ETHNOGRAPHY ON PEDALS. THE DIALOGUE WITH THE FIELD AND WITH “THE OTHERS” FROM A BICYCLE

Abstract

The evolution of the methodological tools of anthropology in general, and ethnography in particular, has allowed it to adjust and incorporate various techniques or useful inputs to overcome the challenges it has encountered throughout its history in contact with the people whose knowledge it is interested in delving into. Although it is not really an innovation, after the pandemic that struck the world in 2020, the use of bicycles, due to the safety it offered to avoid contagion, was also promoted as a tool for qualitative research, especially among the social sciences. This, in addition to revaluing its usefulness as a means of transportation, opened the possibility of valuing it as a means of human contact useful for scientific work and the production of knowledge. What is presented here is a reflection on some of the particularities of approaching “the others” and the environment in which they live, from a bicycle, for an anthropological work. In this sense, its practical utility within a doctoral research developed from the perspective of political ecology, which took place in the region of the Isthmus-Costa Chiapas, in the south of the Mexican Pacific during the years 2021 and 2022, is exposed.