Fieldwork and its hazards. An ethnographer among victims of the “Cromañón massacre”

Abstract

When doing fieldwork anthropologists try to build trust and rapport with the natives. However, in some cases these relationships can be built on mistrust and suspicion. In this article I propose to analyze a series of charges I was accused of while doing fieldwork in the “Cromañón movement”, a group of relatives of victims and survivors of a fire that occurred in Buenos Aires in 2004. In reviewing my own naturalistic assumptions on fieldwork, I propose a reflexive view that will allow me to inquire about the “relatives” point of view on the “survivors”, and on my own practice in the field.