Book contents
- Not-Knowing
- Not-Knowing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1Paradoxes, the Weird, and the Impossible
- Chapter 2Not-Knowing, Not Speaking, Negating
- Chapter 3Trauma, Forbidden Knowledge, and Silenced Voices
- Chapter 4Not-Knowing through Ritual Theory and Art
- Chapter 5Facing the Limits of the Extra-Cultural
- Chapter 6Resisting Interpretation and the Negative in Three Ethnographies
- Chapter 7Monsters, the Void, and the Movement from the Uncanny to the Weird
- Chapter 8The Excess of Sense and the Engagement of Wonder
- Chapter 9From Not-Knowing to Not-Doing
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
Chapter 5 - Facing the Limits of the Extra-Cultural
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 July 2026
Book contents
- Not-Knowing
- Not-Knowing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1Paradoxes, the Weird, and the Impossible
- Chapter 2Not-Knowing, Not Speaking, Negating
- Chapter 3Trauma, Forbidden Knowledge, and Silenced Voices
- Chapter 4Not-Knowing through Ritual Theory and Art
- Chapter 5Facing the Limits of the Extra-Cultural
- Chapter 6Resisting Interpretation and the Negative in Three Ethnographies
- Chapter 7Monsters, the Void, and the Movement from the Uncanny to the Weird
- Chapter 8The Excess of Sense and the Engagement of Wonder
- Chapter 9From Not-Knowing to Not-Doing
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
Summary
Chapter 5 challenges the notion that human beings are entirely confined within conventional worlds and that fieldwork serves solely as a creative means of accessing alternative cultural conventions. The objective is to demonstrate the potential existence of a domain of human life that exists at the boundaries of conventionality, at its periphery, or even transcends it, which is referred to as the “extra-cultural.” The chapter explores the “extra-cultural” within the ethnographic contexts of Afro-Brazilian capoeira and body modification, particularly extreme tattooing. We contend that both in capoeira and the pursuit of extreme tattoos, there is a yearning to transcend the confines of human measure and its limitations through the transformative experience of pain, exhaustion, and the renunciation of comfort and societal norms.
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- Not-KnowingAn Anthropological Account, pp. 105 - 126Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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