The anthropologist or the «familiar stranger» in the field. Comfort, discomfort and risks

Abstract

The figure of the «stranger» described by Georg Simmel maybe transferable to the position of the ethnologist in the field, who graduallybecomes the «familiar stranger» to his/her hosts (Simmel, 1999: 663).Through my research experience, I will analyse how I became an increasinglyfamiliar stranger and how I gradually introduced myself into the localinter-relations which it was my object to understand. Being a stranger maybe comfortable in certain contexts, but it may also be uncomfortable andeven dangerous at times if one becomes a scapegoat. Relative, tourist orspy? These were different statuses that I had to assume in various observationcontexts among the peoples of north-west Argentina: the high mountains,a tourist village and militant organisations. After analysing the statusof the familiar stranger which the anthropologist may assume, in this articleI will recount my «immersions» in these different places and show that myposition may help to reveal the social relations which affected each universe.The photographs taken on site will be analysed; they formalise the investigator’sview of and relation with the subject observed (Conord, 1992; Piette,1992). They are significant of the mutual watchfulness between my hostsand myself, and of the position assigned to me.