Expériences des mondes spirituels et savoirs en Birmanie : la place de l’ethnographe
Moussons September 23, 2019 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.4000/moussons.2876 via DOAJ
Summary
An ethnographer describes the difficulty of turning spiritual experiences into ethnographic knowledge. Drawing on fieldwork in Burma involving spirit possession and esoteric Buddhism, the author argues that the observer is inevitably caught in the observed situation. To construct knowledge about such experiences, one must analyze interactions between the ethnographer and the people being studied.
Study at a glance
| Design | ethnography |
|---|---|
| Population | spirit mediums and esoteric Buddhist practitioners in Burma |
| Key finding | The ethnographer is inevitably caught in the observed situation, and knowledge about spiritual experiences must be constructed by analyzing interactions between the ethnographer and the ethnographees. |
Abstract
Transposing a field of practices into a constituted knowledge is highly problematic for the ethnographer observing practices founded on the experience of the spiritual world. How can a so-called spiritual experience be observed? How can it be transformed into an ethnographical knowledge? Drawing on two contrasted cases issued from my fieldwork in Burma, spirit possession and esoteric Buddhism, I will try to show that, in any case, the observer finds himself caught in the observed situation (see Jeanne Favret-Saada on this subject) and that in order to construct knowledge about these experiences, it is necessary to analyse the interactions between the ethnographer and the ethnographees.