Paper short abstract:

An intersubjective ethnographic exploration of the dialectical relation between microbes, spirituality and science

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will delve into the spiritual conceptions of Wisdom, a young Namibian man with a deep and passionate fascination of human-microbial symbiosis. He perceives such a symbiosis to be a unifying factor across (Western-)scientific and spiritual/religious epistemological boundaries, and as a way for human beings to develop a more harmonious engagement with their surroundings. As he stated during my latest visit to his house: “I don’t think a baker could ever kill someone…”. I explore Wisdom’s spiritual reasoning and our intersubjective knowledge and practice exchanges over our shared experiences of forming symbiotic relations with microorganism through various fermentation practices such as sour-dough baking, komboucha brewing and lactic acid fermentation of vegetables. Through Wisdom's and my experiences of microbial symbiosis I first argue that we as ethnographers need to pay a closer attention to the ways in which our interlocutors forge systems of knowledge that bridge between otherwise rigid and seemingly contradictory epistemological and ontological boundaries. Secondly, I point to the methodological fruitfulness of engaging in shared everyday practices with our interlocutors and how intersubjective exchanges of everyday practices – in this case Wisdom’s and my shared fascination for fermentation – acts as sites for sharing embodied ethnographic knowledge and insights into the ontological and epistemological foundations for our interlocutors’ and our own daily practices.