El trabajo de campo como colaboración en la diáspora: Iglesia, ONGs y trabajadoras domésticas filipinas en Roma

In conducting ethnographic research, collaboration with various individuals and groups remain critical. Through «narratives of collaboration,» this article discusses the establishment of partnerships from priests to non-government organization workers (NGOs) as well as Philippine embassy officials, while maintaining the trust of the main collaborators, the Filipina domestic workers themselves. It explores the problems stemming from collaborations and from the ethnographer's insider/outsider status in the community. This work looks at the construction of knowledge in the Filipino migrant community in Rome and how it gains credibility and legitimacy.Al realizar trabajo de campo, una de las cuestiones clave es el tema de la colaboración con distintos individuos o grupos. Este artículo utiliza las "narrativas de la colaboración" como un medio para analizar las relaciones establecidas con sacerdotes, trabajadores de organizaciones no gubernamentales y oficiales de la Embajada filipina, tratando, al mismo tiempo, de mantener la confianza de las colaboradoras principales: las trabajadoras domésticas filipinas. El análisis incluye una exploración de los problemas que se derivan de las relaciones establecidas, así como el papel simultáneo de la etnógrafa desde fuera y desde dentro de la comunidad, y pretende contribuir a entender cómo la comunidad migrante filipina en Roma construye el conocimiento y consigue credibilidad y legitimación

Intangible Cultural Heritage, Folklorists, and TCPs in the Hawaiian Context

In the world of cultural resource management, the work is often done by archaeologists and policy makers. Ethnographic studies or surveys of traditional cultural properties are usually conducted by individuals other than a trained folklorist or ethnographer. Yet in such studies of cultural impact assessment or projects involving federal funding such as Section 106 where consultation with the community is required in order to identify traditional cultural properties, folklorists with their understanding of the intangible as well as the material aspects of culture are particularly poised to answer the challenges in working with cultural properties. The notion of “cultural attachment” which integrate both the tangible and intangible (Maly 1999) often poses a challenge to those used to dealing just with the physical dimensions of material culture. In Hawai‘i, where natural resources such as hills or mountains as well as ocean currents are seen as cultural resources, there is often conflict between the community and those seeking to develop the place. Hawaiian living traditions include the cultural practice of mo‘olelo (stories, knowledge, opinion) surrounding wahi pana (sacred, legendary place), which anchor the intangible living traditions to a physical place or site which can qualify as a traditional cultural property. The conflicts tend to arise when those in cultural resource management fail to understand the critical intertwining of the intangible cultural heritage with the visible environment seen by Hawaiians in a different light. This paper explores the field of cultural resource management and how a folklorist’s understanding of “cultural attachment” and world view can assist in the understanding of traditional cultural properties which are intertwined with the intangible cultural heritage of living Hawaiians.Dans l’univers de la gestion des ressources culturelles, le travail est souvent réalisé par des archéologues et des décideurs politiques. Les études ethnographiques ou les enquêtes portant sur les propriétés culturelles traditionnelles sont en général menées par d’autres personnes que des ethnographes ou ethnologues ayant été formés à cette fin. Et cependant, pour des études telles que les évaluations d’impact culturel ou les projets tels que la Section 106, impliquant un financement du gouvernement fédéral, où il est nécessaire de consulter les communautés afin d’identifier les propriétés culturelles traditionnelles, les ethnologues, avec leur compréhension des aspects tant immatériels que matériels de la culture, sont particulièrement aptes à répondre aux difficultés que pose la propriété culturelle. La notion « d’attachement à la culture », qui prend en compte à la fois le matériel et l’immatériel (Maly 1999), représente souvent un défi pour ceux qui ont l’habitude de ne travailler que sur les dimensions physiques de la culture matérielle. À Hawaï, où les ressources naturelles telles que les collines ou les montagnes, de même que les courants océaniques, sont souvent considérées comme des ressources culturelles, des conflits se déclarent souvent entre les communautés et ceux qui cherchent à développer les lieux. Les traditions de vie hawaïennes comprennent la pratique culturelle du mo‘olelo (histoires, savoirs, opinions) qui entoure les wahi pana (lieux sacrés des légendes), qui ancrent les traditions immatérielles de la vie dans des lieux ou des sites physiques répondant aux critères de la propriété culturelle traditionnelle. Les conflits tendent à apparaître lorsque les personnes en charge de la gestion des ressources culturelles ne parviennent pas à comprendre que le patrimoine culturel immatériel est inextricablement lié à l’environnement que les Hawaïens voient sous un jour différent. Cet article explore le domaine de la gestion des ressources culturelles et la façon dont les ethnologues, avec leur compréhension de « l’attachement à la culture » et des différentes visions du monde, peuvent contribuer à la compréhension des propriétés culturelles traditionnelles qui s’entremêlent au patrimoine culturel immatériel des Hawaïens d’aujourd’hui

