Donner positioning.pdf (124.26 kB)
Positioning oneself and being positioned in the ‘community’: An essay on Jewish ethnography as a ‘Jew-ish’ ethnographer
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 08:45 authored by Ben KasstanThis article offers a reflexive and anthropological contribution to the current volume of Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis. It reflects on the experience of conducting anthropological work at home – or across homes – I considered this research to be an experience of ‘Jewish ethnog-raphy’ as a Jewish ethnographer. However, my own ‘Jew-ish’ background meant that I had become ‘neither- fish nor fowl’ within the field-site, which proved both to be an obstacle to, and an opportunity for, conducting the research. It utilises this experience to challenge the conceptual use of the term ‘community’, which encapsulates considerable diversity but obscures the nuanced differences that can pervade a social body. These reflections demonstrate how positionality can be used as a tool for postgraduate students to untangle the complexities of conducting ethnographic research at ‘home’ or in relation to religious minority groups, where significant intra-group differences of practice and worldviews exist, but may otherwise be concealed by the image of ‘community’.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis: special issue on Jewish Studies in the Nordic Countries TodayISSN
0582-3226Publisher
Donner Institute for research in Religious and Cultural HistoryVolume
27Page range
264-283Department affiliated with
- Anthropology Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes