[Last modified: October, 21 2024 06:01 PM]
To reflex on my own positionality in the research I must first contextualise said positionality, something which lacks from most ethnography’s, and compare it to the positionality of interlocutors.
Being a third culture kid, as we are called, positionality has always been something made obvious to me. Always an outsider even at home is how it might feel on a bad day, a social chameleon on a good day. Having never been completely imeshed in a particular culture I find it easy to critique problematic parts of cultures I’ve experienced, to see the good and the bad, and to live in it while at the same time be able to remove myself and take up an outsiders perspective. I don’t think any of the perspectives available to me are objective as each culture has systemic biases and contradictions, however being able to view the same event from different positions allows me, if I’m focused that is, to compare biases. In terms or race class and gender it’s all pretty standard in terms of the stereotypical anthropologist, white middle class male.
I expect half of my interlocutors to be completely at ease with my positionality, those who’ve gone through clinical therapy in the US or UK. Positionality becomes more important in terms of research of Mazatec communities. This is for the following reasons: a) Mazatec communities and Mexico generally have been the site of European and Euro-American colonial projects, to this day structural inequalities created during these projects exist today. As an outsider from states who’s from a coloniser nation, and white, I must be aware to not replicate extractive relationships (Goddard, 2018). b) As an outsider not familiar with Mazatec customs I must be aware of my positionality and not decontextualize any knowledge, but rather understand practises both in the cultural context the Mazatec view them (Abu-Lughod, 1991) and secondly by making observations of events as they happen, not from a biased perspective. c) In my comparison of outcomes from the different therapeutic methods, I must be careful to impose judgment (Goddard, 2018) of what I believe is the ‘correct’ approach but only report the efficacy of the methods from participant reports and observed facts.
