Paper short abstract:

Departing from an investigation of the practices and conceptualisations of everyday journeying among the Makushi in the triple frontier region of southern Guyana, this paper critically interrogates movement as a tool and method for ethnographic inquiry.

Paper long abstract:

Rather than permanent migration or nomadism, this paper explores the insights derived from those often overlooked, mundane, daily micro-mobilites, like crossing the border to go to a medical appointment, visiting a relative in a neighbouring village, embarking on a shopping trip in a nearby town, going on a group expedition into the forest or to the capital, or simply taking a walk. Thus, methodologically, this meant travelling with research participants, especially women, using whatever technologies necessary - walking by foot, hitching or paying a ride by vehicle - and learning how to move appropriately within savannah, forest and urban landscapes. Here, especially relevant to the creation of knowledge are the spaces in between, the process of the journey, interrupted frequently through moments of waiting and immobility.

It signifies paying attention to how people communicate, orient themselves, form relationships, narrate their journeys and make themselves at home outside one’s village, shedding light on bigger themes such as power relations, gender and identity. This paper revisits the idea of fieldwork-in-motion as a method and further discusses this concept within recent mobility studies.