DET METODISKE FORLØB: Kunst og håndværk i den antropologiske proces

Resumé

Inger Sjørslev: The Course of Method:

Art and Craft in the Anthropolocigal Process.

A main point in this article is the assertion

that anthropological method should be seen

as a total process in which fieldwork cannot

be separated from the process of working up

the collected material implying analysis and

final representation of a text. An additional

argument concems the physical element in

the process of recognition. The empirical

basis for this is fieldwork on possession in

the African-Brazilian religion Candomble,

and the ensuing analysis and textual working

up of the material. An illustrative analogy is

drawn between the process of shaping and

forming ethnographic material and the

phenomenon of possession, which implies a

process from interior diffuse and uncontrollable

process, often leading to illness, to an

exterior, delimited and controlled entity in

the form of a spirit. On the basis of this, the

article discusses the element of craft in

anthropological method, and the possibility

of making certain parallels to the process of

creating a work of art.