Toward a Fugitive Anthropology: Gender, Race, and Violence in the Field

Abstract

The field in anthropology is the milieu for knowledge production. It is a physical place as well as an epistemological space of investigation shaped by histories of European and U.S. imperialism and colonialism. Fieldwork has been referred to as the "basic constituting experience, not only for anthropological knowledge but of anthropologists themselves" (Moser 2007, 243). The givenness of fieldwork as an individualistic rite of passage often obscures its constitutive and interlocking racial and gender hierarchies and inequities. These inequities structure the epistemic and ontological violence that undergird fieldwork. We write this essay as black, brown, indigenous, mestiza, and/or queer cisgender women

July/August 2019 Print Issue: The Sections Edition: Moon Landing

“…Beyond the classroom and the cannon, anthropologists are reconceptualizing the notion of "the field" and "the academy" as distinct spaces (see for example, Bolles 2013, Berry et al 2017. They show us the violence of this spatial configuration not built for women of color or women or LGBTQI bodies, highlighting the myriad ways their bodies are implicated in the work they do.…”

“…Scholars engage with systems and structures of power in the academy and in their sites of research in complex, diverse, wide-ranging ways, but a number of shared concerns have emerged. As Berry et al (2017) point out, the notion of "the field" as that separate place which can be easily entered into and exited from, far from home, does not hold for many indigenous scholars and scholars of color. These movements are more fluid: friendships, kin, identities, and experiences cannot be bounded in research sites, did not begin there, and are not left there as fieldwork comes to a so-called end.…”

“…These movements are more fluid: friendships, kin, identities, and experiences cannot be bounded in research sites, did not begin there, and are not left there as fieldwork comes to a so-called end. Experiences of sexual assault, for example, are lived in our bodies, not left somewhere "in the field" (Berry et al 2017), just as they might be brought with us to our research sites. Gendered power dynamics and violence can be exacerbated for women of color and LGBTQI scholars, whose bodies do not carry the same privileges as their white and male colleagues.…”

July/August Print Issue: The Sections Edition: Anthropological Futures

“…Such work explores the pedagogies that produced us as scholars by unpacking the assumptions about authority and belonging that they reproduce. And it requires learning from the embodied experiences of scholars in the field, in our institutions, and in the world (see e.g., Berry et al 2017;Navarro, Williams, and Ahmad 2013). It is not a coincidence that these particular works are written by scholars of color who have asked whether feminist anthropology can fully address the complicated thicket of classed, raced, and gendered positions that shape who becomes visible in anthropology.…”

May/June Print Issue: #MeToo

“…Eliminating sexual harassment and sexual assault in anthropology is about a broader shift in cultural norms regarding gender, sex, sexuality, and power. It is about overturning what Berry et al (2017) have defined as the "discipline's implicit masculinist" mentality. In the year ahead, the Association, through the Members' Programmatic, Advisory, and Advocacy Committee (MPAAC), is crafting clear sexual harassment and meetings conduct policies, as well as plans for continued monitoring of the problem and the preventative work of member education on best practices for methods and ethics training, field school planning, and addressing sexual harassment in the varied work contexts in which anthropology takes place.…”