Sexual violence, seduction and ‘protection’ in fieldwork

Abstract

In this article, I focus on two questions related to sexual violence in anthropological research. The first, on the theoretical and pedagogical level, is how to prepare our students for the eventual possibility of this violence that, marked by the intersection between gender, sexuality, social class, nationality, race, religion, age, they can suffer while performing ethnographies. The second, of an ethical and epistemological order, is how reflection on the tensions between anthropological and feminist presuppositions contributes to confronting this issue. In response to the first question, I take as a reference my field experiences in the field of "sex tourism" and sex work, and those of the young researchers who studied in our graduate programs at the State University of Campinas, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. I also consider my experience as a coordinator of feminist study groups and reflect on the preparation we offer our students for insertion in the field and how this does not avoid the feeling of guilt in the face of attempted rape during the realization of ethnographies. To reflect on the second question, I take into account anthropological codes of ethics and formulations on the relationship between the production of anthropological and feminist knowledge and the dialogue with anthropologists who have carried out collaborative anthropology and who have reflected on sexual violence in fieldwork.