Where is the Border? Fieldwork Biases and Problems of Scale in Ethnic Structuration in Sápmi
This essay explores an aspect of the fieldwork experience which is often neglected in autobiographic reviews of the research processes: the formation of the ethnographer’s theoretical sensibility, as a consequence of fieldwork practice. Based upon research carried out in a town in Northern Norway, G...
| Published in: | Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | Spanish |
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Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
2008
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dra.revistas.csic.es/index.php/dra/article/view/52 https://doi.org/10.3989/rdtp.2008.v63.i1.52 |
| Summary: | This essay explores an aspect of the fieldwork experience which is often neglected in autobiographic reviews of the research processes: the formation of the ethnographer’s theoretical sensibility, as a consequence of fieldwork practice. Based upon research carried out in a town in Northern Norway, Guovdageaidnu, which is considered to be a kernel of the “saami” culture, this essay presents the process of reconstruction of the author’s analytical sensibility: the transformation of his theoretical prejudices into analytic tools endowed with a greater interpretative strength. The previous theoretical judgement, in this case based on the knowledge of a bibliography relevant for an analysis of the interethnic relation far away from essentialism and reification, is presented here as insufficient. That previous readership does not prevent the author from operating in the field with a sensibility that is still oriented toward comprehending ethnicity as a relation between dichotomous, reified social subjects. En este ensayo se explora un aspecto de la experiencia de campo frecuentemente ignorado en las revisiones autobiográficas de los procesos de investigación: la formación de la sensibilidad teórica del etnógrafo, como consecuencia de la práctica de campo. Basándose en investigación realizada en una localidad del norte de Noruega, Guovdageaidnu, considerada allí núcleo de la cultura “sami”, este ensayo presenta el proceso de reconstrucción de la sensibilidad analítica del autor: la transformación de sus prejuicios teóricos sobre las relaciones interétnicas entre “noruegos” y “samis” en herramientas analíticas dotadas de una mayor potencia interpretativa. El juicio previo de carácter teórico, fundamentado ya en este caso en el conocimiento de un cuerpo de bibliografía pertinente para un análisis de la relación interétnica alejado del esencialismo y la reificación, se presenta aquí como insuficiente, mostrando cómo el autor, con ese bagaje previo de lectura, sigue aún operando en el campo con una sensibilidad orientada ... |
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