Best Ethnography Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“As we encounter each other, we see our diversity — of background, race, ethnicity, belief – and how we handle that diversity will have much to say about whether we will in the end be able to rise successfully to the great challenges we face today.”

Source: The State of the World Atlas

“You still need to be able to write, and to have a habit of writing - and if you can do this creatively, so much the better.”

Music Journalism Ethnography

Book:Music Journalism 101: The definitive resource for new and established writers

Source: Music Journalism 101: The definitive resource for new and established writers

“Ethnography is something you have actively be aware of doing; it's not passive work. It takes considerable conscious effort to do it well.”

Music Journalism Ethnography

Book:Music Journalism 101: The definitive resource for new and established writers

Source: Music Journalism 101: The definitive resource for new and established writers

“Indeed ethnography and theory resemble nothing so much as the two arcs of a hyperbola, which cast their beams in opposite directions, lighting up the surfaces, respectively, of mind and world. They are back to back, and darkness reigns between them. But what if each arc were to reverse its orientation, so as to embrace the other in an encompassing, brightly illuminated ellipse? We would then have neither ethnography nor theory, nor even a compound of both. What we would have is an undivided, interstitial field of anthropology. If ethnographic theory is the hyperbola, anthropology is the ellipse. For ethnography, when it turns, is no longer ethnography but the educational correspondences of real life. And theory, when it turns, is no longer theory, but an imagination nourished by its observational engagements with the world. The rupture between reality and imagination—the one annexed to fact, the other to theory—has been the source of much havoc in the history of consciousness. It needs to be repaired. It is surely the task of anthropology, before all else, to repair it. In calling a halt to the proliferation of ethnography, I am not asking for more theory. My plea is for a return to anthropology.”

Inspirational Science Theory Hyperbole Ethnography Social Anthropology Anthropological Method Ellipse Ingold Observation With Participation Tim Ingold

Author:Tim Ingold

“In order for ethnology to live, its object must die; by dying, the object takes its revenge for being 'discovered' and with its death defies the science that wants to grasp it.”

Colonialism Imperialism Critical Race Theory Ethnography

Author:Jean Baudrillard

“Hoʻokahi o kuʻu noi i ka poʻe: e mālama i ko lākou moʻolelo, ma kahi e mau ai...nā moʻopuna aku ana, nā kualua, a makemake nā moʻopuna, e lohe i ko kākou leo. I have only one favor to ask of people: to take care of their stories, let them be kept in a permanent place...so that their grandchildren and great-grandchildren can come and hear our voices.”

History Quotes Hawaiian Ethnography Hawaiian Language

Author:Mary Kawena Pukui

“In marked contrast to the relaxed, typically Latin attitude of the Dominicans the Protestant missionaries were still proceeding at full blast with the fight for souls. These North American evangelists of strictly fundamentalist inclination combined in a curious fashion strict adhesion to the literal meaning of the Old Testament With mastery of the most modern technology. Most of them came from small towns in the Bible Belt, armed with unshakably clear consciences and a rudimentary smattering of theology, convinced that they alone were the repositories of Christian values now abolished elsewhere. Totally ignorant of the vast world, despite their transplantation, and taking the few articles of morality accepted in the rural Amenca of their childhoods to be a universal credo, they strove bravely to spread these principles of salvation all around them. Their rustic faith was well served by a flotilla of light aircraft, a powerful radio, an ultra-modern hospital and four-wheel-drive vehicles -- in short, all the equipment that a battalion of crusaders dropped behind enemy lines needed.”

