Merging horizons

Authors

  • Jean Lydall
  • Ivo Strecker

Abstract

'Merging horizons' is an epistemological stance adopted by anthropologists who aim to share an ethos of equality with the people they study. In the process, both parties – observer and observed – explore how far their views of the world coincide and how far they differ. We have used this concept of merging horizons not only to characterise our various activities as students, researchers and teachers of anthropology, but also to throw light on our personal relationship. What does it mean to do fieldwork as a couple? What were our different backgrounds, and how did we meet, bond, separate, and bond again? How did our interests develop? How far did they coincide and how did they differ? The story is told with an eye on the figurative power of events, as well as on the many surprises and reversals that have occurred in the drama of our lives.

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Published

2011-12-31