Embodied Research and Writing: A Case for Phenomenologically Oriented Religious Studies Ethnographies

“Scholar–Practitioners”, Reflexivity and the Illusio of the Field: Ethnography, Yoga Studies and the Social Scientific Study of Religion

“…In relation to the field of religious studies, Nabhan-Warren [62] (p. 378) argues for phenomenologically oriented religious studies ethnographies where "ethnographers must look to their bodies as well as their interlocutors' bodies as sources of knowledge. .…”

“…Moreover, the body can be a vehicle for complicating, at times even transcending, emic (insider) and etic (outsider) boundaries". [62] (p. 378) Similarly, Soliman, Johnson and Song [63] (p. 852) underline how religious experience is, contrary to a Cartesian view that posits it as primarily pertaining to the psychological realm, "grounded in an integrated and dynamic sensorimotor complex", and thus inherently embodied, or, as McGuire [64] ( p. 283) poignantly argues, "[o]ur research strategies need to take into account that believers (and nonbelievers) are not merely disembodied spirits, but that they experience a material world in and through their bodies". One prominent avenue by which this can be recognized is to acknowledge and start from the embodied experience of fieldwork and the participation in religious and spiritual practices undertaken by the scholar herself.…”

Catholic devotion in the Americas

“…Often, this kind of research requires scholars to practice embodied ethnography and to learn by doing. Kristy Nabhan–Warren, author of the Virgin of El Barrio (), has advocated for religious studies ethnographers to undertake embodied research, arguing that sensations and somatic knowledge: what we see, taste, touch, and hear constitute the empiricism of ethnography (Nabhan‐Warren, ). Rather than just conducting interviews, scribbling notes and collecting stories, ethnographers of devotional life have also experienced sore muscles, blistered feet, and cramped backs alongside their interlocutors.…”

“…They have continued the work of decentering the church as the center of devotional ritual to understand how practices exceed architectural structures and traverse borders. They have demonstrated the way devotion is about chores and seemingly mundane activities of physical labor: cooking, cleaning, walking, and building (Nabhan‐Warren, , ; Peña, ; Pérez, ; Sklar, ).…”

“…Scholars of religion and the body argue that embodied practices like devotions and engagements with the “sensual world” are not simply physical expressions of beliefs or moral values but are central means through which religious traditions are “inculcated in the bodies of individuals” (Stoller, p. 23; Vásquez, p. 234; see also Bell, ; Furey, ; Pérez, ; Winchester, ). Religious pedagogy and discipline happens not just through textual or doctrinal means; bodies too are “sites of knowledge and insight” (Nabhan‐Warren, p. 389). A focus on practice and ritual is to understand how people become skilled, gendered, and competent religious practitioners.…”