Archive for January 2010

Post-fieldwork: How to process what just happened.

I'm back in New York. Aside from readjusting to being in the city and the temperature difference (Asunción is the hottest capital in the western hemisphere), there is the matter of how to make sense of one's data when returning from the field. Though I know what it is that I have studied (the Paraguayan state through two of its most important twentieth century projects: Itaipú Binacional and Ciudad del Este), I'm still looking for the distillation of what my dissertation is about.

To help in this, I have started an exercise Kim Fortun, associate professor at Rensselaer in the the department of Science & Technology Studies, describes in her chapter in the new edited volume Fieldwork Is Not What It Used To Be: Learning Anthropology's Method in a Time of Transition. Every day in a journal, I write the answers to the following questions:
1) The aim of this study is...
2) Data collected through participant-observation, interviews, archives, multi-media sources were analyzed to understand continuities and changes in the ways people conceive of...
3) Preliminary findings are...
4) Theoretical and political/practical implications of these findings are...
At some point, I'll compile all of these and see how the answers have changed and developed.

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"Lugo runs risk of never having more children after operation" -- newspaper headline, perfect example of Paraguayan sarcasm


Image from Ultima Hora.

It took me more than a few years to realize that the Paraguayan sense of humor, in addition to the grating Sábado Gigante-esque variety, is incredibly sarcastic because it plays on being very serious and very deadpan.

A classic example is this article in today's Ultima Hora:

Lugo corre riesgo de no tener más hijos tras la operación

La intervención de la próstata estuvo a cargo de 12 profesionales médicos. Guardará reposo y en las próximas cuatro semanas ya estará con posibilidades de mantener relación sexual, dijo Cayo Estigarribia.

The prostate surgery was conducted by 12 medical professionals. He is in recovery and within the next four weeks will be able to resume sexual relations, said Cayo Estigarribia.



Paraguay's president Fernando Lugo is a former Bishop (only "former" because he had to step down from his position to run for president) who is still under the clerical vow of celibacy. But he has been plagued by (accurate) accusations of having fathered children while a priest. He has acknowledged a couple of them, but has legal actions (asking for legal recognition of paternity and, presumably, child support) by half a dozen women and, well, rumors abound that there are plenty more in the background. Lugo underwent minor prostate surgery on Friday, which was successful.

Needless to say, Paraguayans of all political stripes are disappointed with the dalliances and vow-breaking and this has taken a toll on the perception of "seriousness" of the current regime.

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