Thinking About the Field: Ethnography, Social Relationships, and Legitimacy

Presentation Location

David Student Union: Washington Room

Document Type

Event

Start Date

15-3-2024 10:30 AM

End Date

15-3-2024 12:30 PM

Description

(Seth Palmer, Session Chair)

  • Seth Palmer (Christopher Newport University). To Each Their Own Destiny: Divine Possession and Dissident Gender/Sexuality in Madagascar
    This paper provides a brief overview of several interrelated research projects which address transgressive sex/gender communities' language, activism, and religiosity in Madagascar. Among those topics addressed in the talk include the development, use, and "outing" of a linguistic register primarily employed by queer speakers in the capital, Antananarivo, and the means by which monarchical forms of spirit possession have acted as a central conduit for the transnational projects 25 of HIV-prevention and LGBT rights activism across the Red Island. The final portion of the talk considers ways in which a theoretically-trained academic anthropologist can undertake LGBTQ+ advocacy work in collaboration and in conversation with one’s interlocutors and, relatedly, how academic anthropology may, at times unwittingly, be deployed by activists in their pursuit of social change.
  • Jennifer Scott (University of West Georgia). Exploring Anxiety in Ethnographic Fieldwork
    Participant observation is the backbone of ethnographic research. It allows us to document the nuances of daily life by simply being there. A form of participant observation is participant collaboration, in which the people being studied become active participants, affording them the voice and respect of co-creators. In August 2022, I began a pilot study on the development of community identity in a closed Anabaptist society known as the Bruderhof, eventually leading to an overnight visit to a small community in Tennessee. While there, a full year after beginning this journey, I learned from my hosts about their previous experiences with researchers. They did not feel as though their voices mattered or that their way of life would be shown in an accurate light. Research has been historically damaging to marginalized populations, and that is demonstrated each time our requests for visits are met with trepidation or denied. This paper will examine the role of anxiety in ethnographic fieldwork and the ethical benefits and efficacy of more collaborative practices.
  • Maximilian X. Conrad (University of Mississippi). Disappearing Dixie?: The Changing Ethnoscape of the Festa Confederada
    From 1988 to 2020, before the COVID-19 Pandemic brought the world to a standstill, the town of Santa Barbara d’Oeste in the interior of Sao Paulo was the site of an internationally recognized festival celebrating the heritage of the Confederados, descendants of American Southerners who immigrated to Brazil after the American Civil War. The Festa Confederada, popularized by news articles and social media in both Brazil and the United States, captured attention and curiosity in both nations. However, the festival’s Confederate identity attracted significant amounts of controversy over the years, culminating in an indefinite hiatus even after COVID-19 restrictions were eased. Most recently, the town’s council voted unanimously to ban the use of the Confederate flag in publicly funded events. This paper will employ digital ethnography to review articles, social media posts, and videos of the Festa Confederada to provide a summary of the event’s history and the pervasive process through which its promotion of settler-colonialism and neo-Confederacy create a depoliticized and deracialized ethnoscape.

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Mar 15th, 10:30 AM Mar 15th, 12:30 PM

Thinking About the Field: Ethnography, Social Relationships, and Legitimacy

David Student Union: Washington Room

(Seth Palmer, Session Chair)

  • Seth Palmer (Christopher Newport University). To Each Their Own Destiny: Divine Possession and Dissident Gender/Sexuality in Madagascar
    This paper provides a brief overview of several interrelated research projects which address transgressive sex/gender communities' language, activism, and religiosity in Madagascar. Among those topics addressed in the talk include the development, use, and "outing" of a linguistic register primarily employed by queer speakers in the capital, Antananarivo, and the means by which monarchical forms of spirit possession have acted as a central conduit for the transnational projects 25 of HIV-prevention and LGBT rights activism across the Red Island. The final portion of the talk considers ways in which a theoretically-trained academic anthropologist can undertake LGBTQ+ advocacy work in collaboration and in conversation with one’s interlocutors and, relatedly, how academic anthropology may, at times unwittingly, be deployed by activists in their pursuit of social change.
  • Jennifer Scott (University of West Georgia). Exploring Anxiety in Ethnographic Fieldwork
    Participant observation is the backbone of ethnographic research. It allows us to document the nuances of daily life by simply being there. A form of participant observation is participant collaboration, in which the people being studied become active participants, affording them the voice and respect of co-creators. In August 2022, I began a pilot study on the development of community identity in a closed Anabaptist society known as the Bruderhof, eventually leading to an overnight visit to a small community in Tennessee. While there, a full year after beginning this journey, I learned from my hosts about their previous experiences with researchers. They did not feel as though their voices mattered or that their way of life would be shown in an accurate light. Research has been historically damaging to marginalized populations, and that is demonstrated each time our requests for visits are met with trepidation or denied. This paper will examine the role of anxiety in ethnographic fieldwork and the ethical benefits and efficacy of more collaborative practices.
  • Maximilian X. Conrad (University of Mississippi). Disappearing Dixie?: The Changing Ethnoscape of the Festa Confederada
    From 1988 to 2020, before the COVID-19 Pandemic brought the world to a standstill, the town of Santa Barbara d’Oeste in the interior of Sao Paulo was the site of an internationally recognized festival celebrating the heritage of the Confederados, descendants of American Southerners who immigrated to Brazil after the American Civil War. The Festa Confederada, popularized by news articles and social media in both Brazil and the United States, captured attention and curiosity in both nations. However, the festival’s Confederate identity attracted significant amounts of controversy over the years, culminating in an indefinite hiatus even after COVID-19 restrictions were eased. Most recently, the town’s council voted unanimously to ban the use of the Confederate flag in publicly funded events. This paper will employ digital ethnography to review articles, social media posts, and videos of the Festa Confederada to provide a summary of the event’s history and the pervasive process through which its promotion of settler-colonialism and neo-Confederacy create a depoliticized and deracialized ethnoscape.