Observing emotions in order to understand politicization. Revisiting an ethnographic study in Bosnia and Herzegovina

By revisiting a study on Bosnian war camp detainees conducted between 2007 and 2012, this article builds a case for the comparative ethnography of the emotions of both the ethnographer and the interlocutors. It argues that this approach can improve understandings of the ordinary relations with politics in a society whose members are frequently reduced to stereotypes of either ultra-nationalism or absolute political indifference. Drawing on the observation of emotions expressed within an association of war victims and of the ethnographer’s emotional labor, this article unveils practices of self-exposure or discretion that reveal a solid understanding of politics, undermining this dichotomy. A comparative ethnography of emotions can thus reveal the often-elusive presence of party politics in everyday life.