Ethnographic Lessons: Researching Incest in Mexican Families

Abstract

This article is a series of reflections on the methodological challenges and ethnographic complexities I have encountered while conducting research on the sexualized acts, interactions, and relationships (both voluntary and involuntary) within the family context in Mexican society. I examine how this journey has had a transformative effect on me as a researcher and a sociologist. In particular, I discuss the research surprises, methodological lessons, and epistemological insights that I experienced during this research process. I also comment on the paradigms and concepts that have helped me decipher and reconcile the tensions of occupying a position as both a researcher trying to maintain standards of conventional academic rigor and a witness to reports of sexualized pain.