The religioning of anthropology

New directions for the ethnographer‐pilgrim

Bibliographic Data

ID12720633
AuthorsCorinne Dempsey, Corinne G Dempsey (University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume1
Issue2
Pages189-210
Publication date2000-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture and Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1475-5610 • E-ISSN: 1475-5629
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01438300008567151
OpenAlexW1971770233
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited39

Based on fieldwork in the state of Kerala, south India, Dempsey explores the ethnographical endeavour through the lens of religion. Applying religious categories such as pilgrimage and sainthood to examine the mechanics of ethnography, this essay investigates a spectrum of fieldwork motives and outcomes. Using the tourist and her quest as a comparative link between ethnographer and pilgrim, Dempsey proposes possible ‘religious’ motives in portraying the other as irretrievably exotic, in spite of evidence to the contrary, functioning as a kind of healing authenticity for modernity's banal existence. Dempsey notes that current trends in ethnography offer opportunities for an alternative kind of pilgrimage, based on attention to human intimacies that stem from extended fieldwork. These intimacies work to dash, sometimes begrudgingly, touristic ‘faith’ in unbreachable otherness, challenging the ethnographer to a conversion of sorts, and bringing her study back down to earth

Epistemology · Ethnography · Faith · Modernity · Pilgrim · Pilgrimage · Sociology · Theology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Tourism and Spaces · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies