The ethnographer twice estranged? Methodological reflection on the embodied emotions within a Romani Pentecostal community

Bibliographic Data

ID6973202
AuthorsMaciej Witkowski (0000-0001-5142-1815, WSB University), Ewa Nowicka (0000-0003-3241-4921, Collegium Civitas)
Year2025
Volume35
Issue2
Pages241-262
Publication date2025-12-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRomani Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1528-0748 • E-ISSN: 1757-2274
PublisherLiverpool University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3828/rost.2025.3
OpenAlexW4417437679
LanguageEN
References cited16

The aim of this text is to illustrate how embodied emotions surfacing during fieldwork can be used to inform how non-Romani social scientists understand the Romani religious lifeworlds. The authors analyse the way in which physical expressions of strong emotions are interpreted. In this specific case, similarities which the informants perceived with reference to the bodily reactions of the anthropologists led, in fact, to an intersubjective conviction that deep differences existed between the two sides. The authors argue that the ethnographer’s bodily reactions are, on the one hand, an instrument of anthropological insight into the Romani community under investigation. On the other hand, the ethnographer’s bodily reactions do invoke ethical, methodological, and interpersonal problems This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

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