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Paper short abstract:

Fieldwork concerning haunted people in Denmark reveals both empirical and analytical uncertainties connected to experiencing something you cannot explain. Discussing these uncertainties, the theoretical concepts das Unheimliche, the Thing, factish and other-than-human are taken into consideration.

Paper long abstract:

In Denmark, many people have experiences that they cannot explain. Notions such as haunting, ghost or specter are typically relegated to children’s books, horror movies and folklore boogies. This has left a void for unexplainable experiences; they have become hard to fit into the existing reasoning and vocabulary. In this context, a feeling of uncertainty is evoked when experiencing something beyond reason; Many find that the concept “ghost” is inappropriate, as are similar notions for that matter, and they find it hard to grasp, to categorize and to share their experience. What do you do, when experiencing something that you cannot understand or explain? Where do you turn when the sociocultural context does not offer possible categories or proper explanations? How can this kind of experiences be theorized? By which concepts can you analyze what seems to be slipping between categories and reason? Based on ethnographic fieldwork concerning haunted people in Denmark today, this paper discusses the trouble that many people have, when experiencing something that they cannot explain. Also, the paper discusses the trouble that the anthropologist has, when seeking to analyze the field material at hand. In this connection, the uncertainties of theoretical concepts such as Das Unheimliche (Sigmund Freud 1999(1919)), factish (Bruno Latour 2010), The Thing (Jacques Derrida, 2006) and other-than-human are taken into consideration. Frictions and troubles and maybe also new potentialities arise, when the supernatural confuses everyday life.