Anthropology Annual Lecture explores the Management of Colonial Luggage

Distinguished Lecturer: Ghassan Hage

The Oxford English Dictionary defines luggage: 1.) suitcases or other bags in which to pack personal belongings for travelling and, 2.) past experiences or long-held ideas and opinions perceived as burdensome encumbrances. Each of these definitions belongs to a different dimension of life. An ethnographic investigation of the first takes us into the material culture of physical mobility, what we carry, and how we carry it, as we move from one place to another. The second takes us into the psychological and affective culture that is part of our existential mobility, what we carry as we are moving through life. In this presentation, Professor Ghassan Hage will investigate how these two ethnographies resonate, intersect and speak to each other when researching post-colonial culture.