Priest, development worker, or volunteer? Anthropological research and ascribed identities in rural Mozambique

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9284591
AutoresMichael Walker (0000-0002-7389-9518, Michigan State University, autor de correspondencia)
Año1970
Volumen11
Número1
Fecha de publicación1970-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnthropology Matters (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1758-6453 • E-ISSN: 1758-6453
EditorialNomadIT (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.22582/am.v11i1.20
OpenAlexW1651579144
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas13

Over the last two decades anthropologists have devoted increasing analytical space to questioning, challenging, and reflecting on how different identities and positionalities structure power relations and shape social interactions in a diversity of research contexts. Many of these works reveal how identities are constructed, contested, and negotiated through the process of conducting research. During 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork in central Mozambique I was mistaken for a priest, alleged to be a spy, and assumed to be a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. In this article, I explore how my identity, and the identities ascribed to me, shaped my interactions with people living in rural Mozambique and structured the types of relationships and data I was able to collect. My experience highlights the contextually grounded and negotiated nature of identity construction and how individual identities are understood and interpreted through broader historical, political, and economic contexts

Aesthetics · Diversity (politics · Ethnography · Identity (music · Participant observation · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law