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Ethnographic encounters. Positionings within and outside the insider frame

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2001

Narmala Halstead
Narmala Halstead
Affiliation:
Department of Human Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper considers issues of representation, in particular, the positioning of the ethnographer. It demonstrates a shift from the anthropologist's concern about how to position herself in the field to that of the perspectives of specific participant-informants. Acquiring knowledge about one's own society must consider both academic pressure to stand outside the frame, and the notion that the ethnographer is always situated. The article explores how an indigenous ethnographer in Guyana becomes both insider and outsider for the participant-informants. This positioning of the ethnographer emerges from the participants-informants’ concerns and perspectives.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Anthropology , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , October 2001 , pp. 307 - 321
Copyright
© 2001 European Association of Social Anthropologists

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Footnotes

Acknowledgements to Eric Hirsch for commenting on several versions of this paper, to Adam Kuper and other participants at a seminar in 1999 at Brunel University, and to Nina Bowen.