ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that how relationships between the researcher and the research participants were articulated in the context of a study about military families in the Brazilian Amazon. The incorporation of women into the military in the Brazilian Armed Forces has brought new forms of relationship to the environment. Data collected from the Brazilian Ministry of Defence from 2014 indicate that women compose nearly 7 percent of the ranks of the Brazilian Armed Forces. A singular trait, however, is that in Brazilian military life; the family is seen as intrinsic to the institution. The term "military family" is used as a native category in the Brazilian military and refers to a self-representation of the military institution and its members, including soldier's spouses and children. The degree of access and the perspectives of ethnographic analysis can result from the relationship between the native points of view and those of the researcher and the effects that are produced by the encounter.
