Anita Anota. The anthropologist in the pensal and bureaucratic village

Abstract

Field notes often fluctuate between
what the anthropologist considers important to
write and what others believe is important for him
to write. This article intends to reflect on this spe-
cific process of fieldwork. Not necessarily to inquire
about the epistemological issues that are related
with the act of taking notes, but to try out some
considerations about the relation that this very act
shapes between the observer and the observed. This
article proposes a trajectory into the authors’ fields
of research – the judicial and police fields – and
through the questions raised by such act of taking
notes in these contexts. The purpose is to establish
a dialogue between both fieldworks and to sketch a
certain interpretation of the impact caused by the
very act of taking notes in these fields by contrast-
ing different experiences.