Transnational lives, cosmopolitan women: Filipina domestic workers and expressive culture in Rome, Italy

With most of its members employed as domestic workers, the Filipino transmigrant community in Rome, Italy, face spatial and temporal restraints on the performance of their expressive culture. Although their labor migration began as one of “temporary” status in the early 1970s, it is now rapidly turning into one of permanent settlement making it the largest Filipino community in Europe. Using ethnographic fieldwork and an experiential approach, this dissertation examines through a transnational framework how labor migration can lead to cultural resettlement in the Filipino diaspora. Through consideration of the enactments and performances of Filipino expressive culture by the mostly female migrant community, I explore the ways they establish locality through sensory experiences, and how social and material remittances enable them to create a sense of Filipino-ness. Transnational practices like balikbayan boxes exhibit the nation-state\u27s attempts for control, but such practices also generate more of an “ethnic” imagination, rather than a national one. With Italy not prepared to deal with its immigrants, Filipinos must scramble to find ways and carve space largely with the help of the Roman Catholic Church. What results is a religiously-defined ethnicity influencing the occurrence of most formal cultural expressions in “sacred space.” How does this affect the performance of more secular cultural productions? A tension stemming from what I call “a dialectic of temporality” impacts both formal and informal cultural expressions. The combination of the Christian ethic of servitude with that of economic servitude has influenced in part certain modes of domination. Although the Church can offer empowerment to some, for others it leads to further subservience in the form of unpaid emotional labor. However, labor migration allows the women to have cosmopolitan experiences via travel and exposure to expressive culture other than their own. The result is that despite the spatial and temporal constraints, the women have some agency to negotiate representations of the self

Transnational lives, cosmopolitan women: Filipina domestic workers and expressive culture in Rome, Italy

With most of its members employed as domestic workers, the Filipino transmigrant community in Rome, Italy, face spatial and temporal restraints on the performance of their expressive culture. Although their labor migration began as one of “temporary” status in the early 1970s, it is now rapidly turning into one of permanent settlement making it the largest Filipino community in Europe. Using ethnographic fieldwork and an experiential approach, this dissertation examines through a transnational framework how labor migration can lead to cultural resettlement in the Filipino diaspora. Through consideration of the enactments and performances of Filipino expressive culture by the mostly female migrant community, I explore the ways they establish locality through sensory experiences, and how social and material remittances enable them to create a sense of Filipino-ness. Transnational practices like balikbayan boxes exhibit the nation-state\u27s attempts for control, but such practices also generate more of an “ethnic” imagination, rather than a national one. With Italy not prepared to deal with its immigrants, Filipinos must scramble to find ways and carve space largely with the help of the Roman Catholic Church. What results is a religiously-defined ethnicity influencing the occurrence of most formal cultural expressions in “sacred space.” How does this affect the performance of more secular cultural productions? A tension stemming from what I call “a dialectic of temporality” impacts both formal and informal cultural expressions. The combination of the Christian ethic of servitude with that of economic servitude has influenced in part certain modes of domination. Although the Church can offer empowerment to some, for others it leads to further subservience in the form of unpaid emotional labor. However, labor migration allows the women to have cosmopolitan experiences via travel and exposure to expressive culture other than their own. The result is that despite the spatial and temporal constraints, the women have some agency to negotiate representations of the self