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This book tells the remarkable story of the friendship between Liria Hernández, a Roma woman from Madrid, and Paloma Gay y Blasco, a non-Roma anthropologist. In this unique reciprocal experiment, the former informant returns the gaze to write about the anthropologist, her life and her environment. Through finely crafted and deeply moving text, Hernández and Gay y Blasco suggest new ways of doing and writing anthropology.
The dialogue between Hernández and Gay y Blasco provides a courageous account of the entanglements and rewards of anthropological research. Drawing on letters, conversations, and fieldnotes gathered over twenty-five years, each of the authors talks about herself, the other, and the impact of anthropology on their two lives. They examine their intertwined trajectories as Spanish women and reflect on the challenges of devising their own reciprocal genre. Blending ethnography, life story and memoir, they undermine the dichotomy between author and subject aroundwhich scholarship still revolves.
List of contents
A note on fonts, terms and anonymity.- Chapter 1: Sister of my Soul.- Chapter 2: Breaking Away.- Chapter 3: Two girls.- Chapter 4: Writing Friendship.- Chapter 5: Those Who Surround Us.- Chapter 6: About God, and About Anthropology.- Epilogue: Afterwards.- Appendix: Devising a Reciprocal Genre.- Acknowledgements.
About the author
Paloma Gay y Blasco is a social anthropologist teaching at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, UK.
Liria Hernández lives and works in Madrid, Spain.
