Authority in Ethnography

Paper Summary:

This paper follows the historical development of Clifford's theory of ethnographic authority. It also attempts to expand upon these notions, especially as they pertain to developments in the last decade and the new notion of anthropologist as autobiographer. It discusses the evolution of this field, and how in the last few years an increasingly popular form of anthropology has centered around the use of autobiographical writing, and it's impact on the field.

From the Paper:

"It appears almost as if, some twelve years after Clifford s article, the history of hermeneutics he discussed and critiqued has come full circle. The pronoun the used in description has become I, and the professionalization of anthropology has, while anything but disintegrated, at least had to re-recognize the power of voices outside its own. This adds an interesting new chapter to Clifford s discussion of hermeneutics. Not that all, or even a large amount, of anthropology has become autobiographical in nature. Nor does it mean that this is necessarily an all positive and un-critiqued movement. Not only is the idea of an autobiographer and self ethnographer not widely accepted, but there are still very few traditional ethnographic texts with a large voice by informants."

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