This thesis is an anthropological exploration of the envy of Aguabuena people, a small rural community of potters in the village of Ráquira, in the Boyacá region of Andean Colombia. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork among these potters, I propose an understanding of envy in Aguabuena as an existential experience, shaping relationships between the self and others in the world, crosscutting metaphysical and physical spheres, and balancing between corrosive and more empathetic ways of co-existence. Disclosing the multipresence of envy in Aguabuena's world, its effects on people (including the ethnographer), and the way envy is embodied, performed, reciprocated and circumvented by the potters, I locate envy in various contexts where it is said to be manifested. Furthermore, I discuss the complex spectrum of envy and its multivalent meanings, or oscillations, in the life of Aguabuena people. I also present interactions with people surrounding potters, such as Augustinian monks, crafts middlemen, and municipal authorities, all of whom recount the envy of potters. My research challenges previous anthropological interpretations on envy and provides an alternative reading of this phenomenon. Moving away from labelling and regulatory explanations of envy, performative models, or pathological interpretations of the subject, I analyse the lived experience of envy and how it encompasses different realms of experience as well as flows of social relations. While focusing on the tensions and entanglements that envy brings to potters, as it constrains social life but also activates and reinforces social bonds, I examine the channels through which envy circulates and how it is put into motion by potters. Additionally, my thesis intends to contribute to anthropological studies of rural pottery communities in Andean Colombia. I present my unfolding understanding of envy by using both the potters' concept and material detail, punto, location, referring to a spot from where Aguabuena people enter different vistas of the world, or denoting a precise time when things or materials change their physical qualities. Through this device, I disclose realms of envy, while seeking to immerse the reader in the lived experience of envy.

Die Dissertation untersucht problematische Beziehungen zwischen Kolonialismus, Wissen und kuratorischen Praktiken, da diese sich auf Sammlungen beziehen, die in lokalen Museen im Nordosten Thailands mit dem ‚Sakralen‘ zu tun haben oder damit verbunden sind. Diese qualitative Forschung verwendet einen theoretischen Rahmen, der sich aus der postkolonialen Theorie, der Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie und Mikhail Bakhtins chronotopischem und dialogischem Ansatz ableitet. Zwei Hauptargumente der Studie sind, lokale Museen als ‚Museumsverstrickungen‘ und ‚verstrickte Museen‘ zu sehen. Zunächst spricht diese Dissertation dagegen, diese lokalen Museen entweder als ‚nicht-professionelle‘ oder als‚ nicht-westliche‘ Museen zu betrachten. Stattdessen schlägt sie vor, sie als in den kolonialen Kontexten Südostasiens verortet zu verstehen und ihre Praktiken als Antworten auf, sowie Gesprächspartner im Dialog mit, vorherigen Museen zu sehen, die die gleichen Materialsammlungen sammeln und kuratieren und die vom Kolonialismus und Nationalismus beeinflusst wurden. Überdies schlägt diese Dissertation vor, diese lokalen Museen nicht ausschließlich als ‚indigene Museen‘ zu betrachten, sondern sie als ‚verstrickte Museen‘ zu betrachten, die das Ergebnis von Koexistenzen und Interaktionen verschiedener Arten von Wissen sind, die sich auf unterschiedliche Weise aus Religionen, Magie und Wissenschaft ergeben. Im Nordosten Thailands beinhaltet das Kuratieren heiliger Dinge – wie Buddha-Reliquien und religiöse Statuen - den Umgang mit erkenntnistheoretischen Unterschieden, die im Buddhismus, Hinduismus, Animismus, in der Magie und so weiter begründet sind. Diese Unterschiede führen zu vielfältigen dialogischen Praktiken, die sich dem Heiligen widmen, z.B. Verdienstabgabe, Opfergabe, Verehrung und Wünsche äußern. Diese Praktiken erscheinen manchmal neben wissenschaftlichen Museumspraktiken. / The thesis examines problematic relationships between colonialism, knowledge and curatorial practices as these relate to collections that are concerned, or linked, with ‘the sacred’ in local museums in Northeast Thailand. This qualitative research deploys a theoretical framework derived from post-colonial theory, actor-network theory and Mikhail Bakhtin’s chronotopic and dialogical approach. Two major arguments of the study are about seeing local museums as ‘museum entanglements’ and ‘entangled museums’. Firstly, this thesis argues against seeing these local museums as either ‘non-professional’ or ‘non-western’ museums. Instead, it proposes to understand them as situated in the colonial contexts of Southeast Asia, and to see their practices as responses to, and interlocutors in dialogue with, prior museums that collect and curate the same material collections, and that have been influenced by colonialism and nationalism. Secondly, instead of seeing these local museums exclusively as ‘indigenous museums’, this thesis proposes to see them as ‘entangled museums’ that are a result of co-existences and interactions of different kinds of knowledge, which diversely derive from religions, magic and science. In Northeast Thailand, curating sacred things – such as Buddha relics and religious statues, involves dealing with epistemic differences that are based in Buddhism, Hinduism, animism, magic, and so on. These differences lead to diverse dialogic practices dedicated to the sacred e.g. merit-making, offering, worshipping and making wishes. These practices sometimes appear alongside scientific museum practices.

