Igor Cherstich

University College London, Social Anthropology, Faculty Member

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https://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/research-staff/igor-cherstich
Phone: 0044-7910059281
Address: UCL Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London, WC1H 0BW

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Papers by Igor Cherstich

Smoking, Praying, Killing: the Politcs of Boredom in Post-Revolutionary Libya

Revolution Beyond the Event: the Afterlives of Radical Politics, 2023

open access and available on this link https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/180039

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5. The Body of the Colonel: Caricature and Incarnation in the Libyan Revolution

The Political Aesthetics of Global Protest

Libyan secrets : sufism, esoterism and the state in the Jamahiriya

My research is based on a fifteen months field-work carried out in the city of Tripoli. In partic... more My research is based on a fifteen months field-work carried out in the city of Tripoli. In particular, my thesis focuses on the Issawiya, a Libyan Sufi brotherhood that has often attracted the curiosity of western observers due to the spectacular nature of its ritual performances. For centuries Libyan Issawis have made use of a specific secret knowledge that has allowed them to perform karamat ("miracles"). These miraculous exhibitions involve acts of self-harm aimed at demonstrating a prodigious invulnerability, and supernatural actions carried out through the acquisition of the strength of animals. Even though these miraculous performances are attested both in the colonial literature and in local narratives today the majority of the Issawis dismiss karamat as outdated practices that are in contrast with the dictates of the Qur'an. Bearing this in mind, one would be tempted to say that the Issawiya has embraced a more 'disenchanted' approach to Islam. In my th...

A ‘living’ necropolis: change and reuse in the cemeteries of Cyrene

Libyan Studies

The four cemeteries of Cyrene were a living archaeological landscape whose life continued far bey... more The four cemeteries of Cyrene were a living archaeological landscape whose life continued far beyond antiquity. The habit of using monumental tombs was a long-lasting one in Cyrene, starting in the Archaic period and continuing until Roman times. The concept of ‘reuse’ is in itself a problematic one since, from a semantic point of view, it implies the presence of a clear-cut division between an original ‘phase of use’ and of a later ‘phase of reuse’. This approach could have sense when a clear hiatus is present, for example when speaking of modern reuse of ancient Greek tombs. However, the main problem is the use of the term ‘reuse’ when describing two ancient phases, such as a Hellenistic phase and a Roman phase of the same tomb, implying a clear hiatus between them even if one often lacks the elements for identifying the existence of such a hiatus. In particular, the Southern and Northern Necropolises have been analysed here to investigate this subject, basing the hypotheses on da...

Anthropologies of Revolution: Forging Time, People, and Worlds

as Head of Department, for providing the basic administrative and institutional structures on whi... more as Head of Department, for providing the basic administrative and institutional structures on which projects such as this depend. We are enormously grateful to our undergraduate and masters' students in the course "Social Forms of Revolution, " which we designed and taught together at UCL in 2016, and Cherstich continued to teach on his own in 2017 and 2018. The students' thoughts and comments during lectures and tutorials have been a constant point of reference for us in the writing of the book, the chapters of which viii Acknowledgments are based on our lectures for the course. Some of the material that features in the chapters was also presented during the following conferences, workshops, and exhibitions: "Comparative

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5. Revolution and Ideology

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Libya's revolution : tribe, nation, politics – Centre tricontinental

The Libyan war has not been a tribal conflict. Yet throughout the seven months of fighting, much ... more

Il vocabolario archetipico di una disciplina mitopolietica : (Apologia di una terminologia meravigliosamente imprecisa)

4. The Revolutionary Leader: Charisma, Authority, and Exception

the chapter is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1... more

1. Revolution as Event: Ritual, Violence, and Transformation

the chapter is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1... more

Divisiones tribales: ¿causa o efecto?

Richard Burton and Jalal Al-Ahmad: L'esperienza liminale di due pellegrini senza fede

3. The Revolutionary Person: Penitence, Sacrifice, and the New Man

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Introduction. Multiplying Revolutions

the chapter is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1... more

6. Revolutionary Cosmologies

the chapter is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1... more

Anthropologies of Revolution

the book is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1525... more

Oroscopo e Astrologia

Conclusion. Worlds in Revolution

Anthropologies of Revolution

the chapter is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1... more

Affective Politics in Transitional North Africa: Imagining the Future : Workshop and roundtable report. 27–28 may 2013, Alexandria, Egypt

