A farewell to field: an anthropological essay / Pożegnanie z terenem. Esej antropologiczny
Journal Title: Etnografia. Praktyki. Teorie. Doświadczenia / Ethnography. Practices, Theories, Experiences - Year 2015, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
Field in the cultural anthropology is still a predominant symbol of a discipline, notwithstanding its meaning is changing. But regardless of the continuing expansion of the conceptual domain of the field as a word, it is impossible to revoke its legacy, invoked as time and space of different non-symmetric status. This ontological asymmetry and direct relationship with disciplinary practices, involvement in the colonial worldview as well as connection with militarism is precisely what determines the oppressive nature of the Field (the author suggests writing the first letter in uppercase as “the Field” – which is the expression of an attempt to construct the concept embracing the consciousness of its ideologization). Refl ection on the ideological separation of the Field from the world cannot be considered only in terms of the social sciences, but it must also take into account the fantasmatic nature of such action and concept. The Field as a locus of the empirical Other (subjected to repressive observation of the researcher) is a special place indeed, also because of an idea described in psychoanalitic theory as the gaze of the big Other and, engendered in a researcher, a question regarding Other’s intention, which is also a determiner of researcher’s fantasy.
Authors and Affiliations
Michał Żerkowski
Keywords
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- EP ID EP687948
- DOI https://doi.org/10.4467/254395379EPT.15.008.6473
- Views 151
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