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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.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: A Theoretically Oriented Practice.- Part I: Grounds for sociocultural anthropology: USA, UK, FR, IT.- Chapter 2: Ethnography before ethnography. Genesis and developments of field research in North America.- Chapter 3: Before and after Science: Radcliffe-Brown, British social anthropology and the problem of the relationship between fieldwork methods, ethnography and theory.- Chapter 4: "Ethnography in France". Ethnographic practices and theories from Marcel Mauss to Marcel Griaule.- Chapter 5: The Structural Formula of the Team. Reflections on the Ethnographic Method of Ernesto de Martino.- Part II. Anthropology (Theory) vs Ethnography (Fieldwork).- Chapter 6: Illusion of immediate knowledge (immediacy) or spiritual exercise? The dialogic exchange and the Pierre Bourdieu's ethnography.- Chapter 7: "A conspiracy of silence": George Balandier and the study of African slavery and post-slavery.- Chapter 8: The Bridge and the Dance: Situational Analysis in Anthropology.- Chapter 9: Politics within Cultural and Social Anthropology.- Chapter 10: Stumbling blocks. The irruption of the interpretive approach in twentieth century anthropology.- Part III. Visual, Dialogical, Sensorial, Multi-sited ethnography.- Chapter 11: The anthropologist's eye: Ethnography, visual practices, images.- Chapter 12: Dennis and Barbara Tedlock. The dialogic turn in anthropology.- Chapter 13: Embodiment and Ethnography.- Chapter 14: Exploring Mobility through Mobility. The Challenges of Multi-sited Ethnography from Marcus and Hannerz to nowadays.- Part IV: Deconstructions.- Chapter 15: Participant observation. The personal commitment in native life: A problematic methodological topos.- Chapter 16: The Weberian line of anthropology: George E. Marcus from Writing Culture to Design.- Chapter 17: Making the Invisible ethnography Visible. The peculiar relationship between Italian anthropology and feminism.- Chapter 18: Beyond the field: literature, theory and ethnographic writing.
About the author
Vincenzo Matera is Full Professor of Cultural and Social Anthropology in the Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna (Ravenna Campus), Italy.
Angela Biscaldi is Associate Professor of Cultural and Social Anthropology in the Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milano, Italy.
