Ethnography Essay -- Writing Literature Essays

EthnographyOne of the about complex and interesting aspects of cultural anthropology is the ethnography. The idea of being able to find out stories about groups of individuals is something that is intriguing to many people. With the ethnography, the authors many times feel that they possess control and understanding over the individuals that they atomic number 18 writing about. Furthermore, many of these authors conduct that the individuals among whom they are living and studying exemplify the entire society as a whole. Ethnographers have employ many different means of establishing their ethnographic say-so. One much(prenominal) method is the use of reflexivity in the ethnography. Ethnographers much(prenominal) as Renato Rosaldo in his work Culture and Truth The Remaking of tender Analysis and Bronislaw Malinowski in his work Argonauts of the Western Pacific assume their authority through the use of reflexivity. On the other hand, there are authors such as George E. Marcus in his work Ethnography Through slurred and Thin, who relieve that reflexivity should be used as a means of demonstrating that maven cannot assert such authority, and Dorinne Kondo, in her work adjournment and Reconstruction of ego Implications for Anthropological Epistemology, who use reflexivity to make a distinction between the ethnographers role in the field, and the ethnographers role when writing the ethnography.There are many different interlingual renditions on the meaning of reflexivity. One such interpretation is given by George Marcus in his work Ethnography Through Thick and Thin. In defining one aspect of his interpretation, Marcus states that reflexivity is the label used in common currency to stand for possible but as-yet unsuccessful alternatives in the production of ethnography(Marcus ... ...serting their authority over the individuals in which they lived among. Whether reflexivity is used as something that is positive, or something that is negative, depend s on the ethnographer. In essence, reflexivity is a method that when used in ethnography, is a tool that can be used to the ethnographers advantage, and how they use reflexivity is to their own discretion.Works CitedKondo, Dorinne K. Dissolution and Reconstitution of Self Implications for Anthropological Epistemology. Cultural Anthropology. Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press, 1986.Malinowski, Bronislaw. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Prospect Heights, IL Waveland Press, 1984.Marcus, George E. Ethnography Through Thick and Thin. Princeton Princeton University Press, 1998.Rosaldo, Renato. Culture and Truth The Remaking of affectionate Analysis. Boston Beacon Press, 1993.