Open AccessSchmoozing with My Sisters: At-Home Ethnography in Brisbane’s Jewish Community
Author(s) -
Jennifer Creese
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
women in judaism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1209-9392
DOI - 10.33137/wij.v17i1.34941
Subject(s) - insider , judaism , ethnography , negotiation , sociology , power (physics) , kinship , gender studies , work (physics) , anthropology , social science , epistemology , theology , philosophy , mechanical engineering , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
Within anthropology, there is a distinguished history of Jewish ethnographers and ethnographic research on Jewish life. There is also a wealth of “insider anthropology” conducted by Jewish anthropologists in their own Jewish communities. Of these, many take a feminist anthropological approach, actively interrogating the power dynamics at play within and around the communities they discuss, and within the ethnographic relationship itself. In this essay, the author reflects on her own experiences as a feminist and insider anthropologist in Brisbane’s Jewish community. The essay discusses the negotiation of the dual roles of insider and scholar, and the ways in which feminist epistemological approaches work within this negotiation.