Key Concepts in Ethnography, Postcolonial Theory, and Social Structures

Partial Truths (James Clifford)

Ethnographies are not objective records but constructed narratives shaped by authorial choices, context, and power relations.

Why are ethnographies "partial truths"?

They involve interpretation, translation, and representation — not neutral observation.

What does Clifford argue for?

Reflexive, collaborative ethnography that acknowledges its partial, situated nature.

Crisis of Representation (Clifford's context)

Late-20th-century anthropology questioned whose voices were heard or silenced in ethnography.

A Crisis of Representation in the Human Sciences (Marcus & Fischer)

realizing cultural description is never neutral.

Cause of the crisis

Recognition that ethnography is shaped by researcher's background, language, and power.

Opportunity in the crisis

Encourages more reflexive, experimental, and dialogical ethnography.

Anthropology's new strength

Turning its analytical tools on Western assumptions.

Knowing the Oriental (Edward Said)

Western "knowledge" of the East served imperial domination; Orientalism is a discourse reinforcing Western superiority.

How did the West define the Orient?

As exotic, irrational, and backward — the opposite of the West.

What influenced Said?

Michel Foucault's theory of discourse and power.

Function of Orientalist knowledge

To justify and maintain colonial rule.

Key Orientalist scholars

Silvestre de Sacy, Ernest Renan — institutionalized Orientalism.

Main takeaway from Said

"Knowing" the Orient was a form of power, not true understanding.

Black Skin, White Masks (Frantz Fanon - Intro)

Analyzes the psychological effects of colonialism on Black identity in French colonial contexts.

Fanon's goal

To help Black people "tear off the white mask" imposed by racism.

Effect of colonialism

Colonized people internalize racist views and suffer identity crises.

The Negro and Language (Fanon Ch. 1)

Language enforces racial hierarchy; speaking the colonizer's tongue means adopting their worldview.

Result of "speaking white"

Alienation — loss of identity and exclusion from both worlds.

Inferiority complex

Internalized racism reproduced through language and daily acts.

Liberation, for Fanon

Begins with reclaiming identity and language.

Can the Subaltern Speak? (Gayatri Spivak)

Western intellectuals reproduce colonial power by "speaking for" the oppressed.

Who are the subaltern?

Those excluded from political, economic, and cultural systems (e.g., colonized women, peasants).

Can the subaltern truly be heard?

No — their voices are mediated and distorted by dominant discourse.

Representation vs. Re-presentation

Vertretung = speaking for; Darstellung = speaking about — both forms of ventriloquism.

Example: Sati debate

British and Indian nationalists spoke for widows; the women's own voices were absent.

Spivak's conclusion

Scholars must practice epistemic humility and question how they represent others.

A Tale of Two Pregnancies

Compares U.S. and Egyptian infertility experiences; meanings of motherhood depend on moral worlds, not biology.

Kareema vs. U.S. woman

Egypt = community and ritual; U.S. = medicalized isolation.

Anthropological insight

Pregnancy reflects global hierarchies of class, gender, and power.

Method

Uses author's own pregnancy as reflexive ethnography.

Grief and a Headhunter's Rage (Renato Rosaldo)

Ilongot headhunting expresses rage and grief; Rosaldo understood it after his wife's death.

Purpose of headhunting

To release grief by symbolically casting away burdens.

Meaning of "visceral"

Deeply felt emotional understanding, not intellectual.

Key insight

Some practices require lived emotional experience to comprehend.

Europe and the People Without History (Eric Wolf)

Challenges Eurocentrism by showing all peoples are part of global historical processes.

What worldview does Wolf critique?

"The West" as dynamic vs. "The Rest" as static.

Wolf's proposal

Anthropology of interconnection linking local and global systems.

Main takeaway

Non-Europeans shaped modernity through resistance and exchange.

From Jíbaro to Crack Dealer (Philippe Bourgois)

Shows how deindustrialization pushed Puerto Ricans in East Harlem into the drug economy.

What caused this shift?

Loss of factory jobs and racial exclusion from formal labor.

Why drug dealing?

Provides income, respect, and identity when legal paths are closed.

Bourgois's argument

Street culture mirrors U.S. values of success within structural inequality.

Key theme

Structural violence — economic and racial systems create poverty and crime.

Structures, Habitus, Practices (Pierre Bourdieu)

Explains how social order is reproduced through everyday action.

Key concepts

Structures = systems; Habitus = internalized dispositions; Practice = action in context.

Main argument

People unconsciously reproduce society through routine practices.

Importance of habitus

Links individual agency with social structure.

Outcome

Inequality persists through "natural" behaviors and tastes.

Production and Reproduction of Legitimate Language (Bourdieu)

Language is symbolic power that reproduces inequality.

What is "legitimate language"?

The elite, standardized form sanctioned by state and schools.

What gives speech authority?

Speaker's social position, not linguistic quality.

Linguistic market

Speech forms have different social value depending on context and power.

Role of education

Rewards dominant language, disguising privilege as merit.

Key takeaway

Speaking "properly" = symbolic capital marking class and power.

Darwin's Nightmare (Hubert Sauper)

Documentary on ecological and social fallout of global capitalism around Lake Victoria.

Environmental impact

Nile perch destroyed native species and biodiversity.

Economic paradox

Export profits enrich foreigners while locals stay poor and hungry.

Human impact

Poverty, prostitution, violence, and HIV/AIDS linked to exploitation.

Main theme

Globalization enriches the powerful while deepening local suffering.