Katherine Swancutt
Katherine Swancutt
QUALIFICATIONS
2003 PhD in Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK
1998 BA in Anthropology, University of Utah, USA
BA in Chinese, University of Utah, USA
BA in Russian, University of Utah, USA
PRINCIPAL RESEARCH INTERESTS
Animism; Shamanism; Dreams; Visions; Cosmology; Imagination; Indigenous Intellectuals; Ecology; Environment; Art; Aesthetics; Fame; Joking; Value; Magic; Innovation; Divination; Fortune; Southwest China; Mongolia; Inner Asia
RESEARCH PROFILE
My area of interest lies at the interface between the anthropology of religion, the anthropology of knowledge, the anthropology of imagination, the anthropology of art, and environmental anthropology––and I focus especially on how religious specialists, Indigenous intellectuals, and artists in Southwest China and Mongolia set out to shape the ecology and wider world around them.
Currently I am leading a project in collaboration with the University of Manchester on ‘Cosmological Visionaries’ who introduce new ways of ensuring their social, cultural, and ecological futures in Southwest China and Siberia. In the project, I explore how visionaries among the Nuosu, a Tibeto-Burman group of Southwest China, draw on their animistic religion to manage their changing world and climate. I also examine the relationships between Nuosu religious life and their ethnohistorical, anthropological, and natural scientific knowledge. I am in the process of completing a monograph and producing several edited volumes for the project that feature new findings on Nuosu animism, dreams, visionary approaches, and responses to China’s wider move of building up its ‘ecological civilization’.
In addition to the Cosmological Visionaries project, I am leading the Sichuan-Yunnan Corridor & Inner Asia Network (SCIAN) at the Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences.
One main theme running through my latest work is ‘worldmaking’, which is key to both my guest edited special issue Demons and Gods on Display (Asian Ethnology, 2023) and a new special issue that I am in the process of co-editing on ‘Dream and World’. Running parallel to this is my longstanding interest in the making of anthropology itself, which anthropologists and their research partners approach in ‘hyper-reflexive’ ways––a concept that I introduced in my co-edited volume Animism Beyond the Soul (Social Analysis, 2016 and Berghahn 2018).
I have been researching divination and innovation-making for more than two and a half decades. My first book, Fortune and the Cursed (Berghahn, 2012), shows how Buryat Mongol shamans create tailor-made remedies to strengthen their clients’ fortunes in the face of all kinds of problems, from illness to business difficulties, job insecurity, and the management of personal rivalries that unfold through gossip and cursing. This book brings the anthropology of religion into conversation with chaos theory, and it is the first full-length study of Buryat Mongolian divination, time, and innovation-making.
Books
2012 Fortune and the Cursed: The Sliding Scale of Time in Mongolian Divination. New York/Oxford: Berghahn. Excerpt available here.
Edited Volumes and Special Issues
2023 Demons and Gods on Display: The Anthropology of Display and Worldmaking. Asian Ethnology, 82(1):1-198.
2021 Crafting Chinese Memories: The Art and Materiality of Storytelling. New York/Oxford: Berghahn. Blog entry available here.
2018 Animism Beyond the Soul: Ontology, Reflexivity, and the Making of Anthropological Knowledge. New York/Oxford: Berghahn. (co-editor Mazard, Mireille. Initially appeared as a special issue of Social Analysis, 60(1), 2016). Excerpt available here.
Journal Articles
2024 Dreams, Visions, and Worldmaking: Envisioning Anthropology Through Dreamscapes. Annual Review of Anthropology. 53:111-126.
2023 Guest Editor’s Introduction. Demons and Gods on Display: The Anthropology of Display and Worldmaking. Asian Ethnology. 82(1):3-23.
2023 The Time of Red Snowfall: Steering Social and Cosmic Renewal in Southwest China. Asian Ethnology. 82(1):141-164.
2023 Moved to Distraction: The Ritual Theatre of the Fire Festival in Southwest China. Religion. 53(3):431-455.
2023 Of Cosmological Visions and Creativity: Shaping Animism, Indigenous Science, and Forestry in Southwest China. Religions. 14(4), 449, pp. 1-20.
