The WAU 2025 Congress (Antigua, Guatemala) webpage and call for panels are now open - Please visit waucongress2025.org for more info.

WORLD ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNION

CONGRESS 2024​

Paper

Accompanied research in literature – from anecdotes to epistemological contributions

presenters

    Sophia Thubauville

    Nationality: German

    Residence: Germany

    Frobenius Institute for research in cultural anthropology

    Presence:Face to Face/ On Site

    Judit Tavakoli

    Nationality: Germany

    Residence: Germany

    Goethe University Frankfurt

    Presence:Face to Face/ On Site

Even if the topic of accompanied research in social anthropology, receives until now little attention, it does appear in the literature from time to time on closer analysis. I will give an outline of the literature, its content and its reception. The first publications of anthropologists, who took not only their spouses, but also their children to the field, are from as early as the 1940s. In the 1990s, inspired partly by the writing culture debate and partly by feminist and gender perspectives, publications on accompanied field research, recorded a first peak, but stayed mainly anecdotal. Today the topic addresses many important issues of current concern such as research ethics, co-production of research, embodiment and relationality in the field.

Keywords:

Fieldwork, family, children, relationality, normativity