Paper short abstract:

Trauma lived experience, re-traumatisation, and vicarious trauma are linked dis/embodied phenomena obliterating body boundaries. This paper argues for embodied intersectional trauma-informed ethnography to cultivate an awareness of the dis/embodied temporalities of trauma lived experience.

Paper long abstract:

Winfield (2022) has proposed six competencies for a trauma and justice-informed ethnography to prevent the re-traumatisation of ‘vulnerable’ populations and Trundle and Vaeau (2022) have called for a trauma-informed anthropology pedagogy to address the harmful consequences of colonial violence in Aotearoa New Zealand. Despite some consideration of ‘vulnerable’ researchers (Winfield 2022), the divide between ‘them’ – and ‘us’ remains in the newly trauma-informed anthropology.

This paper argues for a trauma-informed anthropology that is intersectional. A traumatic experience is informed by different combinations of identity discrimination. Against the ‘them’ – ‘us’ divide, it suggests cultivating a double awareness of dis/embodied temporalities of trauma lived experience when conducting research. Noticing if when a person experiences a trauma event or recounts a traumatic event, our (theirs and ours) bodily experiences are grounded in the present, or if disconnected from our bodies we are re-living the past. The ethnographic present, I argue, includes, what was observed in the field, what was experienced in the field that happened before we went to the field, and what is observed in the present moment of analysis.

My argument is underpinned by autoethnography. I draw on my lived experience of trauma recovery related to gender-based violence ethnographic research in the Solomon Islands and Bolivia and trauma-informed front-line gender-based advocacy and NHS mental health recovery tutoring, in the UK. Considering local understanding of the body and healing, I conclude anthropologists can stop 'trauma transmission' with trauma psychoeducation and using intentionally different somatic practices when exposed to traumatic material or events.