Emerging emotional terms in difficult times

Resumen

This article aims to show, from the lens of anthropology, the conditions under which ways of naming emotions arise in difficult times by drawing on two contemporary examples. This approach focuses on the discourse of the actors who produce meaning about emotions in relation to contemporary crises. Anthropology allows us to understand how emotions are formed by paying attention to the conditions of existence and the meanings that occur around them. It is interesting to observe how, in a crisis context, emotions can be rethought in relation to the social conditions of existence. The two contemporary examples taken here one is called languishing, made popular by the psychologist Adam Grant during COVID-19, and the other is about the emotions of the earth, a series of terms coined by the environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht to respond affectively to the environmental crisis. These examples show that the meaning given to emotions is not given once and for all, but are located in particular socio-historical, geographical, and cultural conditions and is constructed by social actors.