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Accepted Paper:
Oceanic Embodiments: Understanding Comfort in Other Milieus
Fei Liao
(SOAS, University of London)
This paper explores the freediving practice in Dahab, Sinai Peninsula as an intersubjective way of knowing the world in which the freediver cultivates comfort with oneself, others and the sea as milieu.
Paper long abstract:
This paper is a vignette of my dissertation fieldwork on freediving practice in Dahab, Sinai, Egypt. My research addresses how freedivers in Dahab find comfort in interacting with the sea, the ontological disruption of entering the milieu of sea from the perspective of terrestrial creatures, and finding comfort in/ through this disruption. I am looking at the embodied departures from land-centred narrative freedivers go through by being-at-sea through. I'm also providing new insight for anthropological understandings of moral experiences centering on a variety of intersubjective moral experiences in which humans organically be-together otherwise; one that does not mainly take place with conversation, or some form of conversation --- what do freedivers learn from the sea and how does the experiences of being-at-sea impact their perception of life on land? Additionally, from situating my research from the standpoint of what is usually considered as a leisure and athletic activity – the practice of freediving – I’m adding to a literature on body and embodiment outside of areas in which phenomenological concepts have already proven effective such as those of healing (Csordas, 1990), sorcery (Kapferer, 1997); ritual (Taussig, 1993); spirit possession and trance (Halliburton, 2005).