Ambivalent Emotions
Ambivalent Emotions

Acceptance and Rejection during Fieldwork in Greek Macedonia

Summary/Abstract: The paper considers the ambivalent situations of acceptance and rejection of the researcher during fieldwork in Greek Macedonia. It focuses on both the researcher’s and the interlocutors’ positionalities, as well as their impact on this relationship as a crucial part of the research process. The paper discusses how the management of these positionalities and the emerging emotions enable the understanding, interpretation and representation of the local identity in the liminal place of borders as an interplay between locality, ethnicity and national identity. Furthermore, it concerns the various dimensions of doing anthropology domistically, as part of the core anthropological methodology. The emotional dynamics between the researcher and the interlocutors have questioned the notions of the insider and the outsider; alterity and strangeness and have revealed the multiple dimensions of anthropology at home. Ultimately, it concerns the function of the emotions in a sensitive ethnography in order to overcome the cultural barriers and the othering process.

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