Meditations on Anthropology without an Object: Boulder Hopping in Streams of Consciousness
Sarah Williams
Anthropology of Consciousness March 1, 2007 DOI: 10.1525/ac.2007.18.1.65 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 8 |
| Key points | Argues that engaging with practices of consciousness can move anthropology from secularism through cyborg anthropology to an anthropology of consciousness. |
Abstract
These meditations, which begin with Stephan Schwartz and Mark Schroll's contested and contesting histories of the lineage and founding of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness (below), contribute to the imagining of what Bethe Hagens calls "the relatively new interdisciplinary field of anthropology of consciousness.” Ethnographic vignettes from fieldwork of anthropologists, as well as fieldwork of students studying that fieldwork, highlight the paradox of anthropology's secularism and invite the reader, through the reading and writing of the text itself, to participate in the practices of consciousness described. Using Schwartz's metaphor of "boulders in the stream,” these practices, and the modes of consciousness they invoke, serve as boulders that readers must swim around, or hop from, secularist anthropology through cyborg anthropology to an anthropology of consciousness itself.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 6
- The Future of a Discipline: Considering the ontological/methodological future of the anthropology of consciousness, Part I† Anthropology of Consciousness March 1, 2010
- An Anthropological Outline of the Sutta Nipāta: The Contemplative Experience in Early Buddhist Poetry Religions January 29, 2023
- Mindful Apocalypse: Contemplative Anthropology Investigating Experiences of World-Loss in Deep Meditation Religions July 21, 2023
- Glossolalia influences on stress response among Apostolic Pentecostals 2009
- Charisma, Liminality, and Freedom: Toward a Theory of the Everyday Extraordinary Anthropology of Consciousness September 1, 2012
and 1 more in the library
Cites 2
- Whither Psi and Anthropology? An Incomplete History of SAC’s Origins, Its Relationship with Transpersonal Psychology and the Untold Stories of Castaneda’s Controversy Anthropology of Consciousness 2005
- Body Practices and Consciousness: A Neglected Link Anthropology of Consciousness September 1, 2000