Paper short abstract:

Poetry, as a way to engage in embodied learning in an accessible and visceral of pertinent anthropological insights.

Paper long abstract:

We will explore how a thread of poetics may help to lead the discipline of anthropology from the world of academia into people's homes. The poetic thread goes back into anthropology's past, to the impact poetics has had on the discipline's turning towards the sensuous. We consider the impact poetry has had on the anthropology's most renown representatives: Margret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Edward Sapir and Victor Turner. The thread continues into the present, leading us to the poetics of celebrity anthropologists Wade Davis and David Graeber. We then consider how poetic language can help to maintain the freshness and enduring value of anthropological insights, whilst enhancing their transformative potential. Finally, we look at what kind of anthropology we want to become a household word and how poetics may help to facilitate decolonisation of epistemology and with it, the world.