Exceptional Experiences in Everyday Life

Abstract

The definition of fieldwork and the context of anthropological enquiry has been expanding rapidly in recent years. Symbolic interactionism, reflexive anthropology, the anthropology of experience, and other new genres have radically changed the traditional borders of the discipline confined to the study of society.' Almost any recurrent phenomenon of human behavior-the anthropologist's included-has gradually become a legitimate unit for ethnographic research and contemplation. I wish to take this liberty to record and to try to comprehend a type of ethnographic experience-though a personal and apparently unstructured phenomenon-which I believe has not yet been considered as a field for anthropological research. Although the category of extraordinary in everyday life was recently pursued (Abrahams 1986), the events considered under that definition have been either those that carry paramount importance in the life cycle of the individual or, alternatively, dramatic performances that highlight some pivotal keys in the cultural code and communal ethos. Those who have come to study the formation of often relate to Dilthey (1976[1914]), who first offered a few specifications of Thus, for example, Turner (1986:35) derived from his work the distinction between a mere experience and an experience. The first indicates the passive endurance of versus the latteran experience-which stands out from the evenness of passing time and forms what Dilthey (1976:185) called a structure of experience. Turner explains that the latter does not have an arbitrary beginning and ending, cut out of the stream of chronological temporality, but has what Dewey called 'an initiation and a consummation' (Turner 1986:35). These experiences relate to formative and transformative events, such as initiations into new lifeways (going to school, first job, joining the army, entering the marital status), love affairs, and entanglement in events of social effervescence (such as a political campaign, a cause celebre for public agitation, et cetera). Turner himself was continuously concerned with a specific kind of unit of that he called social drama, namely, events at which person or subgroup breaks a rule deliberately or by inward compulsion, in a public setting. Conflicts between individuals, sections, and factions follow the original breach, revealing hidden clashes of character, interest