Against Translation

The Role of the Researcher in the Production of Ethnographic Knowledge

Bibliographic Data

ID20087744
AuthorsJ De Pina-Cabral (0000-0002-7180-4407, corresponding author)
Year1992
Pages1-23
Publication date1992-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueEurope Observed (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan UK (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/978-1-349-11990-5_1
OpenAlexW2480799798
ISBN9781349119905
LanguageEN
Citations received17

Over the past few years we have witnessed a resurgence of interest in fieldwork with participant observation among younger social anthropologists.1 Some colleagues criticise this tendency as a return to 'traditional descriptive roles' (Llobera 1986: 32). This seems to me a conservative way of interpreting what is in fact a creative attitude (cf. Loizos 1987 and Pina-Cabral 1987). Confronted with the progressive decay of the 'grand theories' which dominated social anthropology in the 1970s, and being unwilling or unable to disregard the serious erosion of analytic categories which took place at that time, younger anthropologists found it necessary to turn again to empirical research as the means for creative thinking

Epistemology · Ethnography · Knowledge production · Participant observation · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Philosophy · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics