(EMBODIED)ETHNOGRAPHYKey Concepts in Human Geography Seminar SeriesKelly Dombroski November 5th 2012

• From Greek ethnos (folk or people) and grapho (to write).

THEN• Traditionally the one-year in-situ

participant observation characteristic of the lone , heroic anthropologist.

• Thick written descriptions, often detailed descriptions of rituals.

NOW• A methodology of participant

observation.• Focused on understanding and

making sense of the relations and practices that make up the everyday life of a particular group.

WHAT IS ETHNOGRAPHY?

IT IS NOT:• Interviews, even qualitative

ones (although there are ‘ethnographic interviews’ where you observe and participate in the interview process itself as a site of knowledge production).

• Participatory methods, even in-situ ones (although these can play a part in the knowledge making process)

See Herbert 2000

WHAT IS ETHNOGRAPHY?

• Understanding the (particularly social and cultural) processes and relations that constitute place or space.

• Bodies in space and place• Objects in space and place• Power/knowledge and place• Indigenous communities• Multi-sited and multi-local

ethnographies• Difficult questions

See Watson and Till 2010

ETHNOGRAPHY IN GEOGRAPHY(QUESTIONS)

OUT-THERE • Documenting ‘the Other’• Part of a colonial/ state project?(see Tuhiwai-Smith 2012)

IN-HERE• Autoethnographies• Studying up(see Ellis and Bochner, Anderson, others here…)

SOMETHING ELSE?

ETHNOGRAPHY IN GEOGRAPHY(OUT-THERE, IN-HERE)

• The legacy of the ‘my village’ anthropologist

ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE PROBLEM OF ‘SITE’