Life among anthropologists in Greek Macedonia

Abstract

During the last decade at least twelve anthropologists studied the identities building process in the border region of western Greek Macedonia. Having lived in this area as a resident for four years, I operated both as an ethnographer and as a semi-native informant for other colleagues. My betwixt-and-between status forced me to reflect upon the relationship between ‘anthropological’ and ‘native’ discourses of knowledge and upon the local understandings of the anthropological discourse. This autobiographical paper argues for the impossibility of presenting clear-cut distinctions between ethnographers, natives, native ethnographers and ethnographic natives.