Ethnographies of Touch and Touching Ethnographies: Some Prospects for Touch in Anthropological Enquiries// Rosemary Blake.

"Formerly taken-for-granted notions of knowledge have come under scrutiny with anthropologists such as Michael Jackson using a focus on experience to challenge the notions of ‘determinant systems of knowledge’ (Jackson 1995: 160) espoused in positivist disciplines and sometimes implicit in the anthropological enterprise. Rather, it is argued, we reflect on our embodied experiences in and of the field and how these shape and produce our knowledge in and of the field whilst simultaneously acknowledging that ‘words alone can never do justice to experience’ (Jackson 1995: 160). The embodied nature of knowledge is being recognised and the movement towards reflexive accounts is as much about rethinking what constitutes valid data as it is about challenging former assumptions about ethnographic authority."

"In addition to language analysis, Geurts embarks upon a kind of sensory analysis in which she explores the sensations she experienced when she accidentally drove over a rock which was believed to be a kind of ‘spiritual guardian of thresholds’ by those she was living with (2003: 195). By analysing the subsequent significances or modes of interpretation that she accorded to the sensations she experienced during this event and how these differed from those communicated by others, she demonstrates the rigidity of the ‘traditional models for how we think about how we perceive’ (2003: 196)."

"The children were acutely aware of the pain that could be and was, inflicted on them at the hands of another but they were equally aware of the efficacy of touch for imparting relief. When injections were being administered, hands were often held and when pain was ongoing and vague, heads were stroked or, if the child was small enough, entire bodies cuddled and held. It was not just the adults who instigated these comforting touches; they were emphatically requested by the children, even of relative strangers (such as me). Moreover, in my discussions with the children over the benefits of these touches many asserted that they provided not just comfort but actual pain alleviation – particularly when given by someone close to the child, such as a mother."

"In Those who Touch (Rasmussen 2006), an account is given of the role that touch plays in diagnosis given by medicine women. Here, in addition to observing how healing practices of touch are employed, it is argued that touch has been neglected within anthropology by contending that anthropologists typically exhibit a bias towards the visual in their ethnographic accounts. ‘With few exceptions,’ she asserts, ‘unspoken elements in discourse tend to be trivialised or ignored’ (Rasmussen 2006:59). Rasmussen maintains that touch is an important element of human communication and interaction which is due careful attention. In the case studies she presents, Rasmussen suggests that Taureg healers will have typically centred their thoughts to the sensitive reception, through their hands, of non-verbal messages and energy (ibid.). The messages that touch conveys can be, in her opinion, ‘either conscious and purposeful or unconscious, with unintended but powerful consequences read differently by the receiver’ (ibid.)."

"Touch is a diffuse experience; of all our sensory organs, the skin is the largest. It occupies and traverses space and the skin’s sensitivity to touch varies greatly across its surface. Moreover, touch involves pressure sensations as well as nerve sensations."

You can find the full essay:
http://www.anthropologymatters.com/index.php/anth_matters/article/view/224/378