Challenges and opportunities of doing fieldwork as a woman on women in guinea

Abstract

Thanks to the postmodern turn and the crisis of representation it is common knowledge that the data anthropologists gather during field research are not mere objective facts. The researcher with his or her appearance, multiple identities, background, habits and academic training forms part of the experience in the field and therefore influences data generation (Robben 2007, pp. 61–63; see the edited volume by Okely and Callaway 1992). As Akhil Gupta (2014, p. 397) aptly writes: ‘[…] anthropological data […] depends in large measure on the affective and bodily practices and peculiarities of the ethnographer. Moreover, ethnographic data is inherently social.’ Even though anthropologists advocate to reflect on one’s knowledge production and to reveal ‘the stories behind the findings’ (Thomson et al. 2013b), these issues are typically mentioned just briefly in introductory parts or appendices (Häberlein 2014a).