2022 Manifesting the Invisible: Writing, Piercing, Shaping, and Taming Potency in Southwest China. Études mongoles et sibériennes centrasiatiques et tibétaines. 53:47-77.
2021 The Chicken and the Egg: Cracking the Ontology of Divination in Southwest China. Social Analysis. 65(2):19-40.
2021 ‘It’s Scientific!’ Play, Parody, and the Para-Ethnographic in Southwest China. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 27(3):559-578.
2020 Animal Release and the Sacrificial Ethos in Inner Asia. Inner Asia. 22(2):199-216.
2019 Animism. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Pp 1-17.
2016 Introduction: Anthropological Knowledge Making, the Reflexive Feedback Loop, and Conceptualizations of the Soul. Social Analysis. 60(1):1-17 (co-author Mazard, Mireille)
2016 The Art of Capture: Hidden Jokes and the Reinvention of Animistic Ontologies in Southwest China. Social Analysis. 60(1):74-91.
2016 Religion through the Looking Glass: Fieldwork, Biography, and Authorship in Southwest China and Beyond. Religion and Society: Advances in Research. 7(1):51-67.
2012 The Captive Guest: Spider Webs of Hospitality among the Nuosu of Southwest China. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 18(S1):S103-S116.
2012 Fame, Fate-Fortune, and Tokens of Value among the Nuosu of Southwest China. Social Analysis. 56(2):56-72.
2008 The Undead Genealogy: Omnipresence, Spirit Perspectives, and a Case of Mongolian Vampirism. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 14(4):843-864. [Republished in the 7 September 2020 Virtual Issue on Distance. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute].
2007 The Ontological Spiral: Virtuosity and Transparency in Mongolian Games. Inner Asia. 9(2):237-259.
2006 Representational vs. Conjectural Divination: Innovating out of Nothing in Mongolia. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 12(2):331-353.
2006 Fortuna, Sort i Destí a Mongòlia [Fortune, Luck and Fate in Mongolia]. Revista d’Ethnologia de Catalunya. 28:70-82.
2001 Sources of Charisma: Ritual, Household Knowledge and Inspiration in Mongolia. North Atlantic Studies. 4:39-43.
Book Chapters
2022 The Threshold of the Cosmos: Priestly Scriptures and the Shamanic Wilderness in Southwest China. In: Espírito Santo, Diana –– Shapiro, Matan (eds). The Dynamic Cosmos: Movement, Paradox, and Experimentation in the Anthropology of Spirit Possession. London/New York/Oxford/New Delhi/Sydney: Bloomsbury, pp.119-131.
2021 Introduction - Materiality, Imagination and the Memorable. In: Swancutt, Katherine (ed). Crafting Chinese Memories: The Art and Materiality of Storytelling. New York/Oxford: Berghahn, pp.1-22.
2021 Jailhouse Blues, Storytelling and Becoming the Stuff of Legends in Southwest China. In: Swancutt, Katherine (ed). Crafting Chinese Memories: The Art and Materiality of Storytelling. New York/Oxford: Berghahn, pp.181-205. (co-author Jiarimuji 嘉日姆几)
2021 Conclusion - Layers, Traces, Fields and Storehouses of Memory. In: Swancutt, Katherine (ed). Crafting Chinese Memories: The Art and Materiality of Storytelling. New York/Oxford: Berghahn, pp.206-219.
2020 Ethnic Minorities and Religion. In: Latham, Kevin (ed). Routledge Handbook of Chinese Culture and Society. London/New York: Routledge, pp.447-460.
2018 The Anthropological Imaginarium: Crafting Alterity, the Self, and an Ethnographic Film in Southwest China. In: Chua, Liana –– Mathur, Nayanika (eds). Who Are ‘We’?: Reimagining Alterity and Affinity in Anthropology. New York/Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 95-127.
