“How to make ‘home’ a field?”
Suneel Kumar
27 August 2023
Published: 12 September 2023
Image by Suneel Kumar.
“How to make ‘home’ a field?” This was the question that graduate student Suneel Kumar asked himself while confronting the realities of COVID-19 travel restrictions in the early stages of fieldwork. Kumar’s research explores how the deltaic geological processes such as soil accretion and erosion shape the physicality, and in turn, shape the human and other-than-human relations in the Indus Delta of Pakistan. As Kumar applied for research grants amidst the pandemic, unable to travel to the delta in person, he had to relate to his object of study in new ways. This involved re-conceptualizing the Indus Delta as the research subject rather than object, opening up new ways to trace the Indus Delta beyond its physical and geographical forms.
In making “home” a field, Kumar studied published works on the Indus Delta geology and fluvial geomorphology, explored archives and travelogues, read written poetry, folklores, and stories, and explored scholarly journal publications, news articles, videos, images, blogs, and NGO reports. He also analyzed satellite images, aerial photographs, and historical maps, and conducted virtual interviews with the officials of various organizations working in the delta. And when travel restrictions were eased, he also conducted ethnography with local fisherfolk of the Indus Delta.
Relating to his sources like “jigsaw puzzle pieces,” Kumar recognized the multiplicity of sites and sources that give meaning to the Indus Delta. In a time of heightened uncertainty during the pandemic, drawing on patchwork ethnography helped Kumar recognize the unstable boundaries between “home” and “field,” resisting aspirations for fixity and holism in favor of more expansive encounters with the Indus Delta.
Suneel Kumar is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Georgia, Athens. Suneel.Kumar@uga.edu.