Halal Things: Ontology and Ethics in the Malaysian Halal Ecosystem Restricted; Files Only
Dolan, Sean (Summer 2019)
Abstract
Malaysia is among the wealthiest Muslim-majority countries in the world. This affluence has resulted in shifts toward consumerism in Malaysian society and its increased entanglement in global commodity chains. The appearance of novel and unfamiliar products in Malaysian marketplaces, particularly industrially processed foods, has created conditions for transforming the category of halal—the category of things that according to Islamic law are permissible to use. Halal is especially salient for meat and other foods but is also applicable to a wide range of goods and behaviors. Based on seventeen months of ethnographic fieldwork in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, this project examines the various state agencies, commercial ventures, and research institutes that are involved in repositioning halal to increase its responsiveness to international markets. In this dissertation I contend that the category of halal is best understood as an assemblage—a constellation of contingently networked materials, practices, and discourses. By examining the social processes of bureaucratization, corporatization, and techno-scientific interventions that produce this assemblage, I show that it constitutes a social field in which people pursue socially meaningful projects (everything from choosing or, in some cases, avoiding halal certified products to pursuing careers within the halal industry). Reflection on the category of halal, then, brings together issues of ontology (the ways in which the category is constituted) and ethics (how people interact with the category). Through it we see how aspects of religious life are forged in a time of market proliferation and consumerism.
Table of Contents
1. Introductions: Realist Ontology, Assemblage, and Ethics.............................................. 1
Anthropology of Halal ................................................................................................... 7
Chicago’s Halal Scene and the Kuala Lumpur Halal Ecosystem.......................................... 19
Chicago Scene .............................................................................................................. 19
Kuala Lumpur’s Halal Ecosystem ................................................................................... 25
Ontology and Categories as Anthropological Problems .................................................... 28
Realism ........................................................................................................................ 28
Ontology ...................................................................................................................... 31
Assemblage .................................................................................................................. 39
Summing-up Realist Ontology and Assemblage .............................................................. 44
Ethics as an Anthropological Problem ............................................................................ 45
Summing-up Ontology and Ethics .................................................................................. 53
Kuala Lumpur and the Ethnography of Halal ................................................................... 54
The Organization of the Dissertation .............................................................................. 59
2. Contexts: Malaysian Developmentalism and Islamization ............................................. 62
Vignette 1: A Seminar .................................................................................................... 62
Vignette 2: A Malaysian Start-Up .................................................................................... 65
Regulation and Developmentalism .................................................................................. 69
Malaysian Islam Before 1969 ...........................................................................................70
Developmentalist Response ............................................................................................ 78
The Role of the Islamic Resurgence ................................................................................. 85
Summing-up Regulation and Standardization .................................................................. 97
Defining Halal ............................................................................................................... 98
Halal in the Quran and in Popular Religious Literature ..................................................... 101
Halal in Academic Literature .......................................................................................... 115
Summing-up Historical Background and Literatures About Halal ..................................... 120
Part 1: Ontology ........................................................................................................... 121
3. From Ritual to Bureaucracy ....................................................................................... 122
Marketization .............................................................................................................. 125
Ritual and Bureaucracy .................................................................................................130
Two Centers of Malaysia’s Halal Bureaucracy ................................................................ 142
HDC Interview with Aminah ........................................................................................ 145
HDC Interview with Nur Aini ....................................................................................... 148
Visiting JAKIM ........................................................................................................... 159
Reading the Standard .................................................................................................. 170
MABIMS and International Cooperation on Standards ................................................... 177
Summing-up Ritual and Bureaucracy in the Halal Ecosystem ......................................... 181
4. Halal Science, Halal Labs, and Halal Debacles: The Problem of Invisibility .................. 183
Science and Religion in Anthropological Perspective .................................................... 185
Halal Product Research Institute (IPPH) ....................................................................... 189
Summing-up the IPPH Interviews ................................................................................ 201
Unruliness and the Halal Laboratory ............................................................................ 203
Summing-up Halal Science and Halal Laboratories ....................................................... 209
5. Commercialization: Producing More Halal ............................................................... 211
Visiting Nestle .......................................................................................................... 214
Summing-up the Visit to Nestle ................................................................................. 218
The KasehDia Cluster ................................................................................................ 219
Summing-up Commercializing Halal .......................................................................... 225
Part 2: Ethics ............................................................................................................ 227
6. Halal Foodscapes ................................................................................................... 228
Degrees of Halal? ...................................................................................................... 229
Foodscapes and Halalscapes .......................................................................................234
Encountering Kuala Lumpur’s Foodscape ................................................................... 236
Signaling Halal and its Absence ................................................................................. 243
Navigating the Foodscape ......................................................................................... 271
Summing-up the Ethics of Halal Foodscapes .............................................................. 278
7. Forging Careers: Anthropology of Failure ................................................................ 280
Discontented Professionals ....................................................................................... 283
Ethics of Work ......................................................................................................... 284
HDC Unmoored ....................................................................................................... 286
KasehDia in Retreat ................................................................................................. 291
IHI and Disparate Halal Standards ............................................................................ 295
Work and Ethics ...................................................................................................... 299
Neoliberalism and Market Proliferation .................................................................... 300
8. Conclusion: Market Orientations and Ethical Consequences ................................... 303
Appendix: List of Acronyms ..................................................................................... 303
Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 318
Books and Articles................................................................................................... 318
Newspapers ............................................................................................................ 337
Websites................................................................................................................. 338
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