Transcript The Politics, and Ethics of Ethnographic Inquiry

Representations could be:
• Linguistic
• Figurative
• Theoretical
Kinds of Representations
• Mimetic
• Metonymic (part for the whole)
The Crisis of Representation
• A critique of Western thought Orientalism,
Edward Said (1977)
System of Representation
Predicated on:
• Rhetorical devices
• ---colonialism as a rhetorical exercise in
power
• ---Imperialism: the history of the Orient
Anthropological contributions to
the Western Mentality
• Literary texts: objectification
• Image: the exotic
• Theories: development, evolution
Writing Culture: the Poetics and
Politics of Ethnography (1986)
• Clifford and Marcus
• Crisis of representation (in
anthropology)has brought about a challenge
to anthop authority
2: the process of representation is now:
contingent, historical and contestable
Anthropological Responses
• Reflexivity
--acknowledgment of the role of subjectivity
• Experimental strategies
--change forms (monovocal to polyvocal)
Recognition of global and economic realities
--colonialism
--neo-colonialism, etc.
After Writing Culture…(1997)
• James, Hockey and Dawson
• Help us
--inform the practice
--look at new ways (styles)
--pay close attention (epistemology)
Today’s Dilemmas
• The humanist nature of representational
practices
• The difficulty of uncovering whose
representations and by whom
• Problem of form
• Politics and ethics of representations
Van Maanen: Tales of the Field
(1988)
• Realist forms: dispassionate third person,
objective, finding truth
• Confessional forms: reflexive nature of
ethnography
• Impressionist forms: capturing special
moment
Realist Ethnographies
(conventions)
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Experiential authority-Ethnographic form-One point of view--,
Interpretive omnipotence--
Interpretive Anthropology
• Science and Literature start to coexist
• Changing of mentality
• Redressing of ethnocentric past
Writing … not only as a method
• influenced by politics,
• intentionality,
• positionality,
It draws attention two aspects
of anthropology
• to the historical predicaments of ethnography--tied
to a Western mentality
• the fact that ethnography is interpretation,
invention and not an unbiased, totally objective
representation of a culture--literary processes
affects: 1. cultural phenomena 2. audience
Literary processes
• metaphor,
• figuration,
• narrative style
Ethnographic writing (art) is
characterized in at least six ways
• contextually
• rhetorically
• institutionally
• generically
• politically
• historically
J.F Lyotard
“The Postmodern Condition”
(1977)
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Attacked the totalizing notion in modernism
Representing wholeness, truth ness
“Writing Culture” Clifford and Marcus (1986)
“Anthropology as a Cultural Critique” Marcus
and Fisher (1986).
• Stephen Tyler “Post-modern Ethnography: From
Document of the Occult to Occult Document
(1986)
Stephen Tyler
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Evocation rather than representation
The split between orality and literacy
One perspective (literacy)
Versus polyvocal present of multi realities
(orality).
• Object (anthropologist) with subject (the
Other)
FOUR MAJOR CONSEQUENCES BROUGHT
ABOUT BY THE POSTMODERN TURN
1. The
subject matter is changing
2. The medium of anthropology is no
longer predominant.
3. The methods of anthropology are
changing.
4. The intention of anthropology has
been challenged
Postmodernist techniques and rhetorical
styles:
• Paradox
• ambiguity
The Nuer
• By Hillary Harris and Robert Garner
• It portrays the Nuer, group of people who
live along the Nile river in Ethiopia.
• 1970
Evocative, Allegorical
• Little description
• Attain more than one event
• Imagination: cultural norm
--Nuer life revolving around cattle
• Recognize a common experience
I lay there and felt the pains as they came, over and over
again. Then I felt something wet, the beginning of
childbirth. I thought, “Eh hey, maybe it is the child.” I got
up, took a blanket and covered Tashay with it; he was still
sleeping. Then I took another blanket…and I left. Was I not
the only one? The only other woman was Tashay’s
grandmother, and she was sleep in her hut. So, just as I was,
I left. I walked a short distance from the village and sat
down beside a tree… After she was born, I sat there; I did
not know what to do. I had no sense…Then I thought, “A
big thing like that? How could it possibly have come out
from my genitals?” (In “On Ethnographic Allegory,”
Clifford 1986, 99).
