Sexual(ized) harassment during ethnographic fieldwork is often described by female researchers as a ‘rather common’ experience, yet it continues to be marginalized in methodological discussions and anthropological training. Rather than silencing accounts of these experiences, it is necessary to include them in the analysis of acquired data and to reflect on them in ethnographic writing. This article raises awareness and stimulates discussion about this neglected aspect of social research. It considers ethnography as a gendered practice in which gender norms, the (a)sexuality of the fieldworker, and power relations directly influence research and the researcher’s safety. It discusses the consequences of sexual(ized) harassment for the ethnographer, makes suggestions regarding how to deal with it in situ, and highlights the complex relationship between personal safety and researchers’ ethical obligations towards their informants.
Clothes are a means to demonstrate wealth, status, and socio-religious hegemony. Practices of consuming and exchanging clothing enhance or lower one’s status by displaying and creating taste and capital. In Guyana, many Hindus relate charitable clothing distributions exclusively to Christian missions. They commonly state that the distribution of used clothing is a means to convert Hindus to Christianity. While indeed in the past only Christians were able to conduct such distributions due to their links to colonial powers, today and as a result of transnational migration to North America Guyanese Hindus also organize distributions of clothing. For this purpose, migrants collect used clothes and ship them to Guyana. This article proposes that as Hindus remain a minority in Guyana, the practice of and discourse about charitable distributions are a means to counter and resist the perceived ‘threat’ of conversion. It demonstrates how charitable distributions thereby influence the local socio-religious hierarchy and challenge established power structures.
A tattoo has not one but multiple meanings, depending on the person and interpretations within a sociocultural context. To demonstrate, this article focuses on tattoo marks labeled godna in Suriname and Guyana and on their related tattooing practices. Godnas can be found among senior Hindu women, and can be interpreted as marks of subordination and resistance. They inscribe and actively (re)create asymmetrical power relations and embody different dimensions of dependency. Relating to the notion of service, they reinstate women's subalternized positionalities in socioreligious relationships and recreate experiences thereof, especially regarding husbands and in‐laws, gurus, and deities. However, they may also become a means of subverting patriarchal hierarchy and challenging colonial and orthodox religious structures.
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