Thinking through payment in fieldwork: Changing the narrative about money and reciprocity

Ethnographic research has long illuminated diverse economic relations. However, there has been little attention to one economic relation that ethnography itself often relies on: payment in fieldwork. Even if thinking through reciprocity is increasingly important within anthropological discussion of research ethics and anthropology’s colonial legacies, the particularities of monetary exchange often remain hidden – or a taboo. With fieldwork traditionally relying on long-term intimate relationships that are often idealized within anthropology, the implication is that the involvement of money would taint ethnographic interactions. Yet as anthropologists it is our job to pay attention to taboos and unpack them. Given ethnographic knowledge is always contextual, this aspect of context must be addressed. We aim to advance critical discussion on the implications of payment in fieldwork. We argue that such discussion should be part of equitable ethnographic research practice and opens theoretical space to engage with research participants’ expectations towards monetary payment.