Seeking antassu: The making of a Muslim barber in South India

Abstract

Defined as work undertaken by the body on oneself or others, bodywork has been understood as a key aspect of the service economy today. Since it involves encountering strange bodies, dealing with intimate parts and their waste products, such workers are looked down upon. Global inequality in terms of race, caste, and class structures the relationships between bodyworkers and their clients. Despite such iniquitous social relations, I suggest, bodyworkers construct antassu (dignity) for their work and themselves. I conceptualize Muslim barbers’ work in South India as dignified labor—labor as mediated by ideas of independence, autonomy, and integrity, achieved through the ownership of labor and their means. I suggest that we need to look at such stories as well, rather than attending only to narratives of inequality and suffering.