{"id":176,"date":"2013-01-11T16:40:27","date_gmt":"2013-01-11T15:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/?p=176"},"modified":"2013-02-27T16:46:28","modified_gmt":"2013-02-27T15:46:28","slug":"urban-ethnography-the-fridge-etnografia-urbana-la-nevera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/2013\/01\/11\/urban-ethnography-the-fridge-etnografia-urbana-la-nevera\/","title":{"rendered":"urban ethnography: the fridge \/ etnograf\u00eda urbana: la nevera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Modernity has produced many altars, altars meaning indespensible objects that are part of a sedentary individual’s everyday rituals. If there is one that can be considered as a city person’s cotidian choreography, it is probably one’s regular-ized pilgrimage to the fridge. They are fleeting moments in any given day, but nevertheless make up important liminal spaces of casual yet important decision making. ‘What will I take from the fridge to cook or eat?’ The moment one opens the fridge, the light from within is cast into the face of the hungry, or the simply bored. Then, devotion and ritual begin as one decides to make something out of what is found, or what has been earlier set-up, thanks to an earlier trip to another sacred site, the supermarket. The consumer, faced with an immediate need (hunger or socializing) becomes a priest, shaman or alchemist until his \/ her needs are satisfied. In rituals and festivals of many indigenous communities in the Philippines that I have studied, food (and beverage and even drugs) are important elements that shamans use as mediums for their ceremonies. The satisfaction that is acquired from the performance of\u00a0preparing, behaving around, sharing and tasting\u00a0\u00a0(Kirshenbaltt-Gimblett)\u00a0<\/em>these consumables nourishes the overall texture of the festivities, they activate social spaces of negotiation and interaction, between human to human, and human to beyond human. Going back to the city, I re-situate the spaces for rituals in the everyday, in the objects that define (my) everyday, like the fridge. I also saw it in other people’s fridge, as I had the privilege to invade many strangers’ kitchens and gossip into these formidable urban altars. But the fridge has its ‘own’ specificities. Its configuration, like how most of the city life is designed is based on ideas of the individual, the private and the distancing: my food, my groceries, my portions. Where I live, sharing the flat and subsequently the fridge with three other people, we divide the spaces of the fridge. Most often, the compartmentalized patterns of city living cause for isolation and alienation. Yet, also because of this, the act of getting together becomes an event, a feast, a ritualistic celebration. It is generating this ritual of ‘getting together’, and making it a regular practice, that in the end I am most interested in, and using the pretext of leftovers to create such unusual, yet very ordinary dinner situations, is nothing but a pretext. Because we might see and be in close proximity with so many people everyday in the city, but in reality, we are so near, yet so far from them.<\/p>\n

La modernidad ha producido muchos altares, altares significa objetos\u00a0indispensables\u00a0<\/em>que forman parte de los rituales cotidianos de una persona sedentaria. Si hay uno que puede ser considerado como una coreograf\u00eda cotidiana para una persona de la ciudad, es probablemente su peregrinaci\u00f3n\u00a0normal-izada a<\/em>\u00a0la nevera. Son momentos fugaces en un d\u00eda determinado, pero sin embargo constituyen importantes espacios liminales que uno le hace tomar decisiones casuales pero importantes. “\u00bfQu\u00e9 voy a tomar de la nevera para cocinar o comer?” El momento en que uno abre la nevera, la luz del interior se echa en el rostro de quien que tiene hambriento, o simplemente aburrido. Entonces, la devoci\u00f3n y el ritual comienzan como uno decide a hacer algo de lo que se encuentra, o lo ha sido anteriormente puesta a punto, gracias a un viaje anterior a otro sitio sagrado, el supermercado. El consumidor, frente a una necesidad inmediata (hambre o socializaci\u00f3n) se convierte en un sacerdote, cham\u00e1n o alquimista hasta satisfacer sus necesidades. En los rituales y festivales de muchas comunidades ind\u00edgenas de Filipinas que he estudiado, los alimentos y bebidas (incluso las drogas) son elementos importantes que los chamanes utilizan como medios para sus ceremonias. La satisfacci\u00f3n que se obtiene a partir de la realizaci\u00f3n de la preparaci\u00f3n de las cosas comestibles, los comportamientos alrededor de ellas, su degustaci\u00f3n y su reparto (Kirshenbaltt-Gimblett) alimenta la textura general de las festividades, se activan los espacios sociales de interacci\u00f3n y negociaci\u00f3n, entre el ser humano a humano, y humano a m\u00e1s all\u00e1 de humano. Volviendo a la ciudad, re-situ\u00f3\u00a0los espacios para los rituales de la vida cotidiana, en los objetos que definen lo (mi) cotidiano, como la nevera. Yo tambi\u00e9n lo vi en la nevera de los dem\u00e1s, ya que tuve el privilegio de invadir las cocinas de muchos extra\u00f1os y cotillear estos altares privados formidables. Pero la nevera tiene sus propias especificidades urbanas. Su configuraci\u00f3n, por ejemplo, c\u00f3mo la mayor parte de la vida de la ciudad se ha dise\u00f1ado basada en las ideas de lo individual, lo privado y insulacion:\u00a0mi\u00a0comida,\u00a0mis\u00a0compras,\u00a0mis\u00a0porciones. Donde yo vivo, compartiendo el piso y, posteriormente la nevera con otras tres personas, dividimos los espacios de la nevera. Muy a menudo, los patrones compartimentadas de vivencias en la ciudad viva causa aislamiento y alienaci\u00f3n. Sin embargo, tambi\u00e9n por esta misma premisa, el acto de reunirse se convierte en un evento, una fiesta, una celebraci\u00f3n ritual. El generar este ritual de “juntarnos”, y tratar de hacerlo como una pr\u00e1ctica habitual, que al final lo que m\u00e1s me interesa. Y el uso del pretexto de restos para crear tales situaciones inusuales sin embargo ordinarios, es nada mas que un pretexto. Por que podr\u00edamos ver y estar en proximidad con tanta gente todos los d\u00edas en la ciudad, pero en realidad, estamos tan cerca y a la vez tan lejos de ellos.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

gallery \/\u00a0\"\"galer\u00eda<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Modernity has produced many altars, altars meaning indespensible objects that are part of a sedentary individual’s everyday rituals. If there is one that can be considered as a city person’s cotidian choreography, it is probably one’s regular-ized pilgrimage to the fridge. They are fleeting moments in any given day, but nevertheless make up important liminal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-es-cena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184,"href":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tea-tron.com\/nomadinprogress\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}