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Doubts, Compromises, and Ideals: Attempting a Reciprocal Life Story
Author(s) -
Gay Y Blasco Paloma
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
anthropology and humanism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1548-1409
pISSN - 1559-9167
DOI - 10.1111/anhu.12174
Subject(s) - reciprocal , ethnography , sociology , epistemology , aesthetics , media studies , anthropology , art , linguistics , philosophy
SUMMARY In this article I reflect on my attempt to co‐author a reciprocal life story with my friend Liria de la Cruz, a semiliterate Gypsy/Roma street seller from Madrid—a book where we examine together our intertwined stories. Much has been made of the assumed capacity of collaborative methodologies to transform ethnography for the better. Yet as Liria and I try to find ways to work together, we struggle to reconcile our reciprocal approach with the conventions of the ethnographic genre and the expectations of our scholarly audience. I reflect on our difficulties for what they reveal about the complex encounter between the non‐hierarchical aims of collaboration and those of academic anthropology.