• Living Theory

    Author(s):
    Ilana Gershon (see profile)
    Date:
    2009
    Group(s):
    Anthropology
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    ethnographic writing, Reflexivity, role fetishism, Samoan migrants, social analysis, structural functionalism
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/bbj3-0452
    Abstract:
    When writing, ethnographers are faced with the hermeneutic task of interweaving their dialogues with scholars and their dialogues with their interlocutors in the field. This article is a critique of a long-standing tendency in anthropology to conflate social analysis in texts with social analysis on the ground. I am taking issue with a tendency to compare social theorists such as Heidegger or Bakhtin with the social analysts met during fieldwork. In this intellectual thought exercise, I compare structural functionalists with Samoan migrants to explore some of the differences between writing and practicing social analysis.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X09345416
    Publisher:
    SAGE Publications
    Pub. Date:
    2009-12-10
    Journal:
    Critique of Anthropology
    Volume:
    29
    Issue:
    4
    Page Range:
    397 - 422
    ISSN:
    0308-275X,1460-3721
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 months ago
    License:
    Attribution
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