Violent experiences, violent practices: caring and silence in anthropology

Abstract

"Take care. This will be good data", I heard from a senior scholar after writing them about several violent and dangerous incidents that occurred during my PhD-fieldwork. At the time, I did not question it. Neither the words "take care" without further advice following how to do that, nor the statement that these incidents are good data. Are they, thougt? Does the ethnographer`s close experience of vioence, social suffering, and trauma lead to insights otherwise lost? What I know is that the advice and affirmation came from a good place with the best intentions in mind. I also know that hundreds of junior scholars have heard similar advice. And I know, that to take care and to be able to make sense of "good data" needs more than kind wishes.