RT Article
T1 Haunted Objects: English Paranormal Investigation and the Material Mediation of Doubt
JF Nova religio
VO 22
IS 4
SP 60
OP 74
A1 Hanks, Michele
LA English
PB University of Californiarnia Press
YR 2019
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1667243381
AB In contemporary England, paranormal investigation has emerged as a popular means of seeking knowledge about reportedly ghostly phenomena. Paranormal investigators are self-fashioned experts who aim to balance scientistic and spiritual perspectives in the hope of proving or disproving the existence of ghosts from an objective perspective. Despite their collective goal to understand the paranormal, many investigators experience profound doubt of its reality and nature. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork with English paranormal investigators, this essay examines how investigators' engagement with material culture mediates their experience of doubt. Ultimately, this essay argues that material culture, in the form of haunted objects, helps mitigate, produce, and extend investigators' doubts about the nature of the paranormal and the meaning of materiality itself.
K1 Doubt
K1 Ghosts
K1 Knowledge Production
K1 Material Culture
DO 10.1525/nr.2019.22.4.60