Notas para una autoetnografía del duelo. Del miedo y de las dudas en el trabajo de campo en Totonacapan, México
Notes for an autoethnography of grief: fear and doubts in field work in Totonacapan, Mexico

Author(s): Krystyna Barbara Paradowska
Subject(s): Human Geography, Studies of Literature, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: interculturality; biocultural approach; Totonacapan; research ethics; decoloniality
Summary/Abstract: This paper addresses the role that fear and doubts played in the author’s fieldwork during her doctoral research in southeast Mexico. The research – entitled “Dialogue of Knowledge for the Theoretical Rethinking of Ecological Restoration with a Biocultural Approach” and conducted under the auspices of The Center for Tropical Research at the Universidad Veracruzana – contains numerous authoethnographic elements and is dedicated to the conservation of the natural and biocultural heritage of the tropics in southeast Mexico. The research focused on the search for new perspectives and opportunities in the restoration of the biocultural landscape in the Totonacapan region of the state of Veracruz through the inclusion of the worldviews, knowledge, and traditional management practices of its indigenous inhabitants. The current paper aims to deepen the discussion and generalize on the subject through theories and methodologies that take into consideration personal experiences, as well as critical academic viewpoints situated at the outer limits of the Social sciences, humanities, and ecology, and which distance themselves from academic positions that are more colonial and extractivist in nature. The ongoing body of research is intended to convey a sense of both grief (e.g., over the loss of intellectual comfort when conducting research), and of hope for those who continue to address ecological challenges from an academic perspective, even when such work exposes oneself to new hazards and vulnerabilities.

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