(Eco)Mimesis and the Ethics of the Ethnographic Presentation

Bibliographic Data

ID2953254
AuthorsCamilla H Mortensen (corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume118
Issue467
Pages105-120
Publication date2005-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of American Folklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8715 • E-ISSN: 1535-1882
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/jaf.2005.0007
OpenAlexW1992242157
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited18

This article examines the ethical dilemma arising when an ethnographer attempts to indicate or even to create the voice of her collaborator while presenting the collaborator's words to an audience. My experiences documenting and presenting women engaged in body modification are utilized here, attempting to reconcile the presentation of peoples, lives, and cultures with the creation of a narrative and of a mimesis. In order to be ethical, our creation of ethnographic narratives must constantly be reexamined, and, in the end, perhaps our ethics lie not in our ability to answer, but in our ability to question

Aesthetics · Art · Dilemma · Epistemology · Ethical dilemma · Ethnography · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Order (exchange) · Presentation (obstetrics) · Sociology · Anthropology · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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