Estetica sociale della prossimità: la dimensione culturale di movimento e spazio nel sud dell’India

Abstract

Social aesthetic of proximity concern the sensual experience of social space. The points of departure for this article are the concepts of Edward T. Hall (1968) on proxemics and of David MacDougall (2006) on structured sensual experience. Based on fieldwork conducted among the Badagas, a South Indian peasant community, proximity is discussed in various contexts. The concepts of seeing (dharsan), worshipping (puja), and commensual eating, and the practices of ritual processions, inter-caste relations, and friendship illustrate structured and structuring aspects of perception. Hierarchies are expressed in special arrangement, the directionality of movement and the temporality of events. Two types of proximity are distinguished: firstly, a minimal hierarchy between persons or a person and a god; and secondly, an absence of hierarchy. In various contexts, both forms, that is, symmetrical and asymmetrical proximities, co-exist within a group of persons. Some expressions (the gaze, the touch, and the commensual act) are visible. Others (like the concept of purity) remain unseen.