Religion Anthropology Ethnography Amazonia

Book:The Spears of Twilight: Life and Death in the Amazon Jungle

Source: The Spears of Twilight: Life and Death in the Amazon Jungle

“The scientific descriptions of ethnology that we find in books are inevitably dry and do not give the least impression of the mysterious world of the Achumawi, whose life is so inextricably mixed in with the animals, the trees, the plants. But without forming some mental picture of that life, it is, I believe, almost impossible to understand how and to what extent the Achumawi Indian finds himself in a state of direct mystical connection with the universe that surrounds him. Now that is precisely his religion, and his entire religion.” — Jaime de Angulo Appears in the introduction of "Tracks Along the Left Coast" by Andrew Schelling”

History California Indigenous Anthropology Linguistics Native America Ethnography Turtle Island Jaime De Angulo

Author:Jaime de Angulo

“You say that to (Franz) Boas science is "austere and impersonal." You know, that is just the thing that gets my goat. They have managed to take all the life out of science. Why be ashamed of the joy and the exaltations that are the blood of knowl-edge? Why pretend that you have no emotions? In another century they will look aghast at the funereal aspect of our science. They will say: those people were doing penance for something! ... We have driven our libido underground.” — Jaime de Angulo, written in a letter to his friend and mentor, the linguist Edward Sapir (Appears in the introduction to "Tracks Along the Left Coast" by Andrew Schelling)”

Nature History California Indigenous Anthropology Linguistics Ethnography Turtle Island Jaime De Angulo Andrew Schelling

Author:Jaime de Angulo

“Finding Mecca in America weaves social theory and concrete ethnography into a significant contribution on Muslims in the United States, illuminating broader questions about the integration of minority and immigrant groups along the way. This is an important work and a joy to read.”

“I do feel a kinship with anthropology or ethnography, although when you hear those terms you think of something exotic. Generally, photographic anthropology has that taste of the faraway or undiscovered place. But my anthropology has more to do with what's in my reach.”

Thinking Feels Term Taste Anthropology Exotic Kinship Ethnography

Author:Ari Marcopoulos

“If we put together all that we have learned from anthropology and ethnography about primitive men and primitive society, we perceive that the first task of life is to live. Men begin with acts, not with thoughts.”

Ifs Men Life Firsts Together Science Life Is Learning Perception Tasks Perceive Primitive Anthropology Thoughts On Life Primitive Man Ethnography

Author:William Graham Sumner

“The anxiety around such work [vulnerably written ethnographies] is that it will prove to be beyond criticism, that it will be undiscussable.”

Written Prove Anxiety Criticism Ethnography

Author:Ruth Behar

“Written with grace and thoroughly researched, One People, One Blood is an ethnography with a lot of heart that also sheds new light on a fascinating and fraught chapter in recent Jewish history.”

People Heart Light Grace Written Blood Fascinating Chapters Shed Jewish History Ethnography

Author:Ruth Behar

“Packed with interwoven personal narratives which the author ties together to show the fragility and molding of Buryat memory and Buryat shamanism's purpose during the transition from state socialism to neoliberal capitalism in Mongolia. . . . Buyandelger has created an emotive, accessible, and well-researched ethnography sure to arouse sympathy and interest in readers.”

Wells States Shows Together Purpose Interest Memories Reader Capitalism Socialism Narrative Ties Transition Fragility Shamanism Molding Mongolia Ethnography

Author:Michael Warren

“Michael Jackson is an extremely productive ethnographer, a serious reader of phenomenological and existential philosophy, and a remarkable writer at a level that one rarely sees in anthropology. Lifeworlds, unsurprisingly, is no exception. The several essays included here fit into an impressive whole that set out a compelling case for a type of ethnography of which Jackson is one of the masters. The writing is strong and the critical reflections impressive. This book defines an approach to anthropology that is resonant enough to challenge the leading models of our time.”

“Most anthropologists are doing straightforward ethnography, and should”

Should Straightforward Anthropologists Ethnography

Author:Clifford Geertz

“Social media is less about technology and more about anthropology, sociology, and ethnography.”

Social Technology Media Social Media Sociology Anthropology Ethnography

Book:Engage!, Revised and Updated: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web

Source: Engage!, Revised and Updated: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web

“Ethnography literally means 'a portrait of a people.' An ethnography is a written description of a particular culture - the customs, beliefs, and behavior - based on information collected through fieldwork.”

People Mean Culture Belief Written Information Particular Behavior Description Customs Portraits Fieldwork Ethnography

Author:Marvin Harris