Wprowadzenie do antropologicznych badań wśród bezdomnych kobiet. Charakterystyka relacji dialogicznej

Abstract

The text introduces the multi-staged and lasting over a number of years research conducted by its author. The research takes place among homeless women from the shelters and sleeping homes in the city of Łódź. The author discusses here the problem of conducting such research, with the homeless women belonging to the type of subjects known as muted group. Since she gets involved and engaged in these women’s life (at a certain stage she becomes a voluntary helper at one of the centers), her two-levelled presence among them will be a characteristic feature of her study. She cannot separate one of her functions from the other: the jobs of an anthropologist and of a charity employee are interwoven with each other. She highlights that the muted group phenomenon is not only a consequence of their own past experience, but also of the type of environment, with its rules and regulations, created in places like these. The author analyses how their silence and non-verbal expression symbolize their defiance, and become their own strategy of life and means of self-expression. At the same time, she suggests that the research practices need to be verified and adapted to the conditions of the environment.