On embodied consciousness in Anlo-Ewe worlds : A cultural phenomenology of the fetal position
Contenu
Type de document
article de périodique
Titre
On embodied consciousness in Anlo-Ewe worlds : A cultural phenomenology of the fetal position Voir tous les contenus avec cette valeur
Revue/Ouvrage
Ethnography
Volume-no
Vol.4, n°3
Auteurs/Editeurs scientifiques
Geurts, Kathryn Linn
Nombre de pages
33
Date de publication
sept. 2003
Pagination
363-395
Mot-clés
Langue étudiée
Éwé
Langue
ang
ISBN/ISSN
1466-1381
Localisation géographique
Ghana
Résumé
Anlo-Ewe generally refers to a dialect of the Ewe language spoken in southeastern Ghana, with Anlo designating an ethnolinguistic group whose homeland is on a littoral between the Keta Lagoon and the sea. Etymologically, however, Anlo derives from the Ewe term ‘nlo’ which means rolling up or folding into oneself. This article describes moments of ethnographic fieldwork that led to tracing links among meanings assigned to ‘nlo’, a migration story reinforcing the ‘nlo’ that was incorporated into a name, the experiential dimensions of folding into oneself when recounting the migration tale, and how this body posture indexes and evokes a melancholy sensibility shared among many Anlo-Ewe people in diaspora as well as at ‘home’. Anlo cultural memory is approached from the standpoint of phenomenology in ethnography, and the essay explores connections among landscapes, livelihood, bodily sensations, a certain present, a particular past, in addition to Anlo-Ewe interlocutors and an ethnographer. It is meant as a meditation on lived experience and consciousness in Anlo-Ewe worlds.