Enwinding Social Theory: Wind and Weather in Zulu Zionist Sensorial Experiences

Abstract

This article discusses the theoretical potential of air, winds, and atmosphere as they place ux, transience, and motion at the center of the human predicament. Based on ethnographic eldwork conducted among urban Zulu Zionists, it is argued that the winds blowing across the landscape of KwaZulu-Natal also blew through bodies and in the process restructured subjectivities. Through a general discussion of the phenomenal aspects of air, I argue that we need to approach our sen- sory relations to weather and atmosphere with a diachronic focus on changing local body-worlds. This is, I argue, a leap of the imagination that is needed in order to challenge the material and visual that implic- itly underpin much social theory. Such a theoretical move is needed in order to properly approach weather-worlds.