{"title":"DISSONANCE: Cartooning in Iran, Humor, and the Study of Things That Don't Match","authors":"MIRCO GÖPFERT","doi":"10.14506/ca39.4.07","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This essay, drawing on research with cartoonists in Iran, explores cartooning as a distinctive mode of engaged knowing through drawing and humor. By unraveling the cartoonists' capacity to perceive, compose, and amplify dissonance, the study reveals a practice that intertwines perceptive sensitivity, analytical skill, and moral commitment. Embracing dissonance through cartooning and humor not only provides new perspectives on the political present in Iran and beyond but also offers a peculiar mode of knowing the uncomfortable—studying things that don't match. Unlike cartooning, anthropology seldom embraces humor, yet both share a capacity for navigating dissonance. Humor as an aesthetic and ethical practice can open unconventional paths for research and commitment, providing a means and audacity to understand the unknowable—all with a spirit of humility and critique.</p>","PeriodicalId":51423,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Anthropology","volume":"39 4","pages":"645-666"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.14506/ca39.4.07","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cultural Anthropology","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.14506/ca39.4.07","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This essay, drawing on research with cartoonists in Iran, explores cartooning as a distinctive mode of engaged knowing through drawing and humor. By unraveling the cartoonists' capacity to perceive, compose, and amplify dissonance, the study reveals a practice that intertwines perceptive sensitivity, analytical skill, and moral commitment. Embracing dissonance through cartooning and humor not only provides new perspectives on the political present in Iran and beyond but also offers a peculiar mode of knowing the uncomfortable—studying things that don't match. Unlike cartooning, anthropology seldom embraces humor, yet both share a capacity for navigating dissonance. Humor as an aesthetic and ethical practice can open unconventional paths for research and commitment, providing a means and audacity to understand the unknowable—all with a spirit of humility and critique.
期刊介绍:
Cultural Anthropology publishes ethnographic writing informed by a wide array of theoretical perspectives, innovative in form and content, and focused on both traditional and emerging topics. It also welcomes essays concerned with ethnographic methods and research design in historical perspective, and with ways cultural analysis can address broader public audiences and interests.