Drifting as methodological (pre)disposition: ethnographic immersion and ontological engagement in a catholic spiritual practice

Abstract

Understanding ethnography as a privileged methodological situation in the production of anthropological knowledge, this paper reflects on Holbraad and Pedersen’s proposal for methodological intervention, in dialogue with phenomenology and the anthropology of embodiment. From these referents, the ways of approaching religious-spiritual experiences are questioned, with a critique of atheism and methodological agnosticism. As an alternative, and starting from authors who defend a phenomenological, embodied model of ethnography, which assumes the same ontological risks as those with whom we participate, I present my reflections from a radical immersion in a Catholic practice (of Ignatian spirituality). Surrender or drift, understood as (pre)disposition to “get lose”, becomes a critical issue in this model of experimentation that tries to overflow and play with the limits of possible ethnographies.