tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715206307508471859.post915523043585830996..comments2023-10-08T14:04:56.199+01:00Comments on bisahha: Adventures in Morocco: Participant-Observation ReconsideredUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715206307508471859.post-28294115734095165952009-08-17T09:07:24.878+01:002009-08-17T09:07:24.878+01:00Hi Christine,
Thank you so much for your comment! ...Hi Christine,<br />Thank you so much for your comment! It's so good to hear that someone else has dealt with the same thing. Thanks also for the Rabinow citation! I actually read that book years ago. I do remember that I liked it, but I didn't remember how aptly he sums up this limbo that anthropologists are in - between observing and participating. This quote is helpful, and actually does clarify a lot without trying to resolve the dilemma. I will definitely have to re-read this book! Thanks again, and good luck with your own work, too!Charlottehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02432234717743425690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715206307508471859.post-21028611515932797252009-08-16T19:15:25.192+01:002009-08-16T19:15:25.192+01:00Hi-
I’ve been reading your blog for a couple month...Hi-<br />I’ve been reading your blog for a couple months now. I am an anth and linguistics student at UC Berkeley and I love Morocco so your blog is an enjoyable read for me—not to mention your gifted writing style!!<br /><br /> I read this post and could really relate, I remember talking to one of my professors about similar feelings. After a year and a half “hanging out” (my term for participant observation) with the same people boundaries can become blurred--are they friends?Not friends? Can they be? Will they be? My “big thing” was the guilt over holding back my “real self” while asking so much reflection and candor of my informants (some of which became friends) It’s only possible to put yourself aside for so long. When can I just be me!! Well, that was really just the beginning of the issues that came up. My wonderful professor smiled and handed me a copy of Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco by Paul Rabinow. He writes about his “struggles to figure out how to observe and participate” and I found it a very interesting read; you might too. I am willing to send you a copy if you want. It obviously has no answers, but was a good start for the realization that I wasn’t alone; this is just par for the course, as some say. Oh fieldwork….<br /><br />Here’s a passage I had highlighted…maybe you’ll find it interesting.<br /><br />“Once one accepts a definition of anthropology as consisting of participant observation, as I had, then one’s course of action is really governed by these oxymoronic terms; the tension between them defines the space of anthropology. Observation, however, is the governing term in the pair, since it situates the anthropologists’ activities. However much one moves in the direction of participation, it is always the case that one is still both an outsider and an observer. That one is an outsider is incessantly apparent. The cloud of official approval always hung over me, despite my attempts to ignore it. My gestures were wrong, my language was off, my questions were strange, and interpersonal malaise was all too frequently the dominant mood, even after many months when some of the grossest differences had been bridged by repetition and habit. No matter how far “participation” may push the anthropologist in the direction of Not-Otherness, the context is still ultimately dictated by “observation” and externality. In the dialectic between the poles of observation and participation, participation changes the anthropologist and leads him to new observation, whereupon new observation changes how he participates. But this dialectic spiral is governed in its motion by the starting point, which is observation.” (p79-80)<br /><br />Congratulations on the progress you’re making and I look forward to reading your continuing adventures.Christinenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715206307508471859.post-28292602936355893472009-07-24T17:49:33.709+01:002009-07-24T17:49:33.709+01:00Woohoo, Charlotte! I can't wait to hear more. ...Woohoo, Charlotte! I can't wait to hear more. :0) I meant to add yesterday that when taking my afternoon walk, I reimagined you sitting in French class with your classmate discussing psychology in Morocco vs. the US. I considered how interesting it may have been if you had pushed back at him at like really wanted to. Participant observation can be too one-sided at times, but pushing back and having a discussion or debate with an informant can elicit some rich content! So next time, just jump right in and have that conversation that you're dying to have! And who know what interesting stuff you'll get from it?!Jackie Donaldsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09433355774099034794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715206307508471859.post-81734814852617758662009-07-24T11:10:49.957+01:002009-07-24T11:10:49.957+01:00Thank you both for your comments! You bring up sim...Thank you both for your comments! You bring up similar points - that the idea (or solution) may be to simply decide, at the outset, what kind of relationship you intend to have with a person, and thus avoid the gray area from the outset. You're probably right - and Evelyn aka Jackie, I'll take you up on that challenge...Charlottehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02432234717743425690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715206307508471859.post-72694783342256950412009-07-24T08:05:57.185+01:002009-07-24T08:05:57.185+01:00I think that this can happen to some extent with a...I think that this can happen to some extent with any job, not just anthropology. I work with two women who are around my age, and we all interact in a very friendly way. We gossip about our personal lives, we go out for happy hour, etc. One of them is even coming out to try tango this weekend. But whereas the other two women are very much friends (with no limits), I am friendly but keep them at a personal distance (withholding some personal information and opinions, keeping a separate social life, etc). Likewise, I don't try to bring all of my friends to work events or classes, even though there is some dance crossover.<br /><br />I think it is important at some point to decide where to draw the line. Some people may be best as work relationships--close, friendly, socializing, but not a friendship. With others, you may have to consciously decide to try to develop a friendship. That may mean letting go of possible research opportunities with them, accepting that you may miss out on some extra information but acknowledging that in this case the friendship is more important to you. Because your fieldwork doesn't clearly draw a line between the work environment and your personal life the way that mine does, it will certainly take a more conscious effort to draw that line for yourself. I think, though, that it can be done.ModernTanguerahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10040745494540069595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715206307508471859.post-39301830280591386232009-07-23T19:43:40.005+01:002009-07-23T19:43:40.005+01:00First off, it means a great deal that you would su...First off, it means a great deal that you would summarize my blog entry! That's a real honor, Charlotte. :0)<br /><br />Now to the gist. You have touched on a real dilemma in anthropological fieldwork! I have never had the pleasure of fieldwork outside of the US, but even with participant observation in the communities that I work, it's very difficult to turn off and turn on. <br /><br />To stay on is mentally exhausting--at our best, we can only do it for a few hours at a time and then we need to huddle back at home or in private to collect our thoughts and come back to the "true" us.<br /><br />I see it's very difficult to know when to be on and when to be off when one's living one's fieldwork as you are.<br /><br />I've experienced that difficulty of lines of friendship as well. I wish I could remember exactly where I heard about this, but some anthropologists just have to delineate between work friends and real friends. It's hard though! I think this is when you have to mentally challenge yourself to turn off so you can simply enjoy being your "real" self. <br /><br />I challenge you to try this! Simply relax with someone you'd love to be friends with and vow not to take mental or physical notes and just simply be present in the moment, enjoying every part of your new friendship without thought of whether this is an anthropologically rich experience for your research.<br /><br />I'll be reading to find out how this works for you! :0)Jackie Donaldsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09433355774099034794noreply@blogger.com