Portuguese like us, Portuguese like them: reflections on identity and intersubjectivity in fieldwork

• Autor(a) principal: Amante, Maria de Fátima
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/5635
• topic: Inter-subjectivity;; fieldwork;; research encounter;; identity;; ethnography

The main purpose of this paper is to approach some issues concerning the intersubjectivity in fieldwork. The field experience my paper deals with, took place when I was researching for my Ph.D. in cultural anthropology. Fieldwork was conducted on the Portuguese-Spanish border area, in between 2001 and 2003.During the fieldwork process I was required to move across the border and assume, on a daily basis, my condition as national citizen like half of my informants and foreigner like the other half. The relationship with the subjects and the way they “built” me as a researcher and cope with my presence, often led me to reconsider decisions made in advance and redefine strategies taken as methodological adequate and safe. One situation that was particularly relevant on the level of researchers’ identity was caused by the double gaze subjects launched on the anthropologist: being Portuguese like 'us' (anthropology at home) or being Portuguese like 'them' (anthropology abroad). This aspect persisted throughout the fieldwork and made that period a time of conflict, mainly on the epistemological level but also at personal one. Within the framework of reflection this paper looks on the interactional process through which the knowledge is acquired, shared and transmitted exploring the dynamics of subject-researcher relationship in order to understand how this relationship influenced the collection and analysis of data. It is my intention to explore the mutual meanings involved within the research relationship, the research encounter, we might say, and some of its consequences