Divinatory Discourse*

Abstract

Using data from an ethnographic study of tarot divination, occult claims to knowledge are analyzed and interpreted. Attention is focused on the procedures parties to occult divination employ to claim and sustain what they regard as extraordinary knowledge. This view of occult knowledge stands opposed to efforts to discredit occult claims as unscientific or the result of psychosocial conditions like deprivation and marginality. Like knowledge in general, occult knowledge is a product of sociohistorical influences, interactional negotiation, and interpretation. The challenge for sociology therefore is the pursuit of the social interactional and historical processes whereby knowledge and interpretation are accomplished in everyday life.

The Paranormal is (Still) Normal: The Sociological Implications of a Survey of Paranormal Experiences in Great Britain

“…However, this perspective makes two flawed and overly simplistic assumptions: firstly that women's status is straightforwardly ‘lesser’ than men's and secondly that this universal positioning contributes to an increased likelihood to report paranormal experiences and beliefs. It is an unsophisticated and crude causal hypothesis that does not stand up to real scrutiny, exhibiting many of the conceptual and methodological problems associated with broadly structural determinist explanations for paranormal experiences identified in the quote from Jørgensen (1984) cited earlier.…”

“…‘[T]he causal logic of these theories is faulty; they suffer from a bias for a particular form of rationality; they have neglected the ‘insiders” perspective; they employ a much contested philosophy of science; and, whether or not these theories are falsifiable or testable on independent grounds is highly questionable.’ (Jørgensen 1984: 147, fn. 2)…”

Objectivity: A Crutch and Club for Bureaucrats/Subjectivity: A Haven for Lost Souls

“…Of course, they listen to as well as observe social phenomena, but some insist upon doing without benefit of any instrumentation. Although a few use recording devices to enhance their observation of naturally occurring events (Jorgensen, 1984, for example), Many rely on pencil and paper field notes (Glaser and Strauss 1967;Lofland 1976).…”