Grow a thick skin. Embodied and (un)pleasant fieldwork on Mexican food and foodways
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/lud109.2025.10Keywords
fieldwork, autoethnography, embodiment, food, gender, (dis)pleasure, self-care, Oaxaca, MexicoAbstract
This article is based on the results of the author's long-term (multi-sited and multi-temporal) fieldwork conducted between 2011-17 and 2021-25 in Oaxaca City and surrounding communities - a region considered the “heart of Mexican gastronomy.” She also draws on her previous experience gathered during fieldwork from 1999-2006 in the colonias populares of Mexico City. The author critically addresses the well-established perception in Polish anthropology that fieldwork (classically understood as participant observation) is driven by passion and always enjoyable. Using the analytical tools of feminist anthropology, including autoethnography, she analyzes undervalued, overlooked and silenced aspects of anthropological food studies. She focuses on the embodied, sensual and affective (un)pleasurable aspects of such studies, including the everyday coping strategies associated with the consumption of (un)familiar food and self-care during research stays in Mexico.
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