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PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION MY OWN ETHNIC MINORITY COMMUNITY: CONSTRAINTS AND STRATEGIES

PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION MY OWN ETHNIC MINORITY COMMUNITY: CONSTRAINTS AND STRATEGIES. Stella Mascarenhas-Keyes Small Business Service, Department of Trade & Industry Paper presented to ESRC Research Methods Festival 20.7.2006. STRUCTURE OF PRESENTATION. Participant Observation

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PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION MY OWN ETHNIC MINORITY COMMUNITY: CONSTRAINTS AND STRATEGIES

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  1. PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION MY OWN ETHNIC MINORITY COMMUNITY: CONSTRAINTS AND STRATEGIES Stella Mascarenhas-Keyes Small Business Service, Department of Trade & Industry Paper presented to ESRC Research Methods Festival 20.7.2006

  2. STRUCTURE OF PRESENTATION • Participant Observation • Presentation of Self • Self as Informant • Writing Texts • Conclusion

  3. PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION • Participant observation • Intensive involvement with people in their own natural environment • 14 months fieldwork in Goa, India • Short periods in other parts of India, Brazil, Dubai, Portugal • Childhood in Kenya • Committee positions in Goan Associations in England

  4. PRESENTATION OF SELF: MULTIPLE ETHNICITIES Multi-layered ethnicity mediated by: • Time: colonial vs post-colonial periods • Space: local vs international • Religion: Catholocism vs Hinduism • Language: English vs Konkani and Portuguese • Caste: Brahmin vs non-Brahmin • Dress: western clothes vs sari • Food: pork/beef vs vegetarian

  5. PRESENTATION OF SELF:NON-ETHNIC FACTORS • Gender • Marital status • Family and kinship relationships • Local Concepts of the scholar

  6. PRESENTATION OF SELF: STRATEGIES • A wardrobe of clothes! • Learning the local language and script • Changed eating patterns • Being a ‘good’ wife • Devout Catholic and student of Hinduism • Rationalising the research project

  7. SELF AS INFORMANT • Analysis of transference feelings • Analysis of counter-transference feelings

  8. WRITING TEXTS • Egocentricism vs ethnocentricism • Native audiences • Professional audiences

  9. CONCLUSION • Objectivity vs inter-subjectivity • Need for professional training • Managing enduring relationships • Presentation based on ‘The Native Anthropologist: Constraints and Strategies in Research’ in Jackson, A. (ed.) 1986 Anthropology at Home, Association of Social Anthropologists Monograph Series, London: Tavistock

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