In the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings and the recent instability of North African societies, Eur... more In the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings and the recent instability of North African societies, European policy makers and academics alike have tended to overlook the most powerful link: the one between politics and affect. How do people sense and express the aftermath of the &quot; Arab Spring &quot; ? What is the role of affective politics in creating new citizens? What is the role of nondiscursive forces in social life in relation to the uprisings? The force of affective politics in the region post–Arab Spring has the capacity to influence senses of belonging. However, current dynamics may contribute to a loss of control and undermine individual and collective security, invoking uncertainty, insecurity, and further violence in transitional North Africa. A more comprehensive understanding of contemporary North African politics needs to include the body, the senses, and public affect. Only thereafter will we be able to understand human actions that are not mediated by language or consciousness. Spinoza, Deleuze and Guattari, and scholars inspired by them (cf. Protevi 2009) define affect as the prediscursive forces that mold the body, the senses, and the consciousness. These forces can be material as well as immaterial—for example, bodies or spaces, images, sound, light, and scents. Affects are related to (but not should be understood as synonymous with) feelings and emotions. Massumi suggests instead that one understand affects as intense forces that have the ability to shape and flow through the body, where they will be materialized as emotion. He labels this process the autonomy of affect. As Navaro-Yashin suggests, &quot; the Deleuzian turn to affect [is] a reaction to the centrality of discursivity in the human sciences &quot; (Navaro-Yashin 2007: 12). However, the paradigmatic shift &quot; has cast subjectivity against affect, as if one cancels the other and as if one had to choose between camps of theoretical approach: a subject-centred or an object-orientated one &quot; (14). Navaro-Yashin argues, taking her own material as a point of departure, that her ethnography pushed her &quot; not to follow a new paradigm which would have us cast away or turn a blind eye to observations or an imagination provided by other theoretical approaches. Instead, I feel I need to maintain the scope provided by both theoretical orientations on board, in spite of the fact that they have been presented as though they were antithetical to one another. I propose to ruin neither of them &quot; (15). Participants in this workshop will discuss the relationships between emotion, consciousness, affect, and ethnography: Is there any possible way to be multiparadigmatic—to merge theories of affect and subjectivity—and to use social constructionism and an object-oriented approach at the same time? Or is the affective turn the antitheses of ethnography? We will analyze and compare how affect is mediated in spaces of movement, as well as how the power of affective politics is expressed through material and immaterial sites. We will explore these sites for veiled political (dis)content: materialized through, for example, narratives, speech, humor, rumor, and projections, as well as through nonverbal expressions such as bodily gestures, the senses, and silences. All are agents in the making of public life, and all create links between political-economic transformations and individual and collective experience.

When Tribesmen do not act Tribal: Libyan Tribalism as Ideology (not as Schizophrenia)

Middle East Critique, 2014

The article seeks to problematize recent studies on Libyan tribalism. It argues that tribal ident... more The article seeks to problematize recent studies on Libyan tribalism. It argues that tribal identity is not, as some commentators suggest, a static reality that stands in opposition to ideological discourses like national identity. Rather, Libyan tribalism is an ideology in itself, and one that is compatible with national aspirations. The article offers also an analysis of the recent rise of tribal identity in Libya. In particular, the author suggests that Libya is not struggling to become a nation because of ingrained tribal identity. On the contrary, tribalism is growing stronger due to the legacy left by Qadhdhafi and the failure of the 'new' Libyan state to provide social security for its citizens.

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Smoking, Praying, Killing: the Politcs of Boredom in Post-Revolutionary Libya

Revolution Beyond the Event: the Afterlives of Radical Politics, 2023

open access and available on this link https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/180039

Download

5. The Body of the Colonel: Caricature and Incarnation in the Libyan Revolution

The Political Aesthetics of Global Protest

Libyan secrets : sufism, esoterism and the state in the Jamahiriya

A ‘living’ necropolis: change and reuse in the cemeteries of Cyrene

Libyan Studies

Anthropologies of Revolution: Forging Time, People, and Worlds

Download

5. Revolution and Ideology

Download

Libya's revolution : tribe, nation, politics – Centre tricontinental

The Libyan war has not been a tribal conflict. Yet throughout the seven months of fighting, much ... more

Il vocabolario archetipico di una disciplina mitopolietica : (Apologia di una terminologia meravigliosamente imprecisa)

4. The Revolutionary Leader: Charisma, Authority, and Exception

the chapter is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1... more

1. Revolution as Event: Ritual, Violence, and Transformation

the chapter is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1... more

Divisiones tribales: ¿causa o efecto?

Richard Burton and Jalal Al-Ahmad: L'esperienza liminale di due pellegrini senza fede

3. The Revolutionary Person: Penitence, Sacrifice, and the New Man

Download

Introduction. Multiplying Revolutions

the chapter is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1... more

6. Revolutionary Cosmologies

the chapter is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1... more

Anthropologies of Revolution

the book is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1525... more

Oroscopo e Astrologia

Conclusion. Worlds in Revolution

Anthropologies of Revolution

the chapter is open access and can be downloaded here https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1... more

Affective Politics in Transitional North Africa: Imagining the Future : Workshop and roundtable report. 27–28 may 2013, Alexandria, Egypt

When Tribesmen do not act Tribal: Libyan Tribalism as Ideology (not as Schizophrenia)

Middle East Critique, 2014

Download

Six years after the fall of Muammar Gadhafi, Libya remains in a chaotic state.

https://moc.media/en/monologue-for-two/2612

Video Interview on our "Social Forms of Revolution' project at UCL

Anthropologies of Revolution : Forging Time, People and Worlds

University of California Press, 2020

What can anthropological thinking contribute to the study of revolutions? The first book-length a... more What can anthropological thinking contribute to the study of revolutions? The first book-length attempt to develop an anthropological approach to revolutions, Anthropologies of Revolution proposes that revolutions should be seen as concerted attempts to radically reconstitute the worlds people inhabit. Viewing revolutions as all-embracing, world-creating projects, the authors ask readers to move beyond the idea of revolutions as acts of violent political rupture, and instead view them as processes of societal transformation that penetrate deeply into the fabric of people’s lives, unfolding and refolding the coordinates of human existence.

Igor Cherstich

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