Cultural intimacy, cultural distance: methodological aspects of anthropological research into Romanians in Poland

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35824/sjrs.v7i1.25789

Keywords:

Poland, anthropology, methodology, ethnic belonging, Romanians

Abstract

This study focuses on a comparison of two sets of in-depth, face-to-face interviews among Romanians living in Poland about their perceptions of the country and society, and their migrant experiences. The interviews were conducted five years apart, using the same guide, but carried out by Polish interviewers in the first case, and by a Romanian interviewer in the second. Comparative analysis of the material gained in this process reveals that, despite similar content in interviewee responses, the standing of the interviewer was by no means neutral. Crucial for the volume, type, and nature of the collected data – as well as for its interpretation – is the interviewer’s identity. In this regard, the study draws on Michael’s Herzfeld’s concept of ‘cultural intimacy’ to explain the mutual reproduction of different levels of identity and to develop a framework for analyzing the interaction between the social scientists and their interlocutors.

Author Biographies

Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković, Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia

Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković, PhD, is a linguist and anthropologist, principal research fellow at the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade, where she coordinates the linguistics department. The focus of her research are the language, identity, folklore and migration of Romance-speaking communities in the Balkans. Her recent publications include the co-edited volumes Boyash Studies: Researching ‘Our People’ (Frank & Timme, 2021) and The Romance-Speaking Balkans: Language and the Politics of Identity (Brill, 2022), as well as the monograph The Vlachs of Eastern Serbia: Language and Society (Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2023), co-authored with Monica Huțanu.

Ewa Nowicka, Collegium Civitas, Warsaw, Poland

Ewa Nowicka, PhD, is a social anthropologist and sociologist, founder of the Department of Social Anthropology at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Warsaw, and member of the Committee of Migration and Polonia Studies, Committee of Ethnological Sciences and Balkan Studies Commission (Polish Academy of Sciences). She authored the handbook of social anthropology Świat Człowieka – Świat Kultury (The World of Man – The World of Culture), and numerous books and articles regarding issues of familiarity and strangeness, culture contact, the emergence of modern nations in Siberia, the situation of Polish minority in regions of the former Soviet Union, minority groups in Poland, Central and Eastern Europe.

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Published

2024-05-15

How to Cite

Sorescu-Marinković, A., & Nowicka, E. (2024). Cultural intimacy, cultural distance: methodological aspects of anthropological research into Romanians in Poland. Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies, 7(1), 75–94. https://doi.org/10.35824/sjrs.v7i1.25789

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024): Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies

Section

Anthropology

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Copyright (c) 2024 Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković, Ewa Nowicka

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