(con)textos. revista d’antropologia i investigació social Número 6. Febrer de 2016 Pàgines 19-45. ISSN: 2013-0864 http://www.con-textos.net © 2016, sobre l’article, Brian Juan O’neill © 2016, sobre l’edició, Departament d’Antropologia Social de la Universitat de Barcelona Aquest text i la seva edició estan subjectes a una llicència Creative Commons Reconeixement-No Comercial-Sense Obres Derivades 2.5 Espanya. Podeu consultar una còpia de la llicència a: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/es/legal- code.ca Practice Theory in Practice: Critical Anthropology in Galicia and Portugal in the What links are there between fieldwork sites and the specific authors, texts, and 1970s theories which inspired the ethnographer before and after the stint? Here are some retrospective meanderings on two terrains studied in the 1970s – the Caurel moun- Brian Juan O’Neill tains in eastern Galicia and north-eastern Trás-os-Montes in Portugal. Neither of Senior Research Fellow, CRIA (Centre for Research in An- these places seemed to fit anywhere within thropology) & Full Professor, Department of Anthropology, the expansive British anthropology of the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL). Mediterranean dominant throughout that
[email protected] decade. These hamlets certainly looked nothing like minuscule, egalitarian rural paradises. Dual family structures, complex household dynamics, asymmetrical labour exchanges, alternative marriages, and 1. INTRODUCTION rampant bastardy required a radically different analysis. Inspiration came from This paper deals exclusively with a link between fieldwork localiti- Goody’s comparative sociology of es on the one hand, and on the other, the theoretical pillars chosen by Eurasian inheritance strategies and the ethnographer to analyze and interpret those localities prior to and Bourdieu’s practice theory.