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A Lady’s Bicycle
Author(s) -
Bundgaard Helle
Publication year - 2019
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.12231
Subject(s) - unintended consequences , relation (database) , prism , competition (biology) , power (physics) , sociology , aesthetics , environmental ethics , epistemology , art , ecology , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , database , computer science , optics , biology
Summary This story concerns ethical dilemmas related to unintended consequences of fieldwork. The setting in a small Indian village works as a prism that offers an opportunity to reflect upon our practice as anthropologists. One of the challenges of fieldwork in a setting with relatively little material wealth is that objects that to the anthropologist are simply a matter of convenience represent resources otherwise out of reach and might lead to competition among interlocutors and power struggles. The bicycle thus articulates the unequal relation between anthropologist and interlocutors.