Synopses & Reviews
Stimulated by discussions of ethics and responsibility in anthropological fieldwork, this collection of essays explores what happens when people who are the subjects of the research read or hear about what has been written on them. The most acute problems arise from biased media reports in newspapers and on television that misconstrue the findings of the anthropological study. This work shows how long-term relationships of trust and cooperation between subject and researcher can be irrevocably damaged by misinformation, rumor, or lack of forethought. The ten seasoned ethnographers writing with considerable hindsight warn of the dangers of ignoring the native readership and suggest strategies that will avoid misunderstanding and misrepresentations in the future.
Review
". . . A wonderfully provocative book for anyone interested in the nature of contemporary ethnographic anthropology."Contemporary Sociology
Synopsis
Stimulated by discussions of responsibility and ethics in anthropological fieldwork, this book explores what happens when people who are the subjects of research read what has been written about them.
About the Author
CAROLINE B. BRETTELL is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Fieldwork, Text, and Audience by Caroline B. Brettell
Contested Texts: Implications for Fieldwork and Rapport
Unintended Consequences: The Myth of "the Return" in Anthropological Fieldwork by Dona L. Davis
Responding to the Anthropologist: When the Spiritual Baptists of Trinidad Read What I Write about Them by Stephen D. Glazier
Politicized Texts: Insider, Outsider, and Ethnographic Authority
Involvement, Detachment, and Representation on Corsica by Alexandra Jaffe
Fieldwork in Quebec, Scholarly Reviews, and Anthropological Dialogues by Richard Handler
The Student of Culture and the Ethnography of Irish Intellectuals by Elizabeth A. Sheehan
Mediated Texts: Issues of Representation and Identity
Whose History Is It? Selection and Representation in the Creation of Text by Caroline B. Brettell
When They Read What the Papers Say We Wrote by Ofra Greenberg
Collaborative Texts: Ethics, Negotiation, and Compromise
Is Anonymity Possible? Writing about Refugees in the United States by MaryCarol Hopkins
Just Stories of Ethnographic Authority by Richard P. Horwitz
Myths of Objectivity and the Collaborative Process in Life History Research by Sally McBeth
The Case of Mistaken Identity: Problems in Representing Women on the Right by Faye Ginsburg
Bibliography
Index