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
