Doing Ethnological/Ethnolinguistic Research in a Totalitarian Context: The Challenges of Studying Sensitive Subjects

Abstract

Ethnological and ethnolinguistic research can pose a wide range of different ethical challenges for researchers and the communities in which they work. Ethnologists and ethnolinguists study human societies from different angles to understand their cultural traits, linguistic variability, etc. Such research can advance our understanding of social groups and contribute to the production of knowledge and may even benefit certain communities. But it can also create risks for participants and communities (e.g., loss of privacy, stigmatization, persecution), and for researchers themselves (e.g., loss of access to a field area, loss of control over the research process and results). These risks and other ethical challenges, and the means to address them, deserve special attention from ethnologists and ethnolinguistics.