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Authors
David E. Arias Marín
Universidad de Montreal
Abstract
The article presents an interview conducted in 2006 with Valentina Villegas Arias, a diceased Colombian anthropologist who in the early 2000s carried out fieldwork among an Afro-Colombian organization in Casanare (Colombia). Valentina’s responses lay on the table some topics of special interest for anthropologists such as access to the field, first contacts, the delimitation of the research problem, the process of data collection, the establishment of relationships with some people, the avoidance of others, fieldwork and its personal meanings as well as some current issues in Colombian society as racism, discrimination, marginalization, forms of cultural differentiation, labor exploitation, the role of illegal armed actors in social control and in the forms of labor engagement, the struggle for gaining cultural and territorial rights, the dynamics of cultural identities and organizational political processes. In addition to leaving a written testimony of a voice which is no longer between us, the main objective of this interview is to reflect on the implications of doing anthropology in Colombia, what fieldwork means for some of its practitioners and the vision they can provide from their professional background about the problems of the country and its ethnic groups.
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