The Unlooked-For

Abstract: James Siegel's work is exemplary in its search for the surprising. He, like the theorists, psychologists, conspiracy theorists and magicians that he draws from, makes unexpected and often unrepeated connections – the hypnotist and the tsunami; the New Order and its witches. These reflect a way of thinking about anthropology that seeks deeper but temporary truths rather than one authoritative decoding of culture. It is a way to create resonances, not sense, and in so doing reflects the magic of poetry more than social science. It is an attempt too often lost in contemporary anthropology, in its search for certainty and truth. Rather, here there is a more fundamental truth in the temporary senselessness of moments that throw the everyday into stark relief, and which bring out the weird, the unsettling, the unlooked-for.