Objectivity and Subjectivity
Geertz (1980)
• Hermeneutic:
Pertaining to interpretation
• Exegesis:
Critical interpretation
Reflective Vs. reflexive
• Reflective: thinking about ourselves but
without awareness of the implications of
our action
• Reflexive:to be aware of ourselves and
aware of our actions
Awareness of (communicative)
production
• Producer:(ethnographer)
• process: shaping, encoding of the message
• product: the text, what the audience receives
Reflexivity and anthropology
• to examine a field problem
• to examine anthropology itself
• to look at anthropology as a tool for
gathering data
• to publicly examine the anthropologist's
response to the field situation
Problem
• the more the anthrop attempts to fulfill his
scientific obligation to report on methods,
the more he must acknowledge his own
behaviour and the persona as a data
• Statements on the method them appear to be
more personal, subjective, biased,
Four factors for the emergence of
reflexivity in Anthropology (Nash and
Wintrob, 1972)
• increase personal involvement of ethnographers
with their subjects
• the democratization of anthropology (more
people becoming anthrop, other classes, other
cultures)
• multiple fields studies of the same culture
• independence of native peoples
What is the relationship between
feminism and anthropology?
• Ignorance of contribution of women in the
discipline
• Anthropological genealogies(male
oriented))
• Their contribution to reflexivity (ignored or
appropriated)
Women and reflexivity
• Powdermaker (1966)
• Mead (1977)
• Personal experience (autobiography)
The Challenges from without
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Minorities
Women
Decentred authority
Forced to become reflexive
The reflexive turn
• Crack in the Mirror by Myerhoff and Ruby
1982)
• to examine a field problem
• to examine anthropology itself
• to look at anthropology as a tool for
gathering data
• to publicly examine the anthropologist's
response to the field situation
Three layers
• Bias imported by the male
ethnographer
• The bias inherent in the society
studied
• The bias inherent in Western
culture
Deconstruction of gender
symbolism and sexual
stereotypes
• Men associated with culture and women
with nature; physiology
• Women social roles; domestic domains
• Concept of pollution
Deconstructing the structure of
male bias by
• Focusing on women
• Building data: about women by women
• Reworking and redefining anthropological theory
Ardener (1975) and the theory of
“Muted Groups”
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control over modes of expression
Male dominated structures
--ways of communicating (linguistic concepts)
--ways of writing (mankind for humankind)
--dominant ideology
--different world views
Problems with the assumption of a
privileged status (women studying
women)
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Ghettoization of feminist anthropology
--too specialized --image problem
The assumption of a universal category of “women”
--not the same in all cultures
Perception of ethnocentrism
--a bias in favor of one culture ( that of the woman
anthrop)
Overview of Ethnographic
fieldwork:
• History of fieldwork in anthropology
1. Participant observation:
A. Explicit: Recorded or formal
B. Tacit: personal experience personal belief
We all are participant observers
of culture.
• Anthropologists:
1. Systematic use of data
A. Intentionality
a. Theoretical inquiry
The Ethnographic experience cannot be taken at face
value but must be studied in its sensational depth
(Hastrup and Hervik 1994: 224).
• 1. Non-verbal knowledge
• 2. Embodied knowledge
• 3. Learning by doing and experiencing,
comparing
• Through particular procedures: recording
observations
Origins of Participant
Observation
• Armchair Anthropologists
.1. no clear methodology
2. detachment from subjects
• Malinowski
1. emphasis on everyday interaction
2. established relationship between theory and method
Malinowski’s three standard
themes
• 1. Culture and context
• 2. Importance on Etic approach
• 3. Cultural particularism
First: Culture and context
integration
• Aspects of culture cannot be study in
isolation
• Put into proper context: local
• Ethnographer needs to be present
Two: etic approach
• Scientifically verification of informal
descriptions
• Emic Approach: local-oriented approach to
anthropological investigations.
• Etic Approach: Scientific-oriented
approach to anthropological investigations.
Third: cultural particularism
• When one put the “primitive’ action into its
proper context (cultural particularism) one
would understand that his action is
reasonable.
