Searching for Miss Menzies : Tracing the ghosts of eighteenth-century sex workers in Edinburgh.

Abstract

Historical records allow the lingering presences of people of the past to be traced. This study documents a search for recorded eighteenth-century sex workers in Edinburgh, assessing whether ghosts can be brought under anthropological inquiry. I find that through informing myself of the history of these women, I was able to construct a sense of their presence. Insofar as I created these ghosts, I argue that the political dispositions of the ethnographer drive attempts to locate the past in the present. I conclude by reflecting on the ethnographic significance of this attempt at conducting an ethnography of the spectral.