A Thrice-Told Tale is one ethnographer's imaginative and powerful response to the methodological issues raised by feminist and postmodernist critics of traditional ethnography. The author, a feminist anthropologist, uses three texts developed out of her research in Taiwan—a piece of fiction, anthropological fieldnotes, and a social science article—to explore some of these criticisms. Each text takes a different perspective, is written in a different style, and has different "outcomes," yet all three involve the same fascinating set of events. A young mother began to behave in a decidedly abherrant, perhaps suicidal manner, and opinion in her village was sharply divided over the reason. Was she becoming a shaman, posessed by a god? Was she deranged, in need of physical restraint, drugs, and hospitalization? Or was she being cynically manipulated by her ne'er-do-well husband to elicit sympathy and money from her neighbors? In the end, the woman was taken away from the area to her mother's house. For some villagers, this settled the matter; for others the debate over her behavior was probably never truly resolved. The first text is a short story written shortly after the incident, which occurred almost thrity years ago; the second text is a copy of the fieldnotes collected about the events covered in the short story; the third text is an article published in 1990 in American Ethnologist that analyzes the incident from the author's current perspective. Following each text is a Commentary in which the author discusses such topics as experimental ethnography, polyvocality, authorial presence and control, reflexivity, and some of the differences between fiction and ethnography. The three texts are framed by two chapters in which the author discusses the genereal problems posed by feminist and postmodernist critics of ethnography and presents her personal exploration of these issues in an argument that is strongly self-reflexive and theoretically rigorous. She considers some feminist concerns over colonial research methods and takes issues with the insistence of some feminists tha the topics of ethnographic research be set by those who are studied. The book concludes with a plea for ethnographic responsibility based on a less academic and more practical perspective.
If your writing is your air, this is your laughing gas.* *That’s a metaphor, friends.
I love this book."--Lori Kendall, author of Hanging Out in the Virtual Pub "Written by a very authoritative team, this is a distinctive guide, rich in practical advice grounded in the authors' experiences.
Married Couples Tell Their Stories Diane Holmberg, Terri L. Orbuch, Joseph Veroff. Told Tales Married Couples Tell Their Stories Diane Holmberg Terri L. Orbuch Joseph Veroff THRICE-TOLD TALES Married Couples Tell Their Stories ...
The issue of gender arises because ethnographers do fieldwork by establishing relationships, and this is done as a person of a particular age, sexual orientation, belief, educational background, ethnic identity and class.
As the new teller of these tales Abu-Lughod draws on anthropological and feminist insights to construct a critical ethnography.
Stacy Holman Jones, Tony E. Adams, Carolyn Ellis ... 5–6, slight paraphrase)1 Or Deborah E. Reed-Danahay (1997): Autoethnography is a form of self-narrative that places the self within a social context. It is both a method and a text.
This volume will be of interest to historians, philosophers of science, linguists and anthropologists
John Van Maanen, an experienced ethnographer of modern organizational structures, is one who believes that the real work begins when he returns to his office with cartons of notes and tapes.
Pogue, George G. Marshall, p. 165, differs. But Acheson is likely to have remembered well what he said and how Senator Vandenberg reacted. * German prisoners were held in the Soviet Union into the 1950s. Bevin may nevertheless have ...
In Sourdough Culture, environmental science professor Eric Pallant shows how throughout history, sourdough bread baking has always been about survival.