ABSTRACT
Ethical concerns in ethnomusicology and anthropology have often dealt with the issue of insider/outsider dynamics. Issues of access, trust, and reciprocity have always been central to contemplations around the ethnographer’s ethical obligations toward her/his interlocutors, including the concept of “advocacy” as a potential way in which reciprocity can be most beneficial to local research participants. Some of these discourses however assume an asymmetry of power and privilege between academics and their field collaborators, whereby the former can mediate and facilitate the latter’s access to institutions and organizations that would otherwise be impossible. In contrast, this chapter will consider the kinds of solidarity and support that can develop between ethnomusicologists and local musicians within the field of practice itself. In particular, I will reflect on my role as a “colleague” among Athenian professional instrumentalists, and the ways in which my presence as a researcher gave me an opportunity to co-experience and even aid in their struggles for fair pay, better working conditions, and personal autonomy. Examining vignettes from my employment as a band member in different popular music venues of the Greek capital, I will reflect on the ethical challenges that emerge from researching one’s own co-performers, especially while standing with them in the face of antagonism with industry powerholders. Finally, this chapter will challenge some of the assumptions that have long dominated our discussions of ethics within the disciplines of ethnomusicology, around issues of representation, power inequality, advocacy, solidarity, and vulnerability in the field.
