Abstract

PALMA-GARCIA, Ana Carolina. Sensorially Different Realities: Methodological and Ethical Reflections on Fieldwork in a Deaf Community. Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol. [online]. 2022, n.47, pp.71-96.  Epub May 17, 2022. ISSN 1900-5407.  https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda47.2022.04.

Supported by an ethnography conducted between 2018 and 2019 with people -mainly from the Deaf Association of Cali- participating in a deaf community and culture in Cali, this article discusses the relevance of adapting the recording and investigative writing methods to the populations with whom we work. On the one hand, it explores ethnographic methodologies situated within broader discussions related to the anthropology of the senses, sensory ethnography, the problem of representation, the politics of transcription and the use of drawings as a methodological tool. On the other hand, this article gathers ethical reflections on consent, approach, sensitivity to the context, and the positioning assumed in the field, by choosing to position myself not only as an anthropologist or sociologist, but also as a hard of hearing woman. Thus, it is argued that a correct prior reading of the context of the population to be studied enables the construction of methodological and ethical designs that not only actively avoid reproducing denounced historical violence -such as epistemic violence-, but also provide entry points, readings, and analyses that prioritize local and personal experiences of existence, emerging categories, and the body as potential data to understand them. The article presents the ethical and methodological decisions involved in a study conducted from the perspective of an insider ethnographer, focusing on the social, political, and cultural aspects of Deafhood. It is precisely in the exploration of new intersectional and sensorially diverse perspectives that challenge the traditional ableist readings that this text intends to spark the debate on these collective identities that negotiate their existence within the framework of multiculturalism as a stage for the consolidation of enforceable rights.

Keywords : Deaf community; ethical considerations; ethnography; field work; methodology; sensorial anthropology.

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