The Experience of Ethnographic Fieldwork in an English Benedictine Monastery: Or, Not Playing at Being a Monk

What is the role of imitation in ethnographic fieldwork, and what are its limits? This article explores what it means to participate in a particular fieldsite; a Catholic English Benedictine monastery. A discussion of the importance of hospitality in the life of the monastery shows how the guest bec...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Irvine, Richard D. G. 1982- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Equinox [2010]
In: Fieldwork in religion
Year: 2010, Volume: 5, Issue: 2, Pages: 221-235
Further subjects:B Ethnography
B Hospitality
B Participation
B Silence
B Monasticism
B Work
B Catholicism
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:What is the role of imitation in ethnographic fieldwork, and what are its limits? This article explores what it means to participate in a particular fieldsite; a Catholic English Benedictine monastery. A discussion of the importance of hospitality in the life of the monastery shows how the guest becomes a point of contact between the community and the wider society within which that community exists. The peripheral participation of the ethnographer as monastic guest is not about becoming incorporated, but about creating a space within which knowledge can be communicated. By focusing on the process of re-learning in the monastery - in particular, relearning how to experience silence and work - I discuss some of the ways in which the fieldwork experience helped me to reassess the social world to which I would return.
ISSN:1743-0623
Contains:Enthalten in: Fieldwork in religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1558/firn.v5i2.221