Identity Archaeology and the Negotiation of Trust: Positionality in Ethnographic Research with Kurdish Communities in Japan

This article examines how researcher identity, trust, and positionality are negotiated in ethnographic research with Kurdish communities in Japan. Drawing on 3 months of fieldwork with twenty Kurdish participants in Saitama Prefecture and surrounding community spaces, I analyze participant observation, informal interviews, and digital interactions. Trust was not established through shared identity but through negotiated tests involving regional origin, language, political positioning, social media visibility, domestic participation, and cultural performance. To analyze these dynamics, I develop three concepts: identity archaeology, reciprocal transparency, and performative participation. These concepts show how participants actively evaluated, challenged, and co-produced my position as a Turkish female researcher. The article contributes to contemporary ethnographic methodology by demonstrating that insider–outsider categories are insufficient in diasporic fields shaped by legal precarity, historical conflict, unequal power relations, and digital intimacy.