Deconstruction and Ethnographic Apprehension

Paradigm shifts such as the interpretive or the literary turn have emphasized the impact and role of the ethnographic self and the value and need for a reflexive performativity with regard to how this self is negotiated in and beyond the field, namely in ethnographic writing. At the same time, postmodernism has come to deconstruct myths concerning "objective" or "substantial" truth. Truth is no longer singular and factual, it has become relativized, contextualized and embodied to constitute multiple and competing truths. Likewise, relational identities have come to replace an apparently linear and static self, for example leading to Bourdieu's "illusion of biography". What relevance does such an apparent area of conflict have for contemporary anthropological research, on the one hand acknowledging and pleading for the importance of self, on the other hand presuming its ongoing de- and reconstruction? What does it mean for the identity and position(ality) of the researcher and her engagement with other selves? And how might a novel approach such as autoethnography contribute to this tension?

Paroles gelées, 1990

According to the originary hypothesis of Generative Anthropology, human language emerges as a result of an act of appropriation whose aborted fulfilment on the part of highly mimetic predatory hominids issues in a gesture of representation, whereby a lifeless prey is designated as desirable to all and therefore as taboo to any one, as dangerous to appropriate. The first sign signifies only to the extent that it signifies symmetrically opposite values, to the extent that it suspends the attention of desiring subjects between attraction and repulsion regarding the mimetically designated object of their common desire. Accordingly the originary scene of representation is immune to the aporias of deconstruction in that it posits that origin and mimesis, origin and repetition, origin and difference and especially differanceas deferred appropriation, or desireare one. Origin and indirection, origin and obliquity are one: the gesture of representation is a by-product of the act of appropriation. And origin and misrepresentation, or misprision, are one to the extent that the victim is accorded a power owing to human representation alone. That the deconstruction of transcendental origins poses no obstacle to the originary hypothesis, but beats a path to it is suggested by Eric Gans' observation, tucked away in a footnote in The End of Culture, that "in Derrida's work, philosophy renders up its final insights to anthropology."' What is significant though, from an anthropological point of view, is that no such acknowledgement takes place. Something else takes the place of an incipient anthropology; a preoccupation

2017

Anthropologists’ longstanding ambivalence toward political advocacy has, in recent years, come under sustained fire—a shift that is often framed in terms of the discipline’s “moral turn.” In this essay, we make a case for the value of ambivalence, asking what lessons it yields as a methodological heuristic. Tracing the history of the concept, we argue that anthropology was founded on an epistemological ambivalence regarding its orientation to social problems. Thus, the moral turn implies a fundamental transformation in the ways that ethnography is conceived. Although the possibility of conflating moral evaluation with anthropological interpretation is a recognized danger of this shift, we don’t believe that the problem can be resolved by being reflexive, or that all ethnographers confront it. Instead, we suggest that cultivating an analytic of ambivalence is our best strategy for understanding what is going on around us, and teaches us more about the character of social relations th...

Cuadernos De Filologia Inglesa, 1998

This am'cle erplores the idea of approaching texts from an ethnographic perspective, that is to enter another culture, pam'cipate in it and conrrast it with one's own. Some recen? work by the Pakistani writer R u k h s a~ Ahmad are used to illustrate this post-colonial and cultural studies approach to reading. The diversity of Ahmad's women chacters belies the western concept of the Asian womon, victim of her culture as ethnicity is only one aspect of identlntlty. C h s and gender consrraints must also be taken into account.

Intersubjectivity in anthropology has rarely been studied against the broader background of the place of intersubjective exchanges in the long-term history of anthropology. This article attempts to do so by setting the history of anthropology against the history of objectivity since the enlightenment as outlined by Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison's seminal "Objectivity" (2007). On that basis, it concludes that the currently popular romantic ideal of a dyad of interchanges between researcher and researched does not give a proper impression of what anthropology is about. Instead, it argues that the mission of anthropology is based on an expertise about cultural classification that cannot be divorced from the asymmetrical breaks with everyday perceptions provided by ethnographic methodology.

2019

Social science has been an attempt to understand man and society in a scientific spirit. It was initially an adaptation of scientific method of inquiry but as it developed, its scope became limited. The discipline such as Anthropology designed and developed to understand that man does not provide with an exhaustive understanding but rather compromises to remain descriptive. The paper examines the mode of inquiry practiced in Anthropology and argues that the method of inquiry practiced in Anthropology is lopsided and has its roots in the philosophical doctrines of Idealism and Empiricism. It maintains that Idealism and Empiricism preferred observable reality as relevant and hence limited the scope of inquiry. With recent scientific advances in human understanding, it is increasingly becoming possible to take into account those aspects of reality which were thought unthinkable due to intangibility. This emerging shift in our understanding particularly about the universe and the working of human mind has made scientists think afresh. The paper suggests a correction by endorsing the use of speculation and reasoning as tools that can go beyond sense perception and limits of observation and can add into the objectives of social sciences.

the contemporary pacific, 2003

Intersubjectivity in anthropology has rarely been studied against the broader background of the place of intersubjective exchanges in the long-term history of anthropology. This article attempts to do so by setting the history of anthropology against the history of objectivity since the enlightenment as outlined by lorraine Daston and Peter Galison's seminal Objectivity (2007). On that basis, it concludes that the currently popular romantic ideal of a dyad of interchanges between researcher and researched does not give a proper impression of what anthropology is about. Instead, it argues that the mission of anthropology is based on an expertise about cultural classification that cannot be divorced from the asymmetrical breaks with everyday perceptions provided by ethnographic methodology.