03192cam a22003978i 4500 23601952 OSt 20251230145507.0 240311s2024 nyu b 001 0 eng 2024006989 9781032494661 (hbk.) 23601952 DLC eng rda JKRC 001.9420983 23 ESP.D Espirito Santo, Diana. author. 38196 UFOs, the absurd, and the limit of anthropological knowledge : imagining the impossible in Chile / by Diana Espírito Santo. English. Unidentified Flying Objects, the absurd, and the limit of anthropological knowledge 1st. New York : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2024. 2408 xiv, 169 p. ; 24 cm. text txt rdacontent unmediated n rdamedia volume nc rdacarrier 145.00 Pound Routledge Studies in Anthropology Includes bibliographical references and index. Parallax -- Paradox -- Deceit -- Dark -- Trickster. "This book offers an ethnographic and conceptual analysis of contemporary UFO phenomena, focusing specifically on Chilean ufology and the ufological 'absurd', nonsensical instances for their experiencers in which there is no conceptual way out. It asks how anthropology can come to terms with what is not said, not known, with what is in the dark, or even with what both 'is' and 'is not'. The work draws on three years of participant observation with empirical ufologists, amateur sky watchers, and contactees of varying kinds in Chile. The chapters mobilize three main bodies of literature to elucidate the ufological absurd: negative theology, anthropology of play and deceit, and the physics of dark matter. They explore notions of parallax, paradox, and trickster anthropology. The author takes UFO phenomena, specifically the absurd aspects, as a heuristic with which to posit a conversation between domains; a conversation which highlights darknesses, finiteness, the limits of representation and media in anthropology, and that could perhaps signal the route to a new language. Consideration is given to how not-knowing can be a space of extreme productiveness for the discipline. The argument put forward is that only by doing an anthropology that looks outside of itself for conceptual inspiration can we come to terms with the non-representable, the un-conceptualizable, the fully paradoxical. This innovative book will be of particular interest to scholars of anthropological theory and religion"-- Provided by publisher. Extraterrestrial anthropology. 38197 Unidentified flying objects Sightings and encounters. 38198 Online version: Espirito Santo, Diana UFOs, the absurd, and the limit of anthropological knowledge New York : Routledge, 2024. 9781032494661 (DLC) 2024006990 7 cbc orignew 1 ecip 20 y-gencatlg ddc 1 23 0 613156 613156 0 0 ddc 0 0 2 2 2025-12-30 Bombay Books, 451 / 24-11-2025 523056 0 001.9420983 ESP.D 523056 2025-12-30 145.00 2025-12-30 1 145.00 Pound