Reciprocal Ethnography and the Power of Women's Narratives

Reciprocal Ethnography and the Power of Women's Narratives
Author: Elaine J Lawless
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2019-08-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0253042984

Folklorist Elaine J. Lawless has devoted her career to ethnographic research with underserved groups in the American Midwest, including charismatic Pentecostals, clergywomen, victims of domestic violence, and displaced African Americans. She has consistently focused her research on women’s speech in these contexts and has developed a new approach to ethnographic research which she calls "reciprocal ethnography," while growing a detailed corpus of work on women’s narrative style and expressive speech. Reciprocal ethnography is a feminist and collaborative ethnographic approach that Lawless developed as a challenge to the reflexive turn in anthropological fieldwork and research in the 1970s, which was often male-centric, ignoring the contributions by and study of women’s culture. Collected here for the first time are Lawless’s key articles on the topics of reciprocal ethnography and women’s narrative which influenced not only folklore, but also the allied fields of anthropology, sociology, performance studies, and women’s and gender studies. Lawless’s methods and research continue to be critically relevant in today’s global struggle for gender equality.

Reciprocity and Its Practice in Social Research

Reciprocity and Its Practice in Social Research
Author: Chowdhury, Jahid Siraz
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2022-05-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1799896048

Reciprocity has been critical in the philosophy and social sciences of the 20th century. Over the last seven decades, several countries settled by European powers have become autonomous, and returning has become a challenge. Consequently, writing on reciprocity as a central theme requires time and implies a deep dedication to the community. There is a need to explore the factors and policies behind the study agendas and secret philosophies before and after European involvement. Reciprocity and Its Practice in Social Research aims to open the controlled consciousness of self as a human being and then as a scholar to the community via the methodological lens. It analyzes reciprocity from the Greek tradition to Medeabale Arab to the early colonial or pre-colonial period. It specifically addresses the benefit of social research on the community and seeks ways to revolutionize and improve current research and academic processes. Covering topics such as the philosophy of science, indigenous science, and Western metaphysics, this book is an essential resource for anthropologists, philosophers, sociologists, university faculty and administration, students of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

Practices, Challenges, and Prospects of Digital Ethnography as a Multidisciplinary Method

Practices, Challenges, and Prospects of Digital Ethnography as a Multidisciplinary Method
Author: Chowdhury, Jahid Siraz
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2022-05-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1668441918

Ethnography in the digital age presents new methods for research. It encourages scientists to think about how we live and study in a digital, material, and sensory world. Digital ethnography considers the impact of digital media on the methods and processes by which we perform ethnography and how the digital, methodological, practical, and theoretical aspects of ethnographic research are becoming increasingly interwoven. This planet does not exist in a static state; as technology grows and shifts, we must learn how to appropriately analyze these changes. Practices, Challenges, and Prospects of Digital Ethnography as a Multidisciplinary Method examines the pervasiveness of digital media in digital ethnography’s setting and practice. It investigates how digital settings, techniques, and procedures are reshaping ethnographic practice and explores the ethnographic-theoretical interactions through which “old” opinions are influenced by digital ethnography practice, going beyond merely transferring conventional concepts and techniques into digital research settings. Covering topics such as data triangulation, indigenous living systems, and digital technology, this premier reference source is an essential resource for libraries, students, teachers, sociologists, anthropologists, social workers, historians, political scientists, geographers, public health officials, archivists, government officials, researchers, and academicians.

Religion and Outer Space

Religion and Outer Space
Author: Eric Michael Mazur
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2023-07-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000904695

Religion and Outer Space examines religion in and on the final frontier. This book offers a first-of-its-kind roadmap for thinking about complex encounters of religion and outer space. A multidisciplinary group of scholarly experts takes up some of the most intriguing scientific, spiritual, trade/commercial, and even military dimensions of the complex entanglements of religion and outer space. Attending to the historical reality that the interconnections between religion and the heavens are as old as religions themselves, the volume starts with an examination of "outer space" elements in the most sacred writings of the world’s religions. It then explores some of the religious questions inevitable in this encounter, analyzing cultural constructions (both literary and actual) of religion and outer space. It ends with examinations of the role of religion in the very real and very present business of space exploration. What might motivate the spread of religion (or at least fantasies of religion in its myriad possibilities) into new interior and exterior dimensions of the cosmos? Only the future will tell. Religion and Outer Space is essential reading for students and academics with an interest in religion and space, religion and science, space exploration, religion and science fiction, popular culture, and religion in America.

