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Positioning oneself and being positioned in the ‘community’: An essay on Jewish ethnography as a ‘Jew-ish’ ethnographer

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 08:45 authored by Ben Kasstan
This article offers a reflexive and anthropological contribution to the current volume of Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis. It reflects on the experience of conducting anthropological work at home – or across homes – I considered this research to be an experience of ‘Jewish ethnog-raphy’ as a Jewish ethnographer. However, my own ‘Jew-ish’ background meant that I had become ‘neither- fish nor fowl’ within the field-site, which proved both to be an obstacle to, and an opportunity for, conducting the research. It utilises this experience to challenge the conceptual use of the term ‘community’, which encapsulates considerable diversity but obscures the nuanced differences that can pervade a social body. These reflections demonstrate how positionality can be used as a tool for postgraduate students to untangle the complexities of conducting ethnographic research at ‘home’ or in relation to religious minority groups, where significant intra-group differences of practice and worldviews exist, but may otherwise be concealed by the image of ‘community’.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis: special issue on Jewish Studies in the Nordic Countries Today

ISSN

0582-3226

Publisher

Donner Institute for research in Religious and Cultural History

Volume

27

Page range

264-283

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-11-09

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2017-11-09

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-11-08

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