Yael Dansac She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Ethnology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (ehess) and research fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies on Religion and Secularism at the University of Brussels (ulb). She was a postdoctoral researcher in the Marie Curie program—civisA 3i fellow at the European Commission, she holds a master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Guadalajara and completed her undergraduate studies at the National School of Anthropology and History. She has conducted intensive, long-term fieldwork in Mexico, France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. She has been a visiting researcher at the University of Glasgow, and her work has been supported by prestigious grants such as the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. She is currently co-coordinator of the Network on Contemporary Spiritual Practices of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (easa) and a member of the board of directors of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (issrnc). His recent publications include the volume Relating to More-than-Humans: Interbeing Rituality in a Living World (2022, co-edited with Jean Chamel, Palgrave Macmillan) and upcoming books Sacralizing Stones: Contemporary Spirituality at Megalithic Sites (Brussels University Press) and Modern Scottish Paganism: Ritual, Community, Belief (Edinburgh University Press).

Entrevistas

Vulnerability and the Senses in Ethnographic Narrative: An Interview with Paul Stoller

Interview with
  • Yael Dansac

  • Paul Stoller

An interview with anthropologist Paul Stoller on sensory ethnography and vulnerability: his 17 years of learning from the Songhay healer Adamu Jenitongo in Niger, Jean Rouch’s «shared anthropology,» and how storytelling through the senses humanizes ethnographic writing.

Realidades socioculturales

Learning to see and feel the invisible: somatic pedagogy in alternative spiritual practices.

  • Yael Dansac

The article exposes a progressive somatic learning process aiming at the production of a sensitive body capable of interacting with non-human agents promoted in spiritual practices of New Age and neo-pagan inspiration. Contemporary rituals performed at the archaeological site of Carnac, France, are taken as ethnographic and empirical basis by considering them as sensory learning spaces where participants develop their bodily attention to verify the efficacy of the implemented techniques. The analysis shows that the main elements that compose the applied somatic pedagogy are the learning of an alternative sensory language, the execution of body techniques, the practice of visualization and the incorporation of somatic imaginaries.