Anders Norge Lauridsen
Doctoral Student
School of GlobalAbout Anders Norge Lauridsen
- PhD student in Social Anthropology, University of Gothenburg, 2017-
- Visiting PhD student, Aarhus University, 2018
- MSc in Anthropology, Aarhus University, 2014-2016
- BA in History of Ideas and Anthropology, Aarhus University and Université Libre de Bruxelles, 2010-2014
PhD Project: On Rhizomatic Tradition: Metahumans in Anororo (Madagascar)
Metahumans, or what we used to refer to as spirits, inform life among the Sihanaka of Madagascar; ancestors, dead kings, apparitions, and mythical autochthons shape social life in the fertile Alaotra basin that constitute the Sihanaka heartland. They do so by means of taboos, dream visions, different sorts of possession, and so forth.
Through ethnographic fieldwork, experimental methods, collaborative historiography and archival research I investigate the spiritual legacy of stranger-king Ndrianampanjaka, his commemoration in the grand Feraomby ritual, and a host of related phenomena: mortuary rites, hauntings, a spectrum of mediumship, etcetera. Borrowing from Deleuze, I conceptualise this lush and unruly yet interconnected myriad as a “rhizomatic tradition”. Rather than seeing Anororo tradition as “invented” or “imagined”, I consider it an interplay between two opposing forces, rhizomatics and arborescence.
Moreover, in order to probe further into how the Sihanaka experience, relate to, and conceive of the invisible, inscrutable metahumans who are very much part of social life, I am developing a new method called ‘pivotation’. In short, this method is about using read aloud stories as narrative pivots to bring about epistemological discussions among informants about the doings, capabilities, and intentions of metahumans.
Supervised by: Jörgen Hellman (University of Gothenburg), Anders Burman (University of Gothenburg), and Andreas Roepstorff (Aarhus University)
Research Interests
Thematic: experimental anthropology, spirituality, doubt, uncertainty, ethnographic theory, rituals, narrativity, agency, empirical philosophy, ontology, epistemology, ethnicity, cultural translation
Regional: Madagascar, the Indian Ocean, the Austronesian world
Fieldwork Experience
- Anororo, Madagascar (four months in 2015, two months in 2016, two months in 2017, two weeks in 2018, six weeks in 2019, six weeks in 2022)
Teaching Experience
- Lectures and seminars in the courses “Anthropological Theory”, “The Global Politics of Heritage”, and “Global Studies: Key Concepts”, University of Gothenburg, 2019-2020
- "Qualitative Methods", BA Minor in Sociology, Aarhus University, April 3-13, 2018
- "Ethnographic Methodology and Field Preparation", MA in Anthropology, Aarhus University, Guest Lecture on Experimental Approaches, March 5, 2018
Conference and Seminar Presentations
- The Narrative Experiment: An Experimental Approach to Malagasy Spirits, Mayday - Experiments and Experimentality in Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies, May 15-16, 2018, Lomonosov Moscow State University
- Malagassiske Ånder og en Død Fremmedkonge, Center for Samtidsreligion, Aarhus University, March 23, 2021
Other Anthropological Projects
- Ethnographic objects collected for Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus: two mohara amulets, a lambahoany cloth, a fototra tomb pole and a complete spirit medium garb
- Visualising Anthropological Imaginations: An experiment in which illustrators turn anthropological concepts into works of art. Link to the VAI experiment
-
Regnier, Denis. 2020. Slavery and Essentialism in Highland Madagascar: Ethnography, History,
Cognition.
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Social Anthropology - 2022 -
"Amid This Formidable Aura of Sunlight...": An Essay on the
Numinous
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Filologen - 2022 -
Gravpælen på Moesgaard: Om indsamlingen af en fototra i Anororo
(Madagaskar)
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Jordens Folk - 2021 -
Berliner, David: Losing Culture: Nostalgia, Heritage, and Our Accelerated Times. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press,
2020.
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Anthropos: Internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- und Sprachenkunde - 2021 -
Déléage, Pierre, ; trans. Catherine V. Howard. Arctic madness: the anthropology of a delusion. xii, 129 pp., maps, illus., bibliogr. Chicago: Hau Books,
2020.
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute - 2021 -
Matching Reading to Energy Levels: Reading Strategies of a PhD Student in
Anthropology
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Antroperspektiv - 2021 -
Anthropological Speculations: Could ‘Tsindrimandry’ Originate in Sleep
Paralysis?
Anders Norge Lauridsen
School of Blogal Studies - 2021 -
The Fear of Dahalo Bandits on a Drive Through the Alaotra Night
(Madagascar)
Anders Norge Lauridsen
ethnography.com - 2020 -
Tsindrimandry: Nocturnal Hauntings in
Madagascar
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Kulturo: Tidsskrift for Kunst, Litteratur og Politik - 2020 -
På sporet af fortidens rituelle renselse på
Madagaskar
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Det Badende Menneske: Nedslag i Badets Kulturhistorie - 2019 -
Gravpæl fra Anororo, Antsihanaka,
Madagaskar
Anders Norge Lauridsen
De Etnografiske Samlinger, Moesgaard Museum - 2019 -
The Narrative Experiment: An Experimental Approach to Malagasy
Spirits
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Mayday - Experiments and Experimentality in Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies, May 15-16, 2018, Lomonosov Moscow State University - 2018 -
Review of "Spirits and Trance in Brazil: An Anthropology of Religious Experience" by Bettina E. Schmidt, 2016, London: Bloomsbury, ISBN:
9781474255677
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Social Anthropology - 2018 -
Review of "Translating Worlds: The Epistemological Space of Translation" by (eds.) William F. Hanks & Carlo Severi, 2015, Chicago: HAU, ISBN:
978-0986132513
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Anthropos: Internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- und Sprachenkunde - 2018 -
Løftebrud mod Ånderne: Om Farlige Løfteofre til Ånder i en Turbulent
Tid
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Jordens Folk - 2018 -
Feraomby – The Polyvalent Legacy of a Stranger
King
Anders Norge Lauridsen, Arnaud De Grave
Word of Mouth - 2017 -
Mohara: Material Spirits of the
Sihanaka
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Ethnographica - 2017 -
The Malagasy raffia cloth – A convergence of three historical
trajectories
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Ethnographica - 2017 -
Inscrutable Spirits and the Concept of
Subjunctivity
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Semikolon - Journal of History of Ideas, Philosophy and Semiotics - 2017 -
The Mirror of the
Seer
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Ethnographica - 2016 -
Åndernes Agens (The Agency of the Spirits), M.Sc. Thesis in Anthropology at Aarhus
University
Anders Norge Lauridsen
M.Sc. in Anthropology at Aarhus University - 2016 -
Det epistemologiske potentiale i Borges’
fantastik
Anders Norge Lauridsen
Tingen: Afdelingsblad for Idéhistorie - 2012