Fieldwork’s Return: Troubled Steps Towards A Multispecies Imaginary
For many anthropologists, longterm ethnographic fieldwork does not end when they leave the field, as the journey towards ethnographic understanding evolves for years after physically returning from the field. In an auto-ethnographic mode, this paper traces the author’s return journey from the field,...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Taylor & Francis
[2020]
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In: |
Material religion
Year: 2020, Volume: 16, Issue: 4, Pages: 491-509 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Nishi
/ Belief in spirits
/ The Uncanny
/ Field-research
/ Participative observation
/ Human being
/ Supernatural being
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IxTheo Classification: | AF Geography of religion AG Religious life; material religion BB Indigenous religions BL Buddhism KBM Asia |
Further subjects: | B
Fieldwork
B Participant Observation B redemptive symmetry B Spirits B multispecies imaginary B Conservation B rites of passage |
Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
Summary: | For many anthropologists, longterm ethnographic fieldwork does not end when they leave the field, as the journey towards ethnographic understanding evolves for years after physically returning from the field. In an auto-ethnographic mode, this paper traces the author’s return journey from the field, through transformations in their understanding of soul abduction and spirit-revenge among upland members of the Nyishi tribe in the Eastern Himalayas. The paper traces the author’s journey from initial ontological immersion in fieldwork materials, through a reductionist withdrawal from the data, to the “redemptive symmetry” of a multispecies approach: one which recognizes the human and more-than-human origins of such spirit phenomena. |
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ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Material religion
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2020.1794591 |