Cette recherche vise à mieux comprendre les frictions occasionnées par la présence de l’industrie salmonicole sur les territoires ancestraux des nations kwakwaka’wakw et nuu-chah-nulth de l’île de Vancouver. Alors que le contexte à l’étude a déjà fait l’objet de nombreuses recherches, la question des rapports entre les humains et les poissons fut généralement mise de côté. En ce sens, le présent mémoire cherche à combler cet important fossé. J’avance la proposition selon laquelle l’introduction de l’industrie salmonicole sur les territoires autochtones de l’île de Vancouver serait instigatrice d’importantes frictions entre des manières bien distinctes d’appréhender les rapports aux poissons, les frictions étant ici comprises comme des lieux fertiles à partir desquels de nouvelles dynamiques culturelles et de nouvelles structures de pouvoir voient le jour. La présente recherche ayant été effectuée en plein coeur de la pandémie associée au COVID-19, l’enquête ethnographique sur le terrain ne put être réalisée. Conséquemment, dans ce mémoire, je propose une analyse originale principalement fondée sur des données puisées dans un large corpus de littérature anthropologique et autochtone et sur des informations publiquement accessibles à distance via les réseaux sociaux et les cyberespaces. L’ensemble des données analysées appuient la proposition selon laquelle le contexte à l’étude serait au coeur d’importantes frictions entre deux régimes de valeur qui guident les rapports avec le poisson : d’abord, un régime de valeur traditionnel associé aux règles réciproques d’interaction, de prédation et de partage avec les chefs des peuples autres qu’humains qu’ils représentent et incarnent; ensuite, un régime de valeur marchande faisant sens dans une économie de marché capitaliste globalisée et globalisante. L’exemple de la résurgence de la First Salmon Ceremony, qui est présenté en conclusion, vient appuyer cette proposition. En effet, elle se présente comme un lieu d’affirmation, de négociation et de revendication politique, territoriale et identitaire important, et témoigne d’une continuité transformative caractéristique des cosmopolitiques autochtones contemporaines de la côte ouest. En plus de proposer de nouvelles pistes de recherche, ce mémoire constitue une invitation à repenser les logiques et les structures de pouvoir qui guident actuellement la gestion halieutique au sein des territoires autochtones du pays. / This research aims to better understand the frictions caused by the introduction of the salmon farming industry on the ancestral territories of the kwakwaka’wakw and nuu-chah-nulth nations of Vancouver Island. While this context has already been the subject of much research, the question of the relationship between humans and fish was generally put aside. In that sense, this thesis seeks to bridge this important gap. While the frictions are understood here as fertile places from which new arrangements of culture and power are born, I propose that the introduction of the salmon farming industry into the indigenous territories of Vancouver Island instigated significant frictions between different ways of understanding the relationships with fish. Because this research was conducted in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, an ethnographic field investigation could not be carried out. Consequently, in this thesis, I propose an original analysis mainly based on data drawn from a large corpus of anthropological and indigenous literature, but also on publicly accessible information from social networks and cyberspaces. All of the data analyzed support the proposition that the context under study is, in fact, instigating important frictions between two value regimes that guide relationships with fish: First, a traditional value regime associated with the reciprocal rules of interaction, predation and sharing with the chiefs of the other-than-human peoples they represent and embody; Then, a regime of market value making sense in a globalized and globalizing capitalist market economy. The example of the resurgence of the First Salmon Ceremony presented in the conclusion supports this proposition. In fact, it presents itself as an important space for political, territorial and identity claims, negotiation, and affirmation, while testifying the transformative continuity that characterize contemporary West Coast indigenous cosmopolitics. In addition to proposing new avenues of research, this paper is an invitation to rethink the logics and power structures that currently guide halieutic management within the indigenous territories of Canada.

This Inuvialuit ‘story’ revolves around the Inuvialuit uprising and resurgence against government and industrial encroachment, and the self determination efforts to regain sovereignty of traditional territories. This ‘story’ also discusses how meaningful consultation made the Inuvialuit Final Agreement a reality, through which Inuvialuit land rights and freedoms were formally acknowledged and entrenched in the Canadian Constitution. Through meaningful consultation, Inuvialuit have become ‘meaningful participants’ in sustainable and future-making decisions of Inuvialuit nunangat (Inuvialuit lands) and waters, with respect to the Inuvialuit People and natural beings that Inuvialuit depend upon and maintain relationship with. As ‘meaningful participants’, Inuvialuit have the sovereign rights to “make meaning” and carve out a future as a sovereign nation within the country of Canada. This Inuvialuit ‘story’ is told with an informal framework through which it decolonizes academia, while also highlighting Indigenous voice through an Indigenous lens and worldview. The government and industry are called upon to meaningfully consult with Indigenous Peoples who have not only inhabited Turtle Island for millennia, but who have inherent Indigenous rights and freedoms, as Indigenous embodiment and well-being, and temporality and future-making are entangled with homelands. / Graduate