Ethnography Inside: Female Imprisonment, “Prison Pain” and the Criminalization of the Acehnese in Indonesia
This article analyses the practical and theoretical process of structuring research fieldwork in a prison, and the specific research topics that it has led to shape. In 2011, my former research-assistant in Aceh, Indonesia, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for drug dealing. I subsequently carr...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Ledizioni
2020-07-01
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| Series: | Antropologia |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.ledijournals.com/ojs/index.php/antropologia/article/view/1691 |
| _version_ | 1818664168562098176 |
|---|---|
| author | Silvia Vignato |
| author_facet | Silvia Vignato |
| author_sort | Silvia Vignato |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article analyses the practical and theoretical process of structuring research fieldwork in a prison, and the specific research topics that it has led to shape. In 2011, my former research-assistant in Aceh, Indonesia, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for drug dealing. I subsequently carried out ethnography in the prison where she was detained, in the area of North Sumatra. My main argument concerns the relationship between a prisoner and the State as it is constructed before, during and after prison, and the subjective feelings and prison narratives which such relationship originates. I shall question how the researcher can make sense of prison through the prisoners’ own efforts to that end. I shall analyse the hypertrophic role that the ethnographic vis-à-vis encounter plays when the research develops in a restricted place and consider the “prison mind” as the totalisation of thoughts typical of incarceration. I shall conclude on the possibility of self-rescue that narratives of lived heterosexual love can provide the convicted women with, thus enabling them to tolerate or overcome “prison pain”. Conversely, I shall underline how such individualization of suffering also leads to obliterate the political weight of female criminal sentencing in a post-conflict, post-disaster social environment. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T05:28:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ad43842124284cc28e276e09b4cb2df2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2281-4043 2420-8469 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T05:28:27Z |
| publishDate | 2020-07-01 |
| publisher | Ledizioni |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Antropologia |
| spelling | doaj.art-ad43842124284cc28e276e09b4cb2df22022-12-21T22:01:47ZengLedizioniAntropologia2281-40432420-84692020-07-0172 N.S17520010.14672/ada20201691175-2001286Ethnography Inside: Female Imprisonment, “Prison Pain” and the Criminalization of the Acehnese in IndonesiaSilvia VignatoThis article analyses the practical and theoretical process of structuring research fieldwork in a prison, and the specific research topics that it has led to shape. In 2011, my former research-assistant in Aceh, Indonesia, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for drug dealing. I subsequently carried out ethnography in the prison where she was detained, in the area of North Sumatra. My main argument concerns the relationship between a prisoner and the State as it is constructed before, during and after prison, and the subjective feelings and prison narratives which such relationship originates. I shall question how the researcher can make sense of prison through the prisoners’ own efforts to that end. I shall analyse the hypertrophic role that the ethnographic vis-à-vis encounter plays when the research develops in a restricted place and consider the “prison mind” as the totalisation of thoughts typical of incarceration. I shall conclude on the possibility of self-rescue that narratives of lived heterosexual love can provide the convicted women with, thus enabling them to tolerate or overcome “prison pain”. Conversely, I shall underline how such individualization of suffering also leads to obliterate the political weight of female criminal sentencing in a post-conflict, post-disaster social environment.https://www.ledijournals.com/ojs/index.php/antropologia/article/view/1691prison, indonesia, aceh, ethnographic methodology, anthropology of confinement, anthropology of drugs |
| spellingShingle | Silvia Vignato Ethnography Inside: Female Imprisonment, “Prison Pain” and the Criminalization of the Acehnese in Indonesia Antropologia prison, indonesia, aceh, ethnographic methodology, anthropology of confinement, anthropology of drugs |
| title | Ethnography Inside: Female Imprisonment, “Prison Pain” and the Criminalization of the Acehnese in Indonesia |
| title_full | Ethnography Inside: Female Imprisonment, “Prison Pain” and the Criminalization of the Acehnese in Indonesia |
| title_fullStr | Ethnography Inside: Female Imprisonment, “Prison Pain” and the Criminalization of the Acehnese in Indonesia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ethnography Inside: Female Imprisonment, “Prison Pain” and the Criminalization of the Acehnese in Indonesia |
| title_short | Ethnography Inside: Female Imprisonment, “Prison Pain” and the Criminalization of the Acehnese in Indonesia |
| title_sort | ethnography inside female imprisonment prison pain and the criminalization of the acehnese in indonesia |
| topic | prison, indonesia, aceh, ethnographic methodology, anthropology of confinement, anthropology of drugs |
| url | https://www.ledijournals.com/ojs/index.php/antropologia/article/view/1691 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT silviavignato ethnographyinsidefemaleimprisonmentprisonpainandthecriminalizationoftheacehneseinindonesia |