Difficult Topics, Difficult Fieldwork. On Multi-Sited Ethnography among Macedonian Muslims (Torbeshi) in Macedonia and Italy

This paper is divided into two parts. In the first one, the author analyses the notion of a field and a fieldwork in a contemporary anthropology, giving examples from her own research. Her positionality not only gives various access to interlocutors but also defines or even determines her subjects of research. Conducting fieldwork in nowadays anthropology is strongly connected to using new technologies of communication. It causes numerous ethical and methodological dilemmas that should be taken into consideration during the whole process of getting and presenting knowledge. In the second part of a text, a discourse on Torbeshi/Macedonian-speaking Muslims is analyzed. The author observes, this group is not unanimous in its self-identification. They declare to be Albanians, but also Turks, Macedonians, Muslims or separate ethnic group. Because of it, they are exposed to strong propaganda from Turkish, Albanian and Macedonian perspective. Author argues, this propaganda is also grown by Macedonian scholars for whom Torbeshi are Macedonians who converted into Islam during Ottoman Empire, while there are very few research on their own changing and fluid identification.Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00. Publikacja dofinansowana przez MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę oraz Wydział Filozoficzno-Historyczny Uniwersytetu Łódzkieg