A Herodotean Sentiment

Posted on February 18, 2019 Updated on March 2, 2022 No comments yet

The ruins of a brick-and-concrete structure in a grassy pit with trees and houses in the background — The remains of the Roman amphitheatre, Rimini (ancient Ariminum)

Evans-Pritchard [1937] (1977: 153) made the comment that when informants fall out; it is to the anthropologist’s advantage. However, in the modern era where informants read the anthropologist’s work, disputes among informants lead to all kinds of complications, and one must be especially careful in preparing the final script for publication both to safeguard the interests of informants, and to provide as accurate and unbiased an account as possible, taking into account the views of the different factions.

– Douglas S. Farrer, University of Guam, “The Perils and Pitfalls of Performance Ethnography,” International Sociological Association E-Bulletin, 2007 https://www.academia.edu/2350143/The_Perils_and_Pitfalls_of_Performance_Ethnography

Edit 2022-03-01: fixed formatting broken when WordPress introduced the block editor

Write a comment Cancel reply