This volume presents both a historical exploration of ethnography and a thematic discussion of major trends that, over different periods, have oriented and re-oriented research practice. As it overviews ethnography from different geographic and thematic perspectives, it further explores new lines of ethnographic research, including as feminist ethnography and visual research, that uncover non-traditional routes to anthropological knowledge. As the great ethnographer E. E. Evans-Pritchard wrote, “Anyone who is not a complete idiot can do fieldwork... but will [his contribution] be to theoretical, or just to factual knowledge?” As Evans-Pritchard highlights and as this book argues, successful ethnography must be connected to a sophisticated theoretical reflection rooted in social and cultural anthropology.
Author(s): Vincenzo Matera, Angela Biscaldi
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 429
City: Cham
Contents
Notes on Contributors
1 Ethnography: A Theoretically Oriented Practice Introduction
References
Part I Grounds for Sociocultural Anthropology: USA, UK, FR, IT
2 Ethnography Before Ethnography: Genesis and Developments of Fieldwork in North America
Between Mythopoetic Narrations and Historiographic Deconstructions
Beginnings
Lewis Henry Morgan
Bureau of American Ethnology
Frank Hamilton Cushing: “They Love Me, and I Learn”
James Mooney
Franz Boas
Conclusions
References
3 Before and After Science: Radcliffe-Brown, British Social Anthropology, and the Relationship Between Field Research, Ethnography, and Theory
Field Research in the Andaman Islands
Radcliffe-Brown’s Relationship with Haddon and Rivers
Fieldwork in Australia and the New Interpretation of Aboriginal Social Organization
The Andaman Islanders and the Revision of Durkheim’s Theory on Rituals’ Social Value
Fieldwork, Ethnographic Representation and Radcliffe-Brown’s Theoretical Framework
Empirical Basis, Research Methods, Theoretical Objects of the Discipline: Does a Bequest of Radcliffe-Brown’s Approach Exist Today?
A Final Note
References
4 “Ethnography in France”: Ethnographic Practices and Theories in Marcel Griaule Between the Empirical and Rhetorical
Between Experience and Interpretation
Ethnographic Extravagance
The Origins of French Ethnography
A Strategically Oriented Dialogue
The Choice of the Native Collaborator
A Cultural Representation of an Indigenous Culture
References
5 The Structural Formula of the Team: Reflections on Ernesto de Martino’s Ethnographic Method
Ethnography à Rebours
Interdiscipline
Focus
Team
Historian-Ethnographer
FIS
Epilogue: Back Home
References
Part II Anthropology (Theory) vs Ethnography (Fieldwork)
6 Illusion of Immediate Knowledge or Spiritual Exercise? The Dialogic Exchange and Pierre Bourdieu’s Ethnography
Introduction
Bourdieu’s Ethnography
“The Essence of the Situation”
The Illusion of Transparency
Object of Perception and Object of Science
The Language Critique
Words in Social Relationship, the Self’s Singularity and Conversion
Gérard Althabe, Another Possible Impossible
Implication, Objectify Differently
The Research Interaction, the Emerging Link
Conclusions
Bibliography
7 The Bridge and the Dance: Situational Analysis in Anthropology
Introduction
“Analysis of a Social Situation in Modern Zululand” and Its Legacy
Observing and Analyzing an Urban Dance
Conclusion
References
8 Politics Within Anthropology
Politics Within Social (and Cultural) Anthropology
Nothing that Anthropologists Investigate Is Balanced
The Aporia of an Ahistorical Anthropology
The Italian Cultural Fractures
Living Philology Becomes Ethnography
The Relationships Between Cultural Forms and the Contexts of Their Use
References
9 Stumbling Blocks: The Irruption of the Interpretive Approach in Twentieth-Century Anthropology
The Field of Extralegality
Corruption
Transnational Mafias
Negative Balance Sheets
References
Part III Visual, Dialogical, Sensorial, Multi-sited Ethnography
10 The Anthropologist’s Eye: Ethnography, Visual Practices, Images
Introduction
The Ethnographer’s Eye and the Visualist Paradigm
Neighbouring Territories
Homecoming
Ways of Seeing and Ethnographic Practices
References
11 Dennis and Barbara Tedlock: The Dialogic Turn in Anthropology
Poetics: Collecting, Transcribing, and Interpreting Texts
Participation: Interaction, Reflexivity, Humanity
Dialogical Anthropology
Dialogical Anthropology: An Unresolved Debate
References
12 Ethnography and Embodiment
Ethnography as Embodied Cultural Practice
Participation and Involvement
Participation, Learning, and Co-production of Knowledge
From Authenticity to the Conditions of Knowledge Production
Bibliography
13 Exploring Mobility Through Mobility: Some of the Methodological Challenges of Multi-sited Ethnography in the Study of Migration
Introduction
Multi-sited Ethnographies on Transnational Migrations in Italy2
Multi-sited Ethnography as a “Virtuous Spiral”
Places and Relationships, Relationships and Places3
Conclusion
References
Part IV Deconstructions
14 Participant Observation: The Personal Commitment in Native Life—A Problematic Methodological Topos
A Methodological Revolution
On the Field, from the Field
Being Here
To Set the Record Straight
References
15 The Weberian Line of Anthropology: George Marcus from Writing Culture to Design
Rationale
The Critique of the Concept of Culture and the Positioning of Writing Culture
The Weaving of the Program
Reflexivity
Public Culture
The ‘Contemporary’
(The Necessity of) The Design
Design as a Regulatory Device
Analytics and Ethics
Problematization
Connecting
Design Anthropology
References
16 Making the Invisible Ethnography Visible: The Peculiar Relationship Between Italian Anthropology and Feminism
Preliminary Postures
Questions
Answers
Conclusions: In the Field, and Alone
References
17 Beyond the Field: Ethnography, Theory, and Writing in Anthropology
“Paradigms” and “Turning Points”
Geertz vs. Writing Culture
Why Literature?
Disciplinary Encroachments
Narration or Theory?
“Field”, Empirical Research, and Other Anthropologies
References
Author Index
Subject Index
