ABSTRACT
Questioning practices of knowledge production and roles in academia and in the field is part of anthropological research; utilising this self-reflexive impetus, anthropologists engage in experiments. They hold a jester’s licence within academia because of the edgy approaches they have developed but would not be granted so much academic freedom had their experiments not been revealed as pathbreaking for other disciplines.
In this vein, the epilogue connects the various approaches of the acting lessons in sensory anthropology presented in the book with an essayistic reflection on a paradox: the means of theatre, allegedly the space of the unreal, reveal aspects of materiality that escape scholarly attention. Theatre is live! It is insightful for anthropologists because actors explore how people respond to a sound, a situation and how a building impacts on their path. This happens mostly unconsciously in real life, but actors must make this responsiveness happen, thus, their approaches allow one to grasp the elusive aspects of human life.