Widening the Frame with Visual Psychological Anthropology

Widening the Frame with Visual Psychological Anthropology
Author: Robert Lemelson
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 459
Release: 2021-10-28
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 3030798836

This book uses visual psychological anthropology to explore trauma, gendered violence, and stigma through a discussion of three ethnographic films set in Indonesia: 40 Years of Silence (Lemelson 2009), Bitter Honey (Lemelson 2015), and Standing on the Edge of a Thorn (Lemelson 2012). This exploration “widens the frame” in two senses. First, it offers an integrative analysis that connects the discrete topics and theoretical concerns of each film to crosscutting themes in Indonesian history, society, and culture. Additionally, it sheds light on all that falls outside the literal frame of the screen, including the films’ origins; psychocultural and interpersonal dynamics and constraints of deep, ongoing collaborations in the field; narrative and emotional orientations toward editing; participants’ relationship to their screened image; the life of the films after release; and the ethics of each stage of filmmaking. In doing so, the authors widen the frame for psychological anthropology as well, advocating for film as a crucial point of engagement for academic audiences and for translational purposes. Rich with critical insights and reflections on ethnographic filmmaking, this book will appeal to both scholars and students of visual anthropology, psychological anthropology, and ethnographic methods. It also serves as an engrossing companion to three contemporary ethnographic films.

Ukrainian Ritual on the Prairies

Ukrainian Ritual on the Prairies
Author: Natalie Kononenko
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2023-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0228017459

While Canada is home to one of the largest Ukrainian diasporas in the world, little is known about the life and culture of Ukrainians living in the country’s rural areas and their impact on Canadian traditions. Drawing on more than ten years of interviews and fieldwork, Ukrainian Ritual on the Prairies describes the culture of Ukrainian Canadians living in the prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Despite powerful pressure to assimilate, these Ukrainians have managed both to preserve their sense of themselves as Ukrainian and to develop a culture sensitive to the realities of prairie life, creating their own uniquely Ukrainian Canadian traditions. The Ukrainian church, an iconic though now rapidly disappearing feature of the prairie landscape, takes centre stage as an instrument for the retention of Ukrainian identity and the development of a new culture. Natalie Kononenko explores the cultural elements of Ukrainian Canadian ritual practice, with an emphasis on family traditions surrounding marriage, birth, death, and religious holidays. Ukrainian Ritual on the Prairies gives voice to a group of everyday people who are too often overlooked, highlighting their accomplishments and their contributions to Canadian life.

The Secret Police and the Religious Underground in Communist and Post-Communist Eastern Europe

The Secret Police and the Religious Underground in Communist and Post-Communist Eastern Europe
Author: James A. Kapaló
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2021-08-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000426068

This book addresses the complex intersection of secret police operations and the formation of the religious underground in communist-era Eastern Europe. It discusses how religious groups were perceived as dangerous to the totalitarian state whilst also being extremely vulnerable and yet at the same time very resourceful. It explores how this particular dynamic created the concept of the "religious underground" and produced an extremely rich secret police archival record. In a series of studies from across the region, the book explores the historical and legal context of secret police entanglement with religious groups, presents case studies on particular anti-religious operations and groups, offers methodological approaches to the secret police materials for the study of religions, and engages in contemporary ethical and political debates on the legacy and meaning of the archives in post-communism.

Holy Women, Wholly Women

Holy Women, Wholly Women
Author: Elaine J. Lawless
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2016-11-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1512803847

Lawless collects and interprets the stories of ten women ministers and examines their public and private lives, their ministries, their images of God, and their negotiations of sexuality and the religious life.

Feminist Ethnography

Feminist Ethnography
Author: Dána-Ain Davis
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2022-03-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1538129817

Feminist Ethnography, Second Edition, is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural introduction to the methods, challenges, and possibilities of feminist ethnography. Dána-Ain Davis and Christa Craven use a problem-based approach—focused on inquiry and investigation