Abstract

PINEIRO, Eleder  and  DIZ, Carlos. Fieldwork as Surrender: Reflections on the Methodology of Participant Observation. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2018, vol.54, n.1, pp.59-88. ISSN 0486-6525.  https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472x.383.

Through the dialogue of anthropological theories with our ethnographic experience, we discuss fieldwork as surrender, in the positive sense. Surrender takes into account different aspects, that interact with the anthropologist, who is both time tool, subject and object of knowledge, mediator, and cultural interpreter. We understand participant observation as a cognitive and bodily experience. Flexibility, reciprocity with subjects of study, and alternatives to sociocentrism and ethnocentrism, are core ideas here. We propose fieldwork as an initiation ritual and as a stage for the analysis of relations between science, power, and politics. We posit the field not just as a place but also as habitus.

Keywords : social sciences; culture; ethics; ethnography.

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