Crisis of Representation

Question 1

Reflexive Turn

Answer 1

80s-90s; multifaceted development in anthropology questioning representational authority and growing presence of “native” scholars (along w/ orientalism to reshape anthropology itself)

Question 2

Representational Authority

Answer 2

The capacity to speak for or to represent a reality as being the reality

Question 3

Questions of representational authority:

Answer 3

Empirical: what is reality, what do we observe?
Epistemological: which knowledge counts as true
Sociological: who can describe reality
Ontological: what counts as reality

Question 4

Writing Culture (1986)

Answer 4

James Clifford; critical reflection and culmination of questions about how culture is written (practice of ethnography)

Question 5

Writing Culture (1986) - Partial Truth (3pts)

Answer 5

1. Writing is central to ethnography (our interpretations of a dynamic society)
2. Ethnography as fiction; poetics (thick description - Geertz - makes ethnography literary)
3. How is text produced (growing attn to the positionality of ethnographer)

Question 6

Veiled Sentiments (2016)

Answer 6

Lila Abu-Lughod; studies poetry among Bedouins in NW Egypt - new approaches to ethnography in relationships

Question 7

Ethnographic Reserve

Answer 7

Deciding against inclusion of certain ethnographic elements out of obligation to the the people from these experiences

Question 8

Ethnographic Refusal

Answer 8

hand in hand with reserve; practice b/w ethnographers and participants deciding not to make information available (Simpson 2014, inscribing sovereignty at the level of method and representation)

Question 9

Collaborative Ethnography

Answer 9

Lassiter (2005); primary responsibility being to the community w/ whom we work - openness