Time, temporality and cultural rhythmics : An anthropological case study

Gonzalo Iparraguirre — 2022-02-15T21:09:59Z

This text has already been published in Time & Society, 2016, Vol. 25(3), pp. 613-633. We thank Gonzalo Iparraguirre for the permission to republish it here.

Abstract : This article presents the introduction and the update of an ethnographic research on temporality among indigenous groups, published in 2011 in its full version as a book in Spanish. It seeks to prove the usefulness of the conceptual distinction between time, defined as the phenomenon of becoming in itself, and temporality, defined as the human apprehension of becoming in a cultural context. Furthermore, the existence of non-hegemonic temporalities is exemplified by a case study of originary temporality with Mocovı´ indigenous societies in Argentina's Chaco region. The methodology built for studying temporality in different social groups, termed here as cultural rhythmics, is also introduced. By studying different rhythmic experiences integrated in the participant observation, the rhythmic method enables us to interpret social facts that are implicit in the everyday practices of organisation, in the economic–political relations, and in the group's worldviews.

Keywords : Time, temporality, cultural rhythmics, indigenous Mocovı´ people, anthropology

Introduction

The purpose of carrying out an anthropological research on the concepts of time and temporality, and their practical implications in the everyday life of different social groups through cultural rhythmics methodology, derives from my own interest in establishing an interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophical and scientific studies of time. [...]

Cultural Rhythmics Inside Academic Temporalities

Gonzalo Iparraguirre — 2022-02-15T21:01:58Z

This text has already been published in P. Vostal (ed.), Inquiring into Academic Timescapes, Bingley, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2021, pp. 59-72. We thank Gonzalo Iparraguirre for the permission to republish it here.

The aim of this chapter is to explore how temporalities produced by academia defines the way we learn and interpret social life, politics, and development. Academia imposes these temporalities by teaching and managing intrinsic temporal notions of social dynamics, as the notion of past, history, present, future, pace, rhythm, acceleration, planning, expectation, synchronization, deadlines, schedules, among others. A general hypothesis that guide this work is that the acceleration of academia and the notion of time it reproduces, configures, and impact in the design of development agendas all over the world.

To achieve this aim, in the first place, it is introduced why it is possible to understand daily life among social rhythms using a method called cultural rhythmics. In the second place, it is explained why temporalities incorporated inside academia defines certain rhythmics that allows to comprehend and diagnose potential interventions, with a particular example about the rhythmic of “urgency.” The third part introduces the theoretical frame to research development as temporality, as a result of time representations that take account of the past, present, and future of a social process, analyzed through cultural rhythmics. Finally, the design of agendas in academia is explored, following a preliminary idea about how it is possible to create academic and political policies considering their rhythmics.

The Rhythmics of Social Life

In the first place, I will introduce why it is possible to understand daily life among social rhythms and the method I use to analyze social dynamics. Within the last 10 years, I worked in the construction of an ethnographic methodology for studying temporality, spatiality and rhythms of life in different cultural contexts, which called “cultural rhythmics” (Iparraguirre, 2011, 2016). [...]

Rhuthmos

Time, temporality and cultural rhythmics : An anthropological case study

Cultural Rhythmics Inside Academic Temporalities