Caste, purity, and female dress in IT India: Embodied norm violation as reflexive ethnographic practice

This article proposes the methodology of embodied norm violation for overcoming the dichotomy between cognitive reflexivity and embodied ethnographic practice. The methodology is derived from the author's own embodied experiences as a female Indo-German ethnographer in the field of IT India. For exemplifying the methodology and its potential, this article focusses on two field-related phenomena, namely adhering to a vegetarian diet and dressing the female body. It uses them to gather insights on embodied purity and caste in IT India and discusses implications with regard to the political body (Foucault), the social body (Bourdieu), and the individual body (Merleau-Ponty). The theoretical contribution lies in suggesting embodied norm violation as a reflexive research methodology which delivers organizational insights beyond text, discourse, and cognition. On the empirical level, embodied norm violation enabled the researcher to uncover the pre-reflexive and gendered dimension of IT India as a neocolonial, modernist, and male project.