Sick in the Field: Illness and Interbeing Encounters in Anthropological Fieldwork

Abstract

All I knew, very suddenly upon waking up, was that something felt different. My forearm was covered in scratches, light bruises, and mosquito bites—normal, given my ongoing fieldwork working in agroecological farms and gardens in Mexico. What worried me most, however, was that my arm seemed to have doubled in size overnight, the skin inflamed and tight against my muscles. I was exhausted and dreaded dragging myself from the modest dormitory to the communal dining room for breakfast, let alone climbing the mountain path with the shepherds with whom I was conducting research. I tried to think back, retracing my steps through the pastures and parcels I had traversed the previous days, cataloguing the animals, plants, and people I had been in contact with. “What could have caused a reaction like this?”, I asked myself. A second thought followed quickly, more worrisome to me as a student on a tight schedule and even tighter budget—“would I be able to carry out fieldwork like this?”.