Transpersonal Ether: personhood, family and religion in modern societies
Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, Rachel Menezes Aisengart
Vibrant Virtual Brazilian Anthropology 2017 DOI: 10.1590/1809-43412017v14n1p001 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Upper social strata network and palliative care medical context in urban Brazil |
| Citations | 12 |
| Key findings | Argues that family belonging and religious experience in modern societies form a "transpersonal ether" in which personhood is enmeshed in kinship and religious relations, exceeding the rational, autonomous individual privileged by hegemonic scientific knowledge and individualistic ideology. Proposes that this "extended self" becomes more explicit as a phenomenological limit and counterpart to the individualization and disenchantment of Western modernity. |
Abstract
Abstract This article consists of a theoretical review of the conjunction between lived experience of family belonging and religious encompassment in modern societies, resorting to data resulting from a comparative study of personhood, family and religion in urban Brazil, concentrated in a network of upper social strata and in a medical context of palliative care. In both contexts people move in what may be called a “transpersonal ether”, a complex enmeshing of personhood in kinship and religious experiences that far exceeds the limits of the rational, autonomous, units privileged by hegemonic scientific knowledge and individualistic ideology. Our interest is to contribute to the understanding of the processes and characteristics of the “extended self” in general modern conditions and to explore the circumstances in which these dimensions tend to become more explicit, as phenomenological limits and counterparts to the individualization and disenchantment that has characterized Western modernity.