The Wings of Desire or the Sky over Shatila : Shabab (Lads), Pigeons and an Ethnographer

Abstract (English)

Until relatively recently, the shabab (lads) from Shatila, a Palestinian refugee camp in the outskirts of Beirut, were highly invested in pigeon-raising. Faced with the difficulty of leading active sexual lives because of their economic prospects, which force them to postpone marriage plans, the shabab celebrated the animals’ sexual prowess. With their capacity to engage in fights opening perilous paths, due to the possibility of fast escalation in light of the absence of any authority holding the legitimate monopoly of force in the camp, they engaged in competitive hunts through their birds. With the perspectives of travelling or migrating impeached because of their status as stateless refugees, they partook in the pets’ unemcumbered freedom to fly. Yet, when refleting upon the pattern that existentially connects shabab and birds, human and non-human, the ethnographer does not propose that Shatilans, through pigeon-raising, are merely producing a text for themselves, a commentary on their social life, nor that we are dealing here with mere projections of shabab’s frustrations and desires onto the birds as surrogates for men. Rather, when witnessing the tactile dance of intercorporeality – between shabab’s and birds’ bodies - implied by flying pigeons, I believe that what is at stake is an openness towards difference which collapses self and other, culture and nature, inaugurating a carnal generosity of openness to difference and creating a passionate politics informed by an ethical commitment to and accountability for the other. All this played against the horizon set by the blue sky over the cramped camp.