Of Trips and Drifts: Anthropological Groove and Nightlife as an Ethnographic Space

Abstract

This article analyses the epistemological, methodological and ethical issues faced during ethnographic research examining nightlife, music, dance and eroticism in Córdoba, Argentina. First off, we conceptualize the meanings that “nightlife” had for the subjects in the research process and describe the diversity of “nights” that we encountered in the research process. Then, we discuss the issue of situationist drift during fieldwork. Subsequently, drawing on vignettes taken from our ethnographies, we reflect on the potential and limitations of “participant observation” in situations involving significant bodily exposure and sensory experimentation, including illegal activities. Finally, we examine the issue of the “anthropological blues” that, according to Roberto Da Matta, characterize the ethnographer’s work, and Da Matta’s proposal for the construction of an “anthropological groove” capable of producing knowledge from the immersion in the flow of the situations that are part of the “ethnographic drift”.

Keywords

• Night
• ethnography
• body
• drift
• sexuality