Phenomenology in Anthropology: A Sense of Perspective PDF
Preview Phenomenology in Anthropology: A Sense of Perspective
PHENOMENOLOGY in ANTHROPOLOGY PHENOMENOLOGY IN ANTHROPOLOGY A Sense of Perspective EDITED BY KALPANA RAM AND CHRISTOPHER HOUSTON AFTERWORD BY MICHAEL JACKSON indiana university press Bloomington and Indianapolis This book is a publication of Indiana University Press Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA iupress.indiana.edu © 2015 by Indiana University Press All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions consti- tutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum re- quirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992. Manufactured in the United States of America Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-253-01754-3 (cloth) ISBN 978-0-253-01775-8 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-253-01780-2 (ebook) 1 2 3 4 5 20 19 18 17 16 15 we dedicate this book to ian bedford, who passed away during its preparation. This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction: Phenomenology’s Methodological Invitation 1 Kalpana Ram and Christopher Houston Part I. The Body as Constitutive Horizon of Experience 1 Moods and Method: Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty on Emotion and Understanding 29 Kalpana Ram 2 Toward a Cultural Phenomenology of Body-World Relations 50 Thomas J. Csordas 3 Sacred Suffering: A Phenomenological Anthropological Perspective 68 C. Jason Throop 4 Being “Sita”: Physical Affects in the North Indian Dance of Kathak 90 Monica Dalidowicz 5 Beneath the Horizon: The Organic Body’s Role in Athletic Experience 114 Greg Downey 6 Unmeasured Music and Silence 138 Ian Bedford Part II. History and Temporality 7 Experiencing Self-Abstraction: Studio Production and Vocal Consciousness 153 Daniel Fisher 8 Being-in-the-Covenant: Reflections on the Crisis of Historicism in North Malaita, Solomon Islands 175 Jaap Timmer Part III. The Poetics and Politics of Phenomenological Ethnography 9 Seared with Reality: Phenomenology through Photography, in Nepal 197 Robert Desjarlais viii | Contents 10 Writing Affect, Love, and Desire into Ethnography 224 L. L. Wynn 11 Senses of Magic: Anthropology, Art, and Christianity in the Vula’a Lifeworld 248 Deborah Van Heekeren 12 Neither Things in Themselves nor Things for Us Only: Anthropology, Phenomenology, and Poetry 268 Christopher Houston Afterword 293 Michael Jackson Contributors 305 Index 308 Preface P henomenology in Anthropology: A Sense of Perspective continues a dialogue with previous debates in phenomenological anthropology by incorporating in- vited and origi nal contributions from earlier participants in that debate, including Robert Desjarlais, Thomas Csordas, and Jason Throop. The volume has been fur- ther enriched by Michael Jackson’s generous contribution of an afterword, in which he reflects on his earlier insights into phenomenological anthropology as well as on continuities or changes in his present engagement with it. This book has its practical origins in a shared intellectual endeavor. Many of the essays found here were written first for presentation at the staff seminar of the Anthropology Department at Macquarie University, when contributors were asked to explore the phenomenological dimensions of social life in their respective fieldwork locations. Invited contributors read each other’s work, building upon ideas developed in this dialogue to fill out vari ous dimensions of the broad con- vergence of anthropology and phenomenology. Contributors then engaged as a group with these central methodological issues, each breathing diversity and fresh life into these broad questions by bringing their own area of empirical enquiry and thematic preoccupations to bear on them. Through this joint collaboration, we hope to have shown that phenomenology speaks to a broader range of meth- odological questions and empirical fields of enquiry than is oft en recognized. The editors wish to thank the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University for its generous support toward the publication of this volume. Most importantly, we ac- knowledge the collegiality and enthusiasm of our colleagues in the Department of Anthropology, who have helped make the organizing and writing of this work an absolute pleasure. We dedicate this book to Ian Bedford, cherished husband of Kalpara Ram who passed away while it was in production. As founding member of the Department of Anthropology at Macquarie Uni ver sity, novelist, and translator of eighteenth- century Urdu Sufi poetry from South Asia, he helped shape generations of students and colleagues and touched many more with his erudition, humanity, and sheer enthusiasm for ideas. Those who had the great fortune to be supervised by him came to know first- hand the importance he placed on good writing. For, to quote from his contribution to this volume, “Many a good utterance on the page is heard, is listened for. Part of the task of comprehension lies in this listening. Part of the force of language lies in a superfluity at the heart of language. How many essay- writing students have had to be taught that it is not only the facts to be reported, the bare bones of the argument on the page, but the cadence that matters!” ix
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