Women and Anthropologists in West Africa: Comparing Two Research Experiences

Abstract

Botta Somparé and Vitale compare their fieldwork experiences as two young female anthropologists in West Africa. They focus mainly on methodological issues, emphasising the influence of their gender and marital status on the ethnographic relationship. Both authors experienced the possibility of trespassing gender barriers because of their identity as Western educated women. However, their different subjects and methodological choices led them to different experiences: Vitale made a series of micro-immersions to Burkina, to meet the religious authorities, the sheiks, but also live with their wives, thus understanding a social world widely unexplored by ethnographic research. Botta Somparé chose a classical, long-lasting participant observation, working with illiterate Fulani cattle-breeders in the coastal region of Guinea, where difficulties related to the women’s initial hostility led her to adopt different methodologies in dealing with the two genders.