TY - JOUR
T1 - At the Edge of the Sensible
T2 - Cultivating Doubt in Radically Engaged Anthropology and Spirituality
AU - Smith, Aja
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - Transformative experiences have long been a central interest for anthropologists studying spiritual phenomena. During fieldwork, many ethnographers have themselves undergone such experiences, caused by and fueling their confidence in radical participation as the soundest approach to understanding spiritual phenomena. These anthropologists inadvertently find themselves faced with the question of the ontological status of such phenomena, responses to which range from embracing them as ontologically real to steering clear of judgment. Arguments pertaining to the authority of the anthropologist follow a similar path, belief either framed as a precondition for understanding such matters or as undermining analytical validity. This article outlines the third position. Based on radically engaged fieldwork conducted with people dedicated to spiritual and mindfulness–meditation training in Denmark, I explore doubt as a transformative experience. Doubt, I hold, destabilizes both ontological certainty and the alleged analytical invalidity of engaged anthropology, making doubt, I argue, a valuable anthropological disposition.
AB - Transformative experiences have long been a central interest for anthropologists studying spiritual phenomena. During fieldwork, many ethnographers have themselves undergone such experiences, caused by and fueling their confidence in radical participation as the soundest approach to understanding spiritual phenomena. These anthropologists inadvertently find themselves faced with the question of the ontological status of such phenomena, responses to which range from embracing them as ontologically real to steering clear of judgment. Arguments pertaining to the authority of the anthropologist follow a similar path, belief either framed as a precondition for understanding such matters or as undermining analytical validity. This article outlines the third position. Based on radically engaged fieldwork conducted with people dedicated to spiritual and mindfulness–meditation training in Denmark, I explore doubt as a transformative experience. Doubt, I hold, destabilizes both ontological certainty and the alleged analytical invalidity of engaged anthropology, making doubt, I argue, a valuable anthropological disposition.
KW - Denmark
KW - mindfulness–meditation
KW - epistemology
KW - methodology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122265246&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/etho.12314
DO - 10.1111/etho.12314
M3 - Tidsskriftartikel
SN - 0091-2131
VL - 49
SP - 308
EP - 328
JO - Ethos
JF - Ethos
IS - 3
ER -