MA Anthropology programme

Dr Fabio Gygi (Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, SOAS, University of London)

Tuesday, March 28th, 2023 (17.00-19.00)

Mary Ryan Seminar Room (O'Rahilly Building - Ground Floor), UCC Campus

This talk explores two intertwined subjects: one is the doll as subject; that is, not just as research topic, but as an entity with a soul, a heart or a mind. The second, perhaps more elusive subject is the believing person, in other words, the person in whose mind the idea of the soul of the doll resides. Based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork at ningyō kuyō (rites of disposal/memorial services for dolls) all over Japan, I try to piece together an understanding of these rituals using ritual theory, some psychodynamic ideas and a material semiotics of animation