Collaborative Ethnography

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Introduction

Postmodern anthropology can be described as a method to write about cultures in a certain way, by scrutinizing and interpreting the information gathered. Postmodern ethnographers believe that it is the way we interpret information that must be studied and that the voice of societies should be advocated through an informant. They also believe that to do this the use of collaborative ethnography is of vital importance. Collaborative ethnography is a relationship between ethnographers and informants. This, however, could be a team of ethnographers observing and studying a society, it could be a couple of ethnographers and more than one informant or it could be an ethnographer and his/her students. There are many different ways in which it could be done but the important factor is that it is a cooperation and bond between more than one author, in order to construct an anthropological writing. This essay is going to look at some of the advantages and limitations of using collaborative ethnography and how this in turn can affect the style of the anthropological writing used. It will argue that, this type of ethnography is important in obtaining reliability, relevance and efficiency when writing about a society in a collaborative way, but will also include the limitations that need to be addressed when working in a team towards a general goal.

Advantages and limitations

When using collaborative ethnography the anthropologist would need to consider the benefits of using such a technique to gather information and observed data. Due to the nature of collaborative ethnography having more than one person co-write is a benefit in its self. In an article written by Luke Eric Lassiter (2008), he aimed to move away from th...

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...C, (2009) Careers in 21st Century Applied Anthropology: Perspectives from Academics and Practitioners, John Wiley & Sons.

Lassiter, L.E, (2004) ‘Collaborative Ethnography’, AnthroNotes, Museum of Natural History Publication for Educators, Volume 25, No 1. Pages 1-9.

Lassiter, L.E, (2005) The Chicago Guide to Collaborative Ethnography, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Lassiter, L.E, (2008) Moving Past Public Anthropology and Doing Collaborative Research, Huntington, Marshall University Graduate College Press.

Nanda, S & Warms, R.L, (2010) Cultural Anthropology, Edition 10, California, Cengage learning.

Stringer, E.T, (1997) Community-based ethnography: breaking traditional boundaries of research, teaching and learning, New Jersey, Routledge.

Turner, P & Risjord, M, (2007) Handbook of the philosophy of science, Amsterdam, Elsevier.

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