Snail tecnologies and cultures in the age of mobility: mobile communication and identities in the Shuar time/space

Authors

  • Saleta de Salvador Agra University of Vigo, Spain
  • Yolanda Martínez Suárez Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.28(2015).2284

Keywords:

Time, space, mobile phone, Shuar, identities

Abstract

In mobile ontology and in the Shuar dynamic, cyclic, one-dimensional worldview, time and space flow simultaneously (de Salvador y Martínez, 2015b; Martínez, & de Salvador, 2015; Martínez et al., 2015). Authors such as Ling and Haddon emphasised the influence of mobile phones on human movement patterns, pointing out that they offer “freedom of contact”, given their nomadic nature, and the possibility to free ourselves from the spatial context and enter a space of communicative flows, where only time exists. The Where - as a Shuar would say - that is, Space, marches on together with time, in a global spatial-temporal dimension. Since mobile phones draw us closer to a nomadic life, turning us into snails (Fortunati, 2005) that carry a whole network of relationships in the back, an analysis of the uses of mobile phones (from this point of view) by a nomadic people such as the Shuar seems particularly interesting. The endlessly spiralling snail metaphor, which the Shuar use to describe their worldview, and the characterisation of nature resemble today’s mobile technology we all carry about. This essay is intended to emphasise the worldviews of the Mobile Age and the Indigenous, Shuar Age so as to analyse the similarities and differences in the spatial-temporal conception, as well as its impacts on identity.

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Author Biographies

Saleta de Salvador Agra, University of Vigo, Spain

European Ph.D. in Phylosophy (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 2012) and Ph.D. in Semiotics (L’ Istituto italiano di scienze umane di Firenze and l’università Alma Mater di Bologna, Italy, 2012), master in Gender and Public Politics (Universidade de Vigo, Spain). Member of the Institut de la Comunicació. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (InCom-UAB) and research associate of the Cátedra UNESCO de Cultura y Educación para la Paz, UTPL- Ecuador. At presente, she is professor at Universidade de Vigo (Spain).

Yolanda Martínez Suárez, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

Degree in Communication (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 2004) and she is Ph.D. in Philosophy (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 2010). Member of Institut de la Comunicació. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (InCom-UAB); Justicia e Igualdad (USC); Comunicación, Migración y Ciudadanía (InCom-UAB); REAL- CODE (Red Europa América Latina de Comunicación y Desarrollo), SGR “Grup Internacional d’Estudis sobre Comunicació i Cultura” and research associate of the Cátedra UNESCO de Cultura y Educación para la Paz, UTPL- Ecuador.

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Published

2015-12-28

How to Cite

Agra, S. de S., & Suárez, Y. M. (2015). Snail tecnologies and cultures in the age of mobility: mobile communication and identities in the Shuar time/space. Comunicação E Sociedade, 28, 323–335. https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.28(2015).2284

Issue

Section

Mobilities, Cultures and Technological Universes