University of Gothenburg
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Anders Lauridsen

Doctoral Student

School of Global
Studies
Telephone
+46 31-786 43 08
Mail
anders.norge@gu.se
Visiting address
Konstepidemins väg 2
41314 Göteborg
Room number
E603a
Postal address
Box 700
40530 Göteborg

About Anders 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, five weeks in 2019)

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

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