Anthropology of Consciousness through Contemplative Practice. Meditative Experience and Subjectivity.

This monograph presents the results of a three-year research project combining ethnographic fieldwork with theoretical and methodological inquiry. It examines consciousness from an anthropological perspective through the study of contemplative practices broadly understood, including but not limited to different forms of modern Buddhist meditation and mindfulness. To address experiences of extreme intimacy, the author critically reassesses ethnographic methodology and proposes a visual-elicitation approach based on multi-layered drawings produced alongside participants’ contemplative paths. The study also includes an autoethnographic dimension and advances reflections on consciousness, qualitative method, and the agency of images in intersubjective and introspective relations.