Sexual Subjectivities and Ethnographic Entanglements

Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists Ellen Lewin and William L. Leap, eds. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996. xi + 315 pp. $39.95 cloth, $16.95 paper

Taboo: Sex, Identity, and Erotic Subjectivity in Anthropological Fieldwork Don Kulick and Margaret Willson, eds. London: Routledge, 1995. xvi + 283 pp. $85.00 cloth, $25.99 paper

In their preface Ellen Lewin and William L. Leap describe Out in the Field as part of the "continuing experience of coming out" (xi), where "the field" signifies both anthropological fieldwork and the discipline of anthropology. Lewin and Leap chronicle the history of lesbian- and gay-identified anthropologists in relation to the American Anthropological Association (AAA), from a 1970 resolution supporting gay and lesbian rights and the study of gay and lesbian topics to the founding of the Anthropological Research Group on Homosexuality in 1974 and its replacement by the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists in 1986. They see the symposium "Lesbian/Gay Identity and Fieldwork" at the 1990 AAA meetings, where most of the chapters in the volume were first presented, as a watershed in raising and addressing lesbian and gay concerns. This is significant inasmuch as the volume, as well as most of the individual contributions, is set in an overtly political context: an ongoing process of reclaiming still stigmatized identities and pressing for equal rights and opportunities within the discipline.

As the editors note in the introduction, one aim of the book is simply to provide lesbian and gay novice anthropologists with insights into the experiences of other lesbian and gay anthropologists, particularly in the all-important rite of passage, fieldwork. Although many situations that lesbian and gay anthropologists encounter in the field are the same for any anthropologist, they raise questions about identity management that are rarely faced by heterosexuals. In "Confessions of a Reformed Grant Hustler," for example, Lewin recounts having to negotiate the homophobic and heterosexual imperatives of funding agencies in conducting research on lesbian mothers in the United States.

The other side of the coin are those researchers who, accustomed to marginalization in their own country, find that their sexuality is either not noticed or not seen as a significant marker of identity in the communities where they work. Delores Walter's chapter, "Cast among Outcast," is a poignant illustration of the ways in which difference is made and enacted. Whereas she had experienced the exclusionary effects of race and sexuality in the United States, Walter found these aspects of her identity reconfigured in a relatively impoverished community in Yemen. She notes that race and sexuality were less significant there than age, with the effect that her relationship with her white partner was classified as that of mother and daughter. Walter draws both on her experiences as an African American woman in the United States and on her recategorization as an African woman in Yemen to talk about the multifaceted aspects of identity. Far from creating insuperable boundaries between individuals, the complex intersection of identities and identifications that makes up each individual makes it possible to find points of common difference. By recentering in and on such points, individuals may be able to experience what it is like to be in the other's shoes (62-63).

Walter's chapter is useful because it neither privileges sameness nor essentializes difference. It also provides a backdrop against which to think about the question of "insider" research, another issue that the editors see the book as addressing. In their introduction Lewin and Leap note that most work about lesbian and gay issues is done by lesbian- and gay-identified individuals. The questions they pose include "Are lesbian and gay people our 'tribe'?" "Is there such a thing as a gay or lesbian person or culture outside of 'Western' society?" and "How do these affiliations intersect with others--ethnic group, neighborhood, or gender?" (17). The answers are varied...