Stealing and Redacting: Fieldwork among Transnational Thieves in Eastern Romania

The chapter introduces Sebastian who is a Romanian man in his twenties with extensive experience as a transnational thief. Taking a point of departure in a tense meeting between Sebastian and some of his illegal business associates, the chapter starts by describing the meticulous practices of transnational stealing, in the form of stealing from clothes stores in other EU countries. Engaging with the volume’s overall focus on "redaction," the chapter then focuses on Sebastian’s family dynamics and shows how his family manages their knowledge about his illegal activities abroad. I argue that redaction can function as an analytical concept to capture how my informants "redact" by concealing different aspects of their illegal enterprises within their families. Simultaneously, the chapter shows the ways in which I, as the anthropologist, attempt to capture these fieldwork moments, centered around illegal activity. By analyzing my own practice of "redacting" my fieldnotes during fieldwork, I suggest that the concept of redaction can be used to illuminate and critically analyze the practices that we as anthropologists engage in during fieldwork – in the name of safety and anonymity – in order to protect our fields, our informants and ourselves.