An Ethnography of the Benedictine Monastery
Context: Research undertaken during graduate studies at the Université de Toulouse
Timeframe: Two years (September 2016 - September 2018)
Field Sites: El Rosal, Colombia and Fontgombault, France
Funding: Université de Toulouse’s Field Research Grant (2016/2017 & 2017/2018)
Publications and Papers:
This research project investigated the relationship between the construction of the person and the construction of space in the Benedictine monastery. It sought to describe the reciprocal relation between these two processes as they were observed during fieldwork at two sites: a first at the Benedictine monastery of El Rosal in Colombia; and a second one at the abbey of Fontgombault in France. By entering into dialogue with anthropological writing on religious spaces, monastic life, and the connection between the person and the environment, I attempted to plot the emergence of a sacred space — the monastery — from a study of the related activities, practices, behaviors, and discourses which gravitate in constellation around the theme of silence. In doing so, I sought to present the links that bind together a form of life and a particular environment.
In my research, I insist on the fact that within the context of the Benedictine monastery, the construction of the person proves to be inseparable from the construction of space. Both of these processes rely on silence. As such, silence is one of the principal concerns of the Benedictine monk and plays a crucial role in the way he orientates himself and his way of life. Never just one thing, silence in the Benedictine monastery manifests itself in three distinct ways: as a practice (something the person does), as a condition (something that makes possible), and as a potentiality (something that can act on us). My study of silence in the monatic context explored these various manifestations and elucidated the ways in which they cooperate in the emergence of monastic spaces and monastic persons.
