The Policy of Familiarity. Towards a Political Ethnography of Affective Practices

Abstract

In this article, some contributions from the anthropology of the state and clientelism are linked to illuminate the affective dimension of client relationships between professional politicians, bureaucrats, neighborhood leaders, and neighbors in a local Chilean context. The main thesis categorizes their practices as a 'familiarity policy', through which mutual knowledge, trust and emotions are invoked to generate concord, and inhibit disagreement and conflict. This approach allows us to observe the network of social relations in play in a more granular and adequate fashion. Conclusions encourage placing emotions at center stage in the study of political relations in general and clientelistic relations in particular, stripping it of rationalist and individualist prejudices.