Vernacular autoethnosis is the practice of self-determining an ethos through the creation and use of chosen rituals, stories, language patterns, and word choices. The term combines vernacular (ordinary, everyday, not institutionalized) with autoethnosis (the process of forming one’s own ethos).
The “autoethnosis” root distinguishes this practice from autoethnography (which describes an existing culture) or autobiography (which narrates a life). Ethnosis is an ongoing process — the active formation of an ethos — not a description of something already complete. “Vernacular” specifies that the tools used are accessible, everyday ones: the words you choose, the small rituals you practice, the stories you tell about yourself and your situation.
Vernacular autoethnosis has particular relevance in contexts of cultural disruption — including but not limited to the disruption that settler-colonial institutions produce in Indigenous communities. When institutional and inherited cultural forms have been damaged or destroyed, vernacular autoethnosis offers a path to cultural self-determination that does not depend on access to those institutions.
Related terms
- Synthetic Place of Ritualized Ethnosis — a virtual environment designed for vernacular autoethnosis practice