ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of the anthropologist on islands by working to unpack the relationship between the Ethnographic Self and the Ethnographic Subject in the context of a research trip to the abandoned village of Múli in the far north of the Faroes. Formed around a collection of micro-essays on autoethnography, travel, and isolation, this chapter delves into the act of self-reflexivity that is central to the practice of contemporary anthropology. The first section details the liminal space of a flight from Reykjavik to Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, further developing Augé’s non-place (1992) as a conduit to understanding remoteness. Similarly, the section that follows uses the many tunnels that carve their way through the islands as a metaphor for exploring ideas of connectivity, remoteness, and modernity. The central essay in this chapter focuses on the role that isolation and self-study play in forming ethnographic identity and sense of place. The concluding trio of micro-essays explore the interior narratives of the anthropologist in isolation, working to define the role of affect, supernaturalism, and sensory experience in contemporary anthropological discourse.
