The Halfie Predicament in the Ethnography of Religion: Fieldwork with Iranian-Americana Muslim Women in Los Angeles

Abstract

This article draws from fieldwork with Iranian-American Muslim women in Los Angeles to address the difficulties of occupying a halfie position in the ethnography of faith. While halfies are assumed to have easier access to communities in which they are part-members, and often have to justify their sufficient distance from the research subject, they are not readily accepted as insiders by their interlocutors either. I argue that having an in-between, insider/outsider position with respect to interlocutors' faith, particularly in sensitive sociopolitical contexts where religion is a primary site of boundary work, increases the potential for mistrust and suspicion rather than facilitating ethnographic research.