Cos'è l'etnografia? come si fa ricerca sul campo? qualche spunto di riflessione x @kasse77e podcast — Transcript

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1. 0:00Ethnography, the practice we
2. 0:02anthropologists use when conducting
3. 0:05research based on encounters, is not
4. 0:08just about asking questions to get
5. 0:11answers, because that’s more of a
6. 0:14police-like, detective approach.
7. 0:17Interrogation.
8. 0:18Yes, exactly the kind of interrogation
9. 0:19that unfortunately anthropology
10. 0:20practiced for a century. Today, my way
11. 0:23of doing anthropology is non-hegemonic,
12. 0:25definitely with a non-colonial gaze,
13. 0:27where I, as the researcher, call myself
14. 0:29into question. I mean, I know that I am
15. 0:32just one of the possible worlds, not
16. 0:34the only one, and I try to step into
17. 0:36the other's shoes, at least during the
18. 0:38research, for the ability to put myself
19. 0:41into perspective with the other's ideas
20. 0:43and experiences. So, typically, what I
21. 0:46did in the first weeks and months of
22. 0:49research was to share living spaces
23. 0:51before asking any questions. It could
24. 0:55be playing a game of soccer with the
25. 0:57people I wanted to meet, going to a
26. 0:59restaurant, helping with a move,
27. 1:01painting a house, or spending time
28. 1:03chatting about other things—not
29. 1:04specific questions, letting them ask me
30. 1:07questions instead: who am I? What do I
31. 1:09do? Why am I here? The other thing to
32. 1:12avoid, and I say this for any
33. 1:14anthropology doctoral student or
34. 1:15someone finishing their thesis, is to
35. 1:17never pretend to be someone you're not.
36. 1:22I mean, like the anthropologist who
37. 1:23goes around with a hidden camera, that
38. 1:25stuff is completely wrong. Or, I
39. 1:29don’t know, pretending to be a buyer
40. 1:31to a drug dealer to gather information
41. 1:34to create something generative, trust,
42. 1:36and a thick description of what happens
43. 1:39between you and the person you meet. So
44. 1:43they aren’t just interviews, they are
45. 1:45conversations and exchanges where you
46. 1:47put yourself on the table as an
47. 1:48anthropologist, and that’s how the
48. 1:50research would start. This means that
49. 1:53ethnographic anthropological research,
50. 1:55in my opinion, if done well, is slow.
51. 1:57Mh.
52. 1:59It cannot be fast; it is made of long
53. 2:01waits, of moments where, a bit like
54. 2:03when making documentaries—which I
55. 2:06know you’re interested in—you are
56. 2:08filming, maybe your focus is the river,
57. 2:10but you know that something might
58. 2:12happen during the project, that it’s
59. 2:14a journey, so you film the rocks too.
60. 2:18I’m just giving a random example,
61. 2:19right? And then, in post-production,
62. 2:21you realize the rocks were fundamental,
63. 2:23so you put them into the documentary.
64. 2:26Well, this has happened to me often,
65. 2:28that is, not just focusing on what my
66. 2:29research idea was, but also
67. 2:31understanding the perspectives of what
68. 2:32we could call my interlocutors in the
69. 2:34field, or interviewees—anyway, I
70. 2:36don't like using "interviewees" for the
71. 2:38reasons I mentioned before.
72. 2:40And so, research generally requires
73. 2:43great patience and at least a good
74. 2:45amount of time. And then, after doing
75. 2:50that, you move on to what is called, in
76. 2:53the documentary or film field,
77. 2:55post-production, right? For us
78. 2:58anthropologists, it means sitting down
79. 3:01to look at the data you've collected,
80. 3:03the data and the experiences, precisely
81. 3:06, because they aren't just data. And in
82. 3:10that case, you study and work on what
83. 3:12others have written before you about
84. 3:15what you are researching, and you try
85. 3:17to gather as much information as
86. 3:19possible about the context surrounding
87. 3:22the research field you've decided to
88. 3:24tackle. And then, something I do—
89. 3:28which is something of mine, but not
90. 3:30only mine—to really get into the flow
91. 3:32of the idea of not being hegemonic and
92. 3:34not having a hierarchy where I'm the
93. 3:36one who decides for you because I
94. 3:38interviewed you. When I finish the this
95. 3:43work, I usually give back what I have
96. 3:45produced in terms of writing about the
97. 3:47person who shared with me; I send them
98. 3:49what I've written and ask if they
99. 3:51recognize themselves, so they can
100. 3:53change something or tell me, "No, I've
101. 3:55changed my mind, I don't want to be in
102. 3:57your book because I told you those
103. 3:59things while we were together, but now
104. 4:01that I see them written down, I don't
105. 4:03recognize myself anymore." It has
106. 4:05happened to me.
107. 4:06It happened.
108. 4:07And you removed, you modified the book.
109. 4:09Yes, yes, yes. Because this happens
110. 4:11before actually sending it to the
111. 4:13publisher. It’s something that always
112. 4:15remains strictly between me and the
113. 4:17people I meet. The other thing is,
114. 4:18depending on the people, many don't
115. 4:20want to remain anonymous, so we change
116. 4:22their names, while others want their
117. 4:24full name included. I mean, in my last
118. 4:26book, which is called "Being Nature,"
119. 4:28there are people who have pseudonyms—
120. 4:30chosen together, by the way—and
121. 4:32others who say, "No, I want my full
122. 4:34name because I fully claim my life
123. 4:36choice, what I told you, and I want—
124. 4:39it’s almost as if it were a
125. 4:40co-authorship issue—
126. 4:42this is my life, it's true, you wrote
127. 4:43it, you collected it, but it's me." And
128. 4:45so, full name is appropriate.
129. 4:47Completely. But you feel—in the book
130. 4:49you say you're an ethnologist, right?
131. 4:51Do you feel more like an ethnologist or
132. 4:53an anthropologist, or do they go hand
133. 4:55in hand? let's say
134. 4:56they go hand in hand. For me, there are
135. 4:59other anthropologists who call
136. 5:00themselves only anthropologists and
137. 5:01ethnographers who consider themselves
138. 5:03only ethnographers.