Invitation to Ethno-Kinesiology

Many studies today have not considered the foundation of our meta-methods, which are predominantly linguistic and thus descriptive. Any academic understanding we are pursuing is linguistically and descriptively preformed, and this preformation in turn usually precedes academic inquiry. Instead of adapting appropriate methods for the research designed, this study seeks to know what can be objectivized as the object, and how. Using a video camera, and making an ethnographic film, from three different case studies internationally, this study attempts to cultivate a different academic realm that has been missing and can complement existing studies’ unawareness and imbalances, particularly the studies of physical culture and movements. This dissertation argues for method driven inquiry, to let method capture, engage, and correspond with the research. How can we find what can be the object of academic inquiry, and how can we find the question to be pursued? As a result of the process of filmmaking and participation in the practice of judo, this research argues to move from thick to ‘thin description’, present-congruency, and a meta-methodology of subtraction. A new academic realm, ‘Ethno-Kinesiology’ is proposed as a novel way to engage in the research of movement. Keywords: techniques of the body, film ethnography, methodology, physical culture, Henri Bergson, thin descriptionPh.D