2018 Introduction: Anthropological Knowledge Making, the Reflexive Feedback Loop, and Conceptualizations of the Soul. In: Swancutt, Katherine –– Mazard, Mireille (eds). Animism Beyond the Soul: Ontology, Reflexivity, and the Making of Anthropological Knowledge. New York/Oxford: Berghahn, pp.1-17. (co-author Mazard, Mireille)
2018 The Art of Capture: Hidden Jokes and the Reinvention of Animistic Ontologies in Southwest China. In: Swancutt, Katherine –– Mazard, Mireille (eds). Animism Beyond the Soul: Ontology, Reflexivity, and the Making of Anthropological Knowledge. New York/Oxford: Berghahn, pp.74-91.
2018 The Return to Slavery? Nostalgia and a New Generation of Escape in Southwest China. In: Laidlaw, James –– Bodenhorn, Barbara –– Holbraad, Martin (eds). Recovering the Human Subject: Freedom, Creativity and Decision. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.131-147. (co-author Jiarimuji 嘉日姆几)
2016 The Anti-Favour: Ideasthesia, Aesthetics, and Obligation in Southwest China. In: Henig, David –– Makovicky, Nicolette (eds). Economies of Favour after Socialism. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, pp.96-116.
2016 Freedom in Irony and Dreams: Inhabiting the Realms of Ancestors and Opportunities in Southwest China. In: Steinmüller, Hans –– Brandtstädter, Susanne (eds). Irony, Cynicism and the Chinese State. London/New York: Routledge, pp.138-154.
2015 Imaginations at War: The Ephemeral and the Fullness of Life in Southwest China. In: Fuglerud, Øivind –– Wainwright, Leon (eds). Objects and Imagination: Perspectives on Materialization and Meaning. New York/Oxford: Berghahn, pp.133-159.
2012 Masked Predation, Hierarchy and the Scaling of Extractive Relations in Inner Asia and Beyond. In: Brightman, Marc –– Grotti, Vanessa Elisa –– Ulturgasheva, Olga (eds). Animism in Rainforest and Tundra: Personhood, Animals, Plants and Things in Contemporary Amazonia and Siberia. New York/Oxford: Berghahn, pp.175-194.
Invited Commentaries
2022 Comment on ‘Reduction, Generation, and Truth: A Comparative Approach to Divinatory Interpretation’ by Matthews, William. Current Anthropology. 63(3):344-345.
Writings for Exhibitions
2024 Nuosu Egg Divination. In: Aroney, Michelle –– Zeitlyn, David (eds). Divination: Oracles & Omens. Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing, pp.123-127.
2024 Buryat Mongolian Card Divination. In: Aroney, Michelle –– Zeitlyn, David (eds). Divination: Oracles & Omens. Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing, pp.135-139.
Films
2016 1956. A Briton in the Cool Mountains of China. [Chinese Title: 1956. 一个英国人在凉山, Nuosu Title: 1956. ꑱꇩꊿꂷꆀꎭꃅꈌꇁꊈꂮ]. 68 minutes. (Co-producer Jiarimuji 嘉日姆几)
Ongoing Projects and Grants
2020–now Cosmological Visionaries: Shamans, Scientists, and Climate Change at the Ethnic Borderlands of China and Russia. ERC, Synergy Grant (Grant No. 856543). Principal Investigator of the China Team.
Past Projects and Grants
2009-2012 Icons and Innovation in Southwest China’s Religious Texts. AHRC-ESRC Large Research Grant, Religion and Society Programme (Grant No. AH/H016147/1). Research Fellow.
2006-2009 Generating Synchronicity: Vitality and Relatedness in Southwest China. ESRC Large Research Grant (Grant No. RES-000-23-1408). Research Fellow.
Special Awards
2024 Honorary Main Participant in a National Social Science Foundation Key Project of China, led by Prof. Jiarimuji (嘉日姆几), titled 凉山彝族对精神障碍患者的仪式治疗研究 (Liangshan Yizu dui Jingshen Zhuangai Huanzhe de Yishi Zhiliao Yanjiu [Research on the Ritual Treatment of Patients with Mental Disorders among the Liangshan Yi]). National Fund of China Grant number: 19ASH013
Public Outreach
2024-2025 ‘Vital Signs: Another World is Possible’ at the Science Gallery London. 14 November 2024 to 17 May 2025. Exhibition of photographs, film, audial recordings, and storyboard materials from the ERC-funded ‘Cosmological Visionaries’ project, showcasing Nuosu visions of climate change. (Co-exhibitors Karlach, Jan –– Yueqi, Zuoxi)
2024-2025 ‘Oracles, Omens and Answers’ at the ST Lee Gallery, Weston Library, Oxford. 6 December 2024 to 27 April 2025. Two chapters contributed to the Exhibition Book published in 2024 and edited by the exhibition curators, Michelle Aroney and David Zeitlyn. Divination: Oracles & Omens. Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing.
Invited Talks, Public Lectures or Roundtables
2024 Visions, Visionaries, and the Visual: The Making of Indigenous Scholarship in Southwest China. Keynote Lecture for workshop on Visions and Indigenous Scholarship in Inner and Southeast Asia, Department of Mongolian, Korean, and Vietnamese Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
2024 From the Depths of Our Minds and Writings: Giving Voice to Guardian Spirits in Southwest China [中国西南地区本土知识分子的书写与心史]. Invited Lecture. Frontiers of Ethnology [民族学前沿进座] Lectures Series, Yunnan Institute for Ethnic Studies, Yunnan Minzu University
2024 Satisfying Spirits and Science: ‘Taking the Straight and Even Road’ in Western Liangshan [互通的神灵与科学：“只走平坦路” 的西部凉山经验]. Invited Lecture as part of a Cosmological Visionaries Project Roundtable on Cosmoecological Dilemmas: Science, Spirits, and Society in Southwest China (宇宙生态之困：中国西南地区的科学、神灵与社会), Yunnan University
2024 On Becoming a Visionary: Serendipity and Scholarly Visions in Southwest China [关于成为智者：西南地区的偶然性和学术远见]; On the Cosmoecology of Sacrifice: From Renewable Energy to Nuosu Mountain Spirits [关于祭祀的宇宙生态学：从可再生能源到诺苏山神]; On Anthropological Dreams of Cultural Continuity: A ‘Third Eye’ View of Nuosu Cosmopolitics [关于人类学的文化延续之梦：诺苏宇宙政治的“第三只眼”视角]. Three Invited Lectures, with the third lecture forming part of a Cosmological Visionaries Project Roundtable titled Cosmological Visionaries and Anthropological Imagination in Southwest China [中国西南的宇宙观视野与人类学想象), Department of Sociology, Peking University
2024 Melding Script into Voice: The Social Lives of Dreams, Mountains, and New Energy Technologies in Southwest China. International Guest Lecture, Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
2024 ‘Do Not Disturb the Mountain Spirit’: Script, Voice, and Visions in Southwest China. Invited talk as part of a three-speaker lecture on Three Cosmological Visions of Climate Change: Mountain Spirits, Scientific Rewilding, and Sacred Forests in Southwest China, Power Seminar Series, Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences
2023 Envisioning the Future as a Complete Cosmology: Power, Value, and Autonomy in Animistic Approaches to Science. Keynote Lecture, British Association for the Study of Religions conference on Environmental Endings and Religious Futures, Clare College, University of Cambridge
2023 ‘Only One Tree was Allowed to Remain Standing’: Visions of Science and Animism in Southwest China. Invited Lecture, School of Law and Sociology, Yunnan Normal University, China
2022 Of Cosmological Visions and Creativity: Shaping Animism, Indigenous Science, and Forestry in Southwest China. Keynote Lecture, Conference on Religion, Science and Technology in Pantheism, Animism and Paganism, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen
