Resumen

GALAN SILVO, Idoia. The Film Script as an Ethnography. About an Anthropological Study in Saudi Arabia. Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol. [online]. 2022, n.47, pp.141-166.  Epub 19-Mayo-2022. ISSN 1900-5407.  https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda47.2022.07.

An ethnographic experience in a compound -a compound surrounded by security measures and physical, political, and bodily barriers in which a group of people of different nationalities live and/or work- in Saudi Arabia exposes the anthropologist to methodological constraints in conducting gender-sensitive anthropological research under the country’s authoritarian regime. The purpose of this article is to explore new tools for both data collection and data return, as ethnography in restrictive contexts. The fieldwork was conducted between 2011 and 2016 in the KAUST compound, a science and technology university created to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economic model under a restrictive and authoritarian social context. In this article, the researcher experiments with writing a film script in order to respect the anonymity and security of those involved in the research, and at the same time to reflect her double role as subject and object of study, as a researcher and as a Kaustian belonging to the group. The article depicts the film script, on the one hand, as a methodological guide drawn up during her stay at the site; and, on the other, as a creative ethnographic non-fiction text framed in a feminist strategy of resistance pursued by the anthropologist in the face of Saudi social and cultural hegemonic patterns. Although the proposal is situated in a specific ethnographic context that serves as a reference case, this article presents the film script as a multidisciplinary methodological approach applied to ethnography, which combines academic training in anthropology and the artistic expression of scriptwriting. This allows for reflection on methodological strategies applicable to other fields that, to a greater or lesser extent, respond to similar objectives and/or problems, as well as on the different approaches to scholarly communication.

Palabras clave : Autoethnography; creative ethnography; ethnographic script; restrictive contexts; situated reflexivity..

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