Paper
Grace as Reparative Praxis for Anthropology as Care
presenters
Casey Golomski
Nationality: United States
Residence: United States
University of New Hampshire
Presence:Online
Keywords:
grace, reciprocity, reconciliation, care, injury
Abstract:
This paper explores the meaning and potential of grace for anthropology of/as care. Grace can be seen as favor or power received from god(s) and gained in predestiny, prayer, or suffering, shaping interpersonal and legal dynamics and informing ontologies and relationalities. In this paper, I also consider how it could also be a reparative praxis. Repair from injuries physical and symbolic is multiple--from care for oneself, others, and communities, to healing, restitution, and transformation. I ask how grace can be a force to empower us toward modes of repair: How do we give grace to ourselves when we fail to meet expectations--our own or those of our interlocutors, colleagues, or fellow citizens? How or should we give grace to others we find problematic or counter to our flourishing? Where does the power to give or receive it come from--within us, our relationships, or an ancestral or metaphysical source? The exchange or embodiment of grace can be a radical spiritual practice in conflict or its aftermath, shaping dynamics of reconciliation and forgiveness but reproducing inequality (Golomski 2024). For an anthropology of/as care, I also ask how grace could aid injuries of our field's unequal citational practices, extractive methods, and moral and political trespasses related to generational, gendered, and racial imperatives or differences. Grace may entail partial resignation to critique in the name of dialogue, and we heed calls to pace and parse ourselves within anthropology's strife. This is not to disregard criticism but to find powers within us and our traditions to go on living amid discord. In the meantime, grace can facilitate co-existence despite factionalism and be means to care about ourselves and anthropology (Mkhwanazi 2023), embrace acceptance, and do good--elicit reparations, enact moral moods, give tough love to those we believe need it, or decolonize our discipline.