on subhealth (yajiankang) in China. The idea that most people suffer from subhealth was at first associated with the marketing of a health product in the 1990 s, but subhealth acquired new meanings when it was popularized in media reports of sudden death and it gradually became a field of medical research. Subhealth discourse revolves around bodies characterized by lack and need of improvement, and thus it mirrors the governmental concern with lack of quality (suzhi) that has figured prominently in contemporary anthropological writings on China. The widespread concern with subhealth, however, suggests that the health care industry has significant influence on the way bodies are imagined and acted upon, and I argue that anthropological research on processes of subject formation in contemporary China might be enriched by looking beyond the state and exploring the field of liberalized health care ethnographically.
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Papers by Mikkel Bunkenborg