Abstract
The emotional turn in the social sciences refers to the change of focus over the past decades that this field has placed on gaining a broader understanding of affective expressions and emotional states in socio-cultural contexts. Just as we speak of the “linguistic turn,” when we speak of an “emotional turn,” we are referring to a bourgeoning field of research guided by an increasing interest in a certain aspect of social life that has been traditionally overlooked or obliterated. I will highlight the general lines of research that constitute it and discuss some of its analytical and methodological axes and presuppositions I will turn to a discussion about how I encountered this area of research, as I was not originally interested in emotions, but, as it were, encountered them in three different research scenarios throughout many years of anthropological fieldwork in Colombia and Brazil. Through these research experiences I advanced the concepts of emotional configurations and emotional communities, to which I will refer with more depth. But before getting into these matters, I will begin with a brief overview on the history of research on emotions.
Translated by Catalina González Quintero.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Bolaños presents a very complete state of the art of the debates on emotions in both disciplines during the twentieth century.
- 2.
My translation. The text was published originally in Spanish.
- 3.
Kandel received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2000.
- 4.
Culture and Violence: Toward a Social Ethics of Recognition in English.
- 5.
I talked to 14 murderers in prisons both in Brasilia and in Bogotá, to whom I asked the way in which the event occurred, the reasons they had for committing it, and their relationship with the victim.
- 6.
I follow in this regard the indications of Hans Medick (1987) in a provoking dialogue between anthropology and history. I have referred to this in more detail in the chapter, “El juego de las emociones: de la pasión al feminicidio” of my book Crimen pasional: con el corazón en tinieblas (Jimeno, 2019b).
- 7.
Elias and Foucault are, to my eyes, the most important thinkers of this social tapestry, with their conceptions about, on the one hand, power, discourse, and the subject, and, on the other hand, the correlation between the historical and political structure and the personal psyche, in what Elias called the civilization process.
- 8.
Two anthropology students from Universidad Nacional de Colombia were co-researchers in this research, Ángela Castillo and Daniel Varela, today in process of receiving their PhDs in the USA.
- 9.
Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca (Indigenous Regional Council of Cauca).
- 10.
Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca (Association of Indigenous Assemblies of the North of Cauca, which is a member of CRIC).
References
Ariza, M. (2016). Emociones, afectos y sociología. Diálogos desde la investigación social y la interdisciplina. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico.
Barcellos, R., & Coelho, M. (2010). Antropologia das emoções. Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV.
Bolaños, L. P. (2016). El estudio socio-histórico de las emociones y los sentimientos en las Ciencias Sociales del siglo XX. Revista de Estudios Sociales, 55, 178–197. https://doi.org/10.7440/res55.2016.12
Briggs, J. (1971). Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Calderón, E., & Zirión, A. (Eds.). (2018). Culture and Affectivity: Anthropological and Philosophical Approaches to the Study of Emotions. México: Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana.
Calhoun, C., & Solomon, R. (2003). What is an Emotion? Classic and Contemporary Readings. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Castillo del Pino, C. (2000). Teoría de los Sentimientos. Barcelona: Tusquets Editores.
Dias, L. (1986). Da vida nervosa nas classes trabalhadoras urbanas. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Editores.
Elias, N. (1983). The Civilizing Process. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Foucault, M. (1991). The Subject and Power. In H. Dreyfus & P. Rabinow (Eds.), Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics (pp. 241–357). New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Foucault, M. (1998). The Will to Knowledge (The History of Sexuality Volume 1). London: Penguin Classics.
Jimeno, M. (2004). Crimen pasional. Contribución a una antropología de las emociones. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Jimeno, M. (2019a). Cultura y violencia: hacia una ética social del reconocimiento. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Jimeno, M. (2019b). Crimen pasional: con el corazón en tinieblas. In M. Jimeno (Ed.), Cultura y violencia. Hacia una ética social de reconocimiento (pp. 147–170). Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Centro de Estudios Sociales CES.
Jimeno, M., Varela, D., & Castillo, A. (2019). Experiencias de violencia: etnografía y recomposición social en Colombia. In M. Jimeno (Ed.), Cultura y violencia: hacia una ética social del reconocimiento (pp. 365–392). Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Kandel, E., Schwartz, J., & Jessel, T. (1996). Principles of Neural Science. New York: Elsevier.
Lienhardt, M. (1979). Do Kamo: Person and Myth in the Melanesian World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lipsett-Rivera, S. (1998). A Slap in the Face of Honor. In L. Johnson & S. Lipsett-Rivera (Eds.), The Faces of Honor. Sex Shame and Violence in Colonial Latin America (pp. 179–200). Albuquerque: University of New México Press.
Luhmann, N. (1998). Love as Passion: The Codification of Intimacy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Lutz, C. (2018). Movilidades emocionales y la economía política del afecto bajo regímenes de automovilidad. In E. Calderón & A. Zirión (Eds.), Culture and Affectivity: Anthropological and Philosophical Approaches to the Study of Emotions (pp. 43–64). México: Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana.
Lutz, C., & Abu-Lughod, L. (Eds.). (1990). Language and the Politics of Emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mauss, M. (1939). Une categorie de l’esprit humaine: la notion de personne, celle de moi un plan de travail. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 68. Retrieved from http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/mauss_marcel/socio_et_anthropo/5_Une_categorie/Une_categorie.html
Medick, H. (1987). Missionaries in the RowBoat? Ethnological Ways of Knowing as a Challenge to Social History. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 29(1), 76–98.
Mercadillo, R. E. (2016). Reflexiones para un diálogo entre la neurociencia social y la sociología de las emociones. In M. Ariza (Ed.), Emociones, afectos y sociología. Diálogos desde la investigación social y la interdisciplina (pp. 547–583). México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Moravia, S. (1998). Existence and Passion. In S. Vegetti Finzi (Ed.), History of Passions (pp. 25–59). Rome: Laterza..
Niehoff, D. (1998). The Biology of Violence: How Understanding the Brain, Behavior and Environment can Break the Vicious Circle of Aggression. New York: The Free Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2001). Upheavals of Thought. The Intelligence of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press..
Nussbaum, M. (2013). Political Emotions. Why Love Matters for Justice. London: Harvard University Press..
Oatley, K. (2004). Emotions: A Brief History. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
Reddy, W. (1997). The Invisible Code: Honor and Sentiment in Postrevolutionary France. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Reddy, W. (2008). The Navigation of Feeling. A Framework for the History of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Rosenwein, B., & Cristiani, R. (2018). What is the History of Emotions? Cambridge: Polity Press.
Sahlins, M. (1985). Islands of History. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Vegetti, S. (2004). History of Passions. Rome: Laterza.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jimeno, M. (2021). The Emotional Turn in Colombian Experiences of Violence. In: Forero Angel, A.M., González Quintero, C., Wolf, A.B. (eds) Incarnating Feelings, Constructing Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57111-5_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57111-5_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-57110-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-57111-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)