Transcript Postmodern ethnography (The postmodern turn in anthropology)

CMNS801 Presentation
Postmodern ethnography
(The postmodern turn in anthropology)
Ayaka Yoshimizu
October 21, 2008
Ethnography
• a research process in which the anthropologist
closely observes, records, and engages in the daily
life of another culture—an experience labeled as
the fieldwork method—and then writes accounts of
this culture, emphasizing descriptive detail
(Marcus and Fischer, 1986, p.18)
Seven Moments of Qualitative Research
1.
The traditional period
• Positivism, ethnographic realism
2. Modernist phase
3. Blurred genres
4. Crisis of representation
(Denzin and Lincoln, 2000, p.12-18)
Crisis of representation
• Uncertainty about adequate means of describing
social reality
(Marcus and Fischer, 1986)
• The Predicament of Culture (Clifford, 1988)
• An experimental moment in the human sciences
Writing Culture:
The poetics and politics of ethnography
(Clifford and Marcus, 1986)
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From participant observation to “writing”
Ethnography as process
Partial truth
Experimental
Ethical
Reflexivity
Dialogical mode
Co-authorship
Writing Culture:
The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography
(Clifford and Marcus, 1986)
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
From participant observation to “writing”
Ethnography as process
Partial truth
Experimental
Ethical
Reflexivity
Dialogical mode
Co-authorship
Postmodern ethnography: Feminists’ critique
• Mascia-Lees et al. (1993)
– Feminists move beyond texts to confront the
world
• Enslin (1994)
– “your work seems like nothing. Your book has no
importance. After all, what is writing? You
looked, you saw, you wrote a book. But that
book won't do anything if not accompanied by
work, by practice. Right ”
Seven Moments of Qualitative Research
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The traditional period
• Positivism, ethnographic realism
Modernist phase
Blurred genres
Crisis of representation
A triple crisis
• Representation, legitimation, praxis
Postexperimental
The future
(Denzin and Lincoln, 2000, p.12-18)
References
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Clifford, J. (1988). The predicament of culture: Twentieth-century
ethnography, literature, and art. Cambridge; London: Harvard University
Press.
Clifford, J. and Marcus, G.E. (1986). Writing culture: the poetics and politics
of ethnography (pp.1-26). California; London: University of California Press.
Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (2000). Introduction: The discipline and
practice of qualitative research. In Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.)
Handbook of qualitative research (second edition). Thousand Oaks, Calif. :
Sage Publications.
Enslin, E. (1994) Beyond writing. Cultural Anthropology9 (4): 537-568.
Marcus, G.E. and Fischer, M.M.J. (1986/1999) Anthropology as cultural
critique: an experimental moment in the human sciences. Chicago; London:
The University of Chicago Press.
Mascia-Lees, F.E. et al. (1989). The postmodern turn in anthropology:
cautions from a feminist perspective 15(1): 7-33.
Tyler, S.A. (1986). Post-modern ethnography: from document of the occult
to occult document. In Clifford, J. and Marcus, G.E. (Eds.), Writing culture:
the poetics and politics of ethnography (pp.122-140). California; London:
University of California Press.