The Mamanuas of Basey, Samar have been in an itinerant state since the 1950s. Their indigenous experience can be capped in the term ‘diaspora,’ which pictures their plight as dispersive habituation, moving from town to town away from their homeland. In a recent study which this paper hinges upon, the concept of diaspora can no longer work and is argued to imperatively function as a vanishing mediator so that indigeneity must come to mean as a constant identity of becoming. Following (...) from such a theoretical lens, this paper delves again into the concept of ‘diaspora’ in the Mamanuan indigenous experience to argue further that its act of mediating functions as performative indigeneity. To do this, the paper runs in three parts: first, it plots the Mamanuan diaspora experience; second, it briefly reiterates the core argument of diaspora as vanishing mediator; and finally, it theorizes on a concept of what Judith Butler calls ‘performative indigeneity’ that takes its form from the mediation of an indigenous diaspora experience. (shrink)

While the turn to vulnerability in law responds to a recurrent critique by feminist scholars on the disembodiment of legal personhood, this article suggests that the mobilization of vulnerability in the criminal courts does not necessarily offer female drug mules a direct path to justice. Through an analysis of sentencing appeals of female drug mules in England and Wales, this article presents a feminist critique of the dispositif of the person and its relation to vulnerability. Discourses on drug mules’ vulnerability (...) mobilize the trope of the colonial victim in need of protection, which is often translated into legal mercy. But mercy is rather an expression of biopower which inscribes not only fragility onto the bodies of drug mules by figuring them as exemplar paradigms of colonial subjectivity, but also reinvigorates the dispositif of gender implicit in the legal person. In this set-up, it would appear as if law and politics totalize the registers of life, in this case the contours of vulnerable body. The article suggests we must revisit the image of the wounded body in order to carve out a space for resistance. Drawing on Elaine Scarry and Judith Butler, it suggests vulnerable bodies are marked by a semiotic openness, which renders them subject to appropriation but also able to signify the precarity produced by the law through their resistance to representation. (shrink)

RESUMO A operação que nos interessa destacar gira em torno da zona de problematicidade que ilumina o trabalho crítico com materiais culturais e que supõe uma complementaridade conceitual entre os caminhos da biopolítica e da precariedade. Aquilo que essas análises e seu trabalho com materiais indicam, de um modo muito nítido, é um conjunto de dimensões, linhas de indagação e zonas de problematização que não adquirem a suficiente relevância nos debates contemporâneos sobre biopolítica e precariedade. Daí advém a necessidade de (...) elaborar uma ferramenta de trama conceitual que dê conta dos marcadores que codificam uma vida precária. Justamente, este é o ponto cego em comum e, ao mesmo tempo, o espaço de interseção conceitual que nos interessa: os percursos em biopolítica que não tenham considerado os processos de precarização da vida e, em igual medida, as teorizações sobre a condição precária que não tenham pensado em termos estritamente biopolíticos. Denominamos bios-precário a este nó conceitual a partir da conjunção entre a caixa de ferramentas de Judith Butler em relação à ontologia corporal da precariedade e ao cruzamento do percurso biopolítico de Roberto Esposito entre vida impessoal e biopolítica afirmativa. ABSTRACT The operation that we want to emphasize revolves around the problematic area that brings light to the critical work that uses cultural material and assumes a conceptual complementarity between the paths of biopolitics and precariousness. What these analyses and their work with materials clearly indicate is that a set of dimensions, lines of questioning and problematic zones are not given enough relevance in contemporary debates about biopolitics and precariousness. Therefore, there emerges the need to develop a conceptual tool that may account for markers that encode a precarious life. That is, precisely, the common blind spot and, at the same time, the space of conceptual intersection on which we focus: the biopolitical paths that have not been taken into account in the processes of precarization of life and, in equal measure, the theorization about the precarious condition that has not been developed in strictly biopolitical terms. We call this conceptual knot bíos-precarious. This concept stems from the confluence between Judith Butler’s tools in relation to the bodily ontology of precariousness and the intersection between impersonal life and affirmative biopolitics in Roberto Esposito’s biopolitical path. RESUMEN La operación que nos interesa subrayar gira en torno a la zona de problematicidad que ilumina el trabajo crítico con materiales culturales y que supone una complementariedad conceptual entre los recorridos de la biopolítica y de la precariedad. Lo que estos análisis y su trabajo con materiales indican, de un modo muy nítido, es un conjunto de dimensiones, líneas de indagación y zonas de problematización que no adquieren la suficiente relevancia en los debates contemporáneos sobre biopolítica y sobre precariedad. De allí la necesidad de elaborar una herramienta de entramado conceptual que dé cuenta de los marcadores que codifican una vida precaria. Y justamente, ese es el punto ciego en común y a la vez, el espacio de intersección conceptual que nos interesa: los recorridos en biopolítica que no han considerado los procesos de precarización de la vida y en igual medida, las teorizaciones sobre la condición precaria que no han pensado en términos estrictamente biopolíticos. Denominamos bíos-precario a este nudo conceptual a partir de la conjunción entre la caja de herramientas de Judith Butler en relación a la ontología corporal de la precariedad y el cruce en el recorrido biopolítico de Roberto Esposito entre vida impersonal y biopolítica afirmativa. (shrink)