Collaborative Ethnography And Public Anthropology Juke Er Lassiter Analysis

In the journal article on Collaborative Ethnography and Public Anthropology, author Luke Eric Lassiter details a variety of historical references in which anthropologists have combined their research with the participants being studied; using their overall experiences to collaborate findings into one solid text. He defines this as collaborative ethnography, the collaboration of researchers and subjects in the production of ethnographic texts, both fieldwork and writing. (Lassiter, 2005)

When reviewing the article, I annotated various situations throughout his chronology. Foremost, he quotes a few early twentieth century references in which anthropologists have worked with study participants, deemed precedents for a collaborative ethnography. Some examples he gave was the pairing of Franz Boas and George Hunt and collaborations between French anthropologist Maurice Leenhardt and the natives of New Caledonia. He says “the development on American anthropology was intimately tied to the study of American Indians”. (Lassiter, 2005) He continues with examples from Lewis Henry Morgan’s work with the Iroquois and added scientific studies from Ely Parker. With Morgan being an influential part to General John Wesley Powell in the formation of the Bureau of American Ethnology, who was instrumental in anthropological studies of the Native Americans.

Lassiter’s next topic in this journal article was Feminist Anthropology; a branch of anthropology that seeks to reduce male bias in research findings, anthropological hiring practices and the scholarly production of knowledge. (Brodkin and Morgen, 2011) Feminist anthropology emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s when women were encouraged to pursue laboratory studies instead of fieldwor...

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... strategy uses coproduced and co-written texts as the most direct and first employed strategy. This engages the consultant as the narrator and the ethnographer as the compiler and translator.

In closing, each collaborative project calls for specific strategies appropriate to its individualized relationships and particular contexts. These strategies can work alone or together to help the studied voices be heard. They can turn the dialogue from one dimensional to multi-dimensional by representing the views, opinions and research of the studied groups. Collaborative ethnographic practices have the potential to pull academic and applied anthropology, feminist and postmodern approaches, and Americanist as well as other anthropological traditions into the same stream, which will, “probe the deep mysteries of the human species and the human soul.” (Peacock, 1997)