The objects of evidence

Abstract

By and large, anthropology's reflections on the concept of evidence have been couched within other discussions – on truth, knowledge, and related concerns. This essay, which introduces the special issue, makes the case that evidence deserves more considered attention in its own right. Drawing on the small but growing body of literature in social and cultural anthropology that does address questions of evidence, I situate the articles here in relation to several anthropological conversations, suggesting in the process how an exploration of evidence can shed light on three key issues: anthropology's standards of judgement, the potentials within interdisciplinary collaboration, and the benefits of a public anthropology. Résumé De manière générale, les réflexions de l'anthropologie sur le concept de preuve ont été imbriquées dans d'autres discussions concernant la vérité, la connaissance et d'autres questions connexes. En ouverture de ce numéro spécial, le présent essai avance que la preuve mériterait une attention plus spécifique pour elle‐même. À partir d'un corpus restreint mais grandissant d'études en anthropologie culturelle et sociale consacrées à la question de la preuve, l'auteur situe les articles réunis ici par rapport à plusieurs conversations anthropologiques, en suggérant comment une exploration de la preuve peut faire la lumière sur trois grandes questions : les critères de jugement de l'anthropologie, les possibilités offertes par une collaboration interdisciplinaire et les avantages d'une anthropologie publique.

Experience, knowledge and evidence: a comparison of research relations in health and anthropology

“…Anthropologists continued to question the nature of the knowledge they produced, culminating perhaps in the post-modernist suggestion that the ethnography was essentially a text, a genre of literature to be decoded rather than accepted as objective account (see Clifford and Marcus, 1986). However, not all anthropologists abandoned claims to objectivity (eg D'Andrade, 1995;Lewis, 1973) and latterly there has been renewed debate about the basis of its knowledge claims (eg, Wilson, 2004;Hastrup, 2005;Engelke, 2008;Lambert, 2009;Fabian, 2012). Anthropological data continue to be collected experientially through fieldwork but, as Hastrup (2005: 141) puts it, this entails situating 'oneself in the amorphous field between subjective and objective'.…”

The bodily threat of miracles: Security, sacramentality, and the Egyptian politics of public order

“…These "objects of evidence" establish the truthful status of Samia's verbal testimonysuch as her blood-soaked white sweater, her gauze bandages marked with bloody crosses, even the congregate of the tumors in a glass jar of formaldehyde (Engelke 2008;Keane 2008). These images of diseases and dream, as material impressions of fleshly emissions from inside Samia's body, are now exposed for all to see.…”

Acts of Assistance: Navigating the Interstices of the British State with the Help of Non-profit Legal Advisers

“…The act of creating evidence is also an act of objectification (Engelke 2008), carried out both by low-level government officials and caseworkers themselves in the course of their interviews. To an extent, advisers have little choice but to participate in gatekeeping activities in reference to welfare benefits.…”