Experiential anthropology, and the
reality and world history of spirit: Questions for Edith Turner
by Wim van Binsbergen
African Studies Centre, Leiden /
Philosophical Faculty, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
binsbergen@ascleiden.nl
; http://www.shikanda.net
paper proposed for Panel 66 (conveners Wim van Binsbergen
and Mrs Nomfundo Mlisa
Traditional
religion and healing in Africa and the role of the inner senses
AEGIS European
Conference on African Studies
11
- 14 July 2007
African
Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
Abstract.
A vocal presence in the current anthropological scene around
spirituality and healing has been Edith Turner. The present paper
seeks to elucidate and assess her sustained quest for an
experiential anthropology and for the vindication, within
anthropology and the North Atlantic region at large, of
peripheral spirit traditions, such as (from her own fieldwork)
those of N. Alaskan Inuit and the Ndembu of Zambia. I will seek
to situate her work in context, including the work of her late
husband Victor Turner. In addition to my qualified sympathy for
experiential anthropology and my own long-standing practice as an
African spirit medium, I will draw on intercultural philosophy
and long-range comparative research into symbolism and mythology
in order to critically adduce perspectives that may elucidate,
complement or correct Edith Turners. Topics covered
include: the reliability of eye witness accounts of the
paranormal; the relation between experiential and mainstream
anthropology; the critique of going native as a
research strategy; the critique of experiental
anthropologys claims of producing valid knowledge through
vicarious experience; the positioning of anthropology as
mediating between peripheral traditions and the North Atlantic
region; can we claim that peripheral spirit traditions constitute
both useful and valid knowledge?; an elaborate attempt to situate
peripheral spirit traditions (and especially the details of the
Ndembu Chihamba cult) within an emerging world history of
shamanism, spirit and transcendence, and to define the flow of
indebtedness between periphery and centre; and (in the light of
the authors own professed spirituality) a critique of
spirit-matter dualism and of claims of spirit as ontologically
independent from human consciousness, in lieu of which the author
proposes a model of universal (also extrasensory) informability
and occasional material effectiveness of the body-mind.
date: 8/2/2007
The author is Senior Researcher at the
African Studies Centre, Leiden, and Professor of Intercultural
Philosophy at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam
a very extensive earlier version of this paper may be found at: http://www.shikanda.net/african_religion/questions_for_Edith_Turner.pdf