[...]='lgc'>-> an ="trms">epistemological concern

privileged space of the irrational in medical discourses in 19th century='lgc'>: (Jonathan ="ppl">Strauss ='lgc'>-='lgc'>->) irrationality (nonsense) was a legitimizing force for medicine in that the very incomprehensibility of the mad created a mysterious and extra-="trms">social ="trms">language that the rising medical profession could adapt to its own purposes

“nonsense” of “the native” ='lgc'>[='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> my start-up engine in Islam ="trms">lecture series, a privileged site of mysterious incomprehensibility allowed me to to form the ="trms">methodological basis for a fieldwork for unknown forces of irrational life in distant ="trms">societies...='lgc'>]

='strcls'>*="trms">anthropology='lgc'>: (a distinct human ="trms">science from the desire to credibly) master nonsense='strcls'>*
(="ppl">Baxstrom ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Meyers)

="trms">anthropologists claiming to have assumed the “point of view” of another (='lgc'>~ fieldworker must achieve the cultivated sensed point of view of another) ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> distillation of ="trms">method ='and'>& dis="trms">position (='qstn'>?) ='lgc'><='lgc'>-- when confronted with the ="trms">question “who are you='qstn'>?” and “what do you do='qstn'>?”
(="trms">according to Malinowski='lgc'>: this) privileged ="trms">relation to the unknown must emerge through the ability to test what is asserted to be real ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> a series of subjective trials subsumed within the rubric of “fieldwork”
='strcls'>*presumptions='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•experiential dis="trms">position of the analyst ='lgc'>==> understanding of a ="trms">phenomenon other wise held to be ="trms">imaginary and ="trms">fictional
="lsts lst1">•witnessing and testimony ='lgc'>==> evidence as to the reality beyond the direct experience of the rese="trms"nttrm="search">archer

="large lg2" stl="font-size:111%"> (='lgc'>[Malinowski updated and secularized a much older ="trms">epistemology of='lgc'>] Luther='lgc'>:) faith='lgc'> = a commitment to the re="trms">presentation of a truth ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> Western ="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Christianson">Christianity's own efforts to discern truth and the ="trms">nature of the ="trms">world


proliferation of witches in 15th century Europe

reassuring relief for the pious believer='lgc'>: force Satan (and his followers) from the shadows through an ="trms">interpretive expertise over the concrete secondary manifestations of God's reality ='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> (most had no luxury to ="trms">imagine) ='strcls'>*the embrace of life that the devil urges in binary op="trms">position to that of the good='strcls'>*
='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> Devil ="trms">interfering with the most intimate ="trms">communications with the Divine
="prgrph">-how does one really know who is speaking when prayer is returned='qstn'>?

='lgc'>[for='lgc'>] the demonologists of the 15th and 16th century ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> “God must exist because Satan is ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">right in front of me!” ='lgc'>: reality of witches ='lgc'>==> Satan
Institoris, Sprenger, Johannes Nider,
the name of the witch ='lgc'>='lgc'>='lgc'>~=> sacrilegious and inhuman deeds (subject to verification)

='strcls'>*inquisitors believed that what was reported to them was possible='strcls'>* (still they desired proof) ='lgc'><== ="trms">interweaving of learned demonology into the fabric of a dominant theology (='lgc'><='lgc'>-- sovereignty of God ratified primarily through the ="trms">worldly evidence of Satan) ='lgc'>+ invisibility of the spiritual ="trms">world was expressed as an essential given

='lgc'>{for the inquisitor (witch hunter) it was never enough to simply “believe” ='lgc'><='lgc'>==> a ="trms">narrative must be produced that at least partially satisfied the ="trms">demands of evidence='lgc'>}='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> ='strcls'>*="trms">interrogation under torture='lgc'> = an experimental form of knowing in crisis='strcls'>*

="large lg1" stl="font-size:123%"> truth value of a nonsensical confession made sensible ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> human belief, action, and ="trms">social practices

ethnographic style of early French ethnographers ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> ='strcls'>**learning truth from lie='strcls'>** was essential to re="trms">presenting the “primitive” reality in order to ="trms">interpret it in its true picture
="prgrph">-Marcel Griaule's approach to fieldwork='lgc'>: “The crime is the fact, the guilty party the ="trms">interlocutor, and accomplices are all the ="trms">members of this ="trms">society. ='lgc'>[...='lgc'>]the abundance of pieces of evidence serving to convict appear to facilitate the inquest, but in reality they guide it into labyrinths='lgc'>--labyrinths that are often organized. ='lgc'>[...='lgc'>]The inquest must be treated like a strategic operation.”
='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> nonsense to be mastered had shifted from the demonic, incredible forces at play for the inquisitor to the misguided tall tales of the native ="trms">interlocutor ='lgc'>[='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> same mistake that Federici does in her ="trms">book Caliban and the Witch. Federici, in search of the manifestations of misogyny, aggressively frames the s="trms">cene of a feminist encounter with witch-hunt as a kind of antagonistic trial of ="trms">social organization of the Middle Ages in ="trms">transition to early capitalism... a mode of attention that is equally didactic and forensic as the witch inquisitors='lgc'>]

recognition of the struggle that lay at the heart of raising testimony to the status of the “really real” ='lgc'>--="ppl">Avital='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> Griaule aggressively frames the s="trms">cene of ethnographic encounter itself as a kind of antagonistic trial (whereby the ghosts and gods of the natives are forced out of the shadows and made concretely apparent to the senses of the ="trms">anthropologist)
='strcls'>*fieldwork ='lgc'>==> knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge of hauntings that is itself haunted='strcls'>*

="trms">imaginative result of “I-witnessing”

='strcls'>*paradoxical necessity of an expressive element within an objective test in ="trms">relation to what would other wise be nonsense='strcls'>* is evident in many of the examples of 16th century visual culture ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> ="nms">ajayeb ="trms">bestiary


trial by ordeal
(illustrated in Eduard Fuchs)
the case='lgc'>: if the woman floats she is clearly able to con="trms">travene the ="trms">nature and is therefore a witch or heretic; if she sinks, she has made no such pact with Satan
="prgrph">-procedural expertise ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> trial by water here functions as ='strcls'>*experiment as much as a punishment='strcls'>* designed to reveal an other wise invisible truth

testimony ='lgc'>+ experimental results ='lgc'>+ expert inquisitorial ="trms">interpretation ='lgc'>==> early version of the ‘case study’ (synthesized as evidence in service of accounting for variation that exceeded general laws regarding ="trms">relations and ="trms">phenomenon in the ="trms">world)
="ppl">Baxstrom ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Meyers

(="nms">ajayeb's) individual cases='lgc'>: an effective strategy in providing analytic (and ="trms">="trms">empirical) purchase for ="trms">phenomenon that were other wise invisible to even the discerning eye of the expert ='lgc'><='lgc'>-- ='strcls'>**to move away from a reliance on ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphysics='strcls'>**


='strcls'>**medicalization of the invisible='strcls'>**

possession
set the ="trms">stage for the explicit medicalization of the mobile invisible forces that experts had been struggling to master, explain, and take ="trms">measures against ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> a new mode that was equally ='strcls'>*didactic and forensic='strcls'>* (as the theological frameworks deployed by inquisitors and the exorcise of demons by Church)

="large lg3" stl="font-size:112%"> witch="trms">craft, faith healing, and demonic possession
Bibliotheque diabolique ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> case studies to de="trms">monstrate the precariousness of misre="trms">presentation and the consequences of ignorance ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= investigations collected by Charcot and his students in their studies of hysteria
="lsts lst1">•clarifying the link between witch="trms">craft and hysteria

='strcls'>*witch hunting and the exorcism of spirits in the 16th century (='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> antiquated forms of inquiry) ='lgc'>='lgc'>~=='qstn'>?! clinical studies of nervous illness in the 19th century ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> conceptual scaf="trms">folding of the emergent ="trms">science='strcls'>*='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•fascination with the secondary visible effects of primary invisible forces
="lsts lst1">•long-term labor of ="trms">social ="trms">interpretation that required the mutation of old ="trms">categories and the creation of new ones

='lgc'>==> “witch='lgc'> = misdiagnosed”

epilepsy, the sacred disease, erroneously perceived as resulting from hostile magic
='lgc'>=/= hysteria (hold a special place in the moral ="trms">imaginary)

="large lg4" stl="font-size:110%"> the special susceptibility of women to witch="trms">craft mirrored the “feminine weakness” as="trms">sociated with the hysteric, exacerbated by low ="trms">social status
="prgrph">-in countless accounts of possession, we find descriptions of demons speaking through the mouths of girls
='lgc'>[="ppl">Baxstrom ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Meyers ='lgc'>=/= Federici's flat analysis of witch hunt as the tool of subjugation of the local population or of woman by men='lgc'>]

tableau vivant ='lgc'>--into='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> tableau clinique ='lgc'>--into='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> tableau critique

hysterical reliving of the o="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">riginal ="trms">symptom ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> reframed trauma='lgc'>: an attempt to suspend the two temporalities (real and re="trms">imagined) in the same image
='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Hoda

one element of fascination with hysteria was its “look” ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> hysteria's ="trms">aesthetic link to forms of possession

possession ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> aneasthesias, amnesias, subconscious acts, ="trms">somnambulisms, fixed ideas

="large lg5" stl="font-size:118%"> a scaf="trms">folding='lgc'>: conceptually arranged chasm between outer and inner states ='lgc'>==>
="lsts lst1">•exorcists building on the ="trms">techniques of inquisitors and witch hunters ='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> possession acts as the bridge across this chasm
="lsts lst1">•="trms">neurologists and psychologists construct the same
='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>-='lgc'>-> (Malinowski's) ="trms">anthropologists='lgc'>: fieldworkers as truth-tellers returning from the dark corners of the real (the witches are no longer explicitly the target of the inquiry)

="nms">Häxan's real object='lgc'>: the specter of sheer nonsense

hunt (even in objective ="trms">scient[...]