• Against racism and ethnocentrism
Key elements of the method of
participant observation
• 1. Living in the context for an extended period of time
• 2. Learning and using local languages and dialect
• 3. Actively participating in a wide range of daily routines
and extraordinary activities with people in that context.
• 4. Using everyday conversations as interview techniques
• 5. Informally observing during leisure activities)
• 6. Recording observations in the field notes
• 7. Using both tacit and explicit information in analysis and
writing
Overview of field research
• Beginning the fieldwork process: Selection of project, funding
Preparing for the field
• Working in the Field: Site selection, gaining rapport Exchanges
and gift giving, factors influencing fieldwork, culture shock
• Fieldwork techniques: theoretical considerations, interviews and
questionnaires
• Recording Culture: field notes, tape recording,
videos and films
• Data analysis: analysing data, writing process
photography,
Cultural Appropriation
• Postcolonial critique of representation:
--orientalism, feminist anthropology,
postmodernism, etc.
• Peoples efforts towards self-determination
--Third World, Fourth World
Appropriation:
• To take possession of another's material, often
without permission, reusing it in a context which
differs from its original context, most often in
order to examine issues concerning originality or
to reveal meaning not previously seen in the
original. This is far more aggressive than allusion
or quotation; it is not the same as plagiarism
however. (Art Dictionary)
Cultural Appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the theft of
rituals, aesthetic standards and
behavior from one culture by another,
generally by a "modern" culture from
a "primitive" culture — often this
involves the conversion of religion
and spirituality into "meaningless"
pop-culture. Example; Katsinasbeings
Appropriation
• Multidirectional
• A political action; Dominant culture takes
from subordinate one
• Cultural assimilation: Globalization of
information
If political one should consider:
• 1. Impact on subordinate group:---the role of
cultural representations in a culture
• 2. Wo benefits (financially) from appropriation?-power relations, economic, and other advantages
• 3. Laws are inadequate to protect subordinate
groups:--laws need to be changed to protect
subordinate groups from cultural appropriation
Questions in anthropology
• How is cultural appropriation related to
ethnographic inquiry?
• Who owns ethnographic information?
• Who should have the rightful claim to
ethnographic materials?
• Can anthropological cultural representation
be considered cultural appropriation? Why?
Repatriation
--Sharing ethnographic materials with
subjects
--Sending ethnographic information
back to the community studied
Influenced by two forces
• The questioning of cultural representation
by Indigenous peoples--Whose interests are
represented
• Growing ethical and political concerns in
anthropology--correct some eurocentric
attitudes of the past (colonialism and
cultural appropriation)
Major developments contributing
to its reversal:
• Indigenous resistance --interest groups -intellectual property, Indigenous
nationalism
• Changing attitudes in institutions and
government agencies -- New rules and
ethical guidelines, AAA changing rules,
strict rules, more sensitivity towards other
cultures
Conundrum for anthropologists:
• No longer an unquestionable source of
academic authority
• What does repatriation imply?
Factors Underpinning the
Repatriation Debate
• Legacy of past and present exploitation is
now acknowledged
• Indigenous peoples organization
• Efforts by governments and academic to
correct the mistakes of the past on the issue
The Act of Repatriation Should
Make Sure that:
• Information should not harm either the
community or the informants
• It should not harm the interest of academic
research
Stephen Glazier (1993)
“Responding To The Anthropologist:
When The Spiritual Baptists of
Trinidad Read What I Write About
Them”
--Ethnographic materials should be
viewed as part of a continuous
process
The Problems with Repatriation
Opens some possibilities but also closes other
avenues for research
• Promotes acceptance at the same time can
fuel misunderstandings
• Can be used by some groups against other
groups in the community
• Sometimes it does not fulfill subjects
expectations
Study Questions
• Why do we represent certain things in a culture and avoid others?
• What are the criteria we use to select some aspects of a culture and
ignore others?
• How do we select and why?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a feminist anthropology
in the production and representation f ethnographic knowledge?
• What are the technical, ethical and political consequences of
repatriation for ethnographers and subjects?
• Do the potential problems of repatriation (for ethnographers and
subjects) outweigh the benefits of cultural appropriation?