This is the fourteenth in a series of notes to fifteen lectures for my class ITSF5001: Ethnography and Participant Observation.

"The ethnographer 'inscribes' social discourse; he writes it down. In so doing, he turns it from a passing event, which exists only in its own moment of occurence, into an account, which esists in its inscriptions and can be reconsulted." Geertz (1973: 19)

  1. Writing, (re-)presentation, evocation: theoretical aspects of telling, making public, one's findings.
    1. Anthropology as writing (Geertz 1972), culture as text: the material reality of the ethno-graphic enterprise, the metaphor, practical implications
    2. A not-so-simple example of the dilemma:
      1. The first/third singular/plural person of the author
        1. "I have found...." (the anthropological common sense in America -- from Malinowski onwards)
        2. "The researcher has found..." (the markings of depersonalized objectivity)
        3. "We have found..." (Lévi-Strauss from "we" to "I")

  2. Reporting (evoking) and arguing: the relationship of the researcher to her field (check again Kaplan (1964: 4)) on the community of scholars into which doctoral research allows entry)
    1. What needs to be said for what purposes and to whom
      1. audience effects
      2. the news
      3. the text as authored

  3. Technical (analytic) vs. passionate (policy oriented if not political)