Esperienze (stra)ordinarie e dilemmi etico-epistemologici alle Isole Marchesi

Abstract

The article aims to recount and problematize some personal ethnographic experiences related to the manifestation of the so-called «world of the invisible» that happened during my doctoral fieldwork in the Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia). In particular, I am referring here to nocturnal occurrences of paralysis and strangulation in sleep that locals read in connection with the breaking of tapu (taboo) places and due to magical attacks (nani kaha). These particular circumstances led to consequent healing processes with traditional remedies and to questions about the meaning of concepts such as mana and the existence of spirits or ancestors. Moving from the literature on so-called «(extra)ordinary experiences», however, this paper insists on how both these occurrences and their interpretation involve processes of co-construction of meaning, which presuppose terrains of mutual understanding between the ethnographer and indigenous collaborators. Taking place within and by virtue of the bonds built with my host families on the islands, such (extra)ordinary happenings were as much interpreted as taken over by local healers precisely in light of strongly intersubjective dimensions and shared moral frames. In addition to explore these deep experiential and discursive planes at the ethnographic level, the present paper seeks to discuss what ethical and epistemological dilemmas pose for the interpretation of native cosmologies, positioning oneself on the field and back home, and, finally, the sense of reality connected to the world of the invisible in French Polynesia.