THE HABITUS OF FIELDWORK: THE SELF AS THE NEW OTHER

Year 2020, Issue: 1, 103 - 118, 20.09.2020

Katerina Marinaki

Abstract

The present study is an extensive 22-months field research in Wadi Rum Desert, Jordan. The case of Bedouin Zalabieh adds another voice to the diverse anthropological research in Middle East. Fieldwork is a complicated and challenging process where the anthropologist experiences a rite of passage through interaction with his/her informants. He/she is transformed from a subject who conducts fieldwork to an object of his/her own self striving for redefinition. Incorporating the habitus of the Others, he/she becomes an Other. At the end of the fieldwork, he/she is confronted with multiple Others. With reference to Bedouin Customary Law, through a “thick description” I try to focus on the habitus of my informants as something that cannot be completely understood by the anthropologist, just because it belongs to a preconscious state. A dialog between cultures, rites, concepts, and behaviors is essential for the redefinition of the self during the research as well as thereafter. Through the distinctive habitus of people, we coexist and share our lives while unconsciously constructing new selves. While we study others, we become objects to be studied; this entails an interactive study on each other. In addition, focusing on the conflict between spouses, I emphasize the new forms of practices and actions created by the interaction and coexistence of the anthropologist and his/her informants. The silent conflict between spouses undermines men’s supposed power over women. Exploiting my presence, the spouses challenged the existing cultural assumption as well as my femininity. Since everything is always a mutual definition and redefinition, deontologicaly, instead of the term “study” (a community) I prefer the term “mediate” that can vacillate between the discipline of anthropology and the informants

Keywords

Fieldwork, habitus, self

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