Ethnographic Incorporation: Research, Mediunity, and (Re-)flexible(-ive) Ontology
Beiträge zur Praxeologie / Contributions to Praxeology 2026 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-72097-4_2 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Ethnography Analogy Ontology Event particle physics Allusion Statement logic Epistemology Anthropology Agency philosophy |
| Key points | Argues that the analogy between ethnographer and medium, and the experience of "ethnographic incorporation," can lead to a "(re-)flexible(-ive) ontology" that challenges conventional epistemological and methodological assumptions about mediumship in the social sciences. |
Abstract
Abstract Reflections on mediunship in the social sciences have often been constructed inconsistently. It seems that this inconsistency is linked to an epistemo-methodological conviction, namely, that mediumship is a “phenomenon” of the “other”, of the one who “believes in spirits”. In fieldwork on spiritualists collectivites it is not rare to came across a statement that argues that an ethnographer is also a medium, whether he wants or admits to be or not. An unwillingness to accept this theo-cosmological principle is often motivated by the implications of peer prestige. The article analytically tries to address an event that occurred in a fieldwork among daimistas in the late 1980s, when I incorporated an entity. The purpose of the article, therefore, is to explore the analogy “medium-ethnographer”, particularly by addressing issues raised by a critical allusion to anthropologist “formation” and the experience of “ethnographic incorporation”. From the experience, I gradually elaborated and began to live with what I would call a (re-)flexible(-ive) ontology.