Considerations about subjectivity, fieldwork strategies, and the body in anthropological research

Abstract

In this article we discuss issues to anthropological research, such as field strategies, the objectivity versus subjectivity dichotomy and the place the body occupies in this issue, defending the need for a rehabilitation of subjectivity. We approach autoethnography as a powerful methodology to think about new ways of establishing connections in scientific production and in the subjects in dialogue. Issues of race, class and gender are markers that must be analyzed in order to think about the subjectivities in dialogue in the anthropological practice, in addition to the socioeconomic and historical conditions that also influence the way we do anthropology and how we relate to the interlocutor(s). We thus invite anthropological self-reflection and our theoretical and empirical challenges, taking into account the bodies and subjectivities that are constantly related in field research or ethnography theory. We opted for a bibliographic discussion, but we also brought our own field research experiences to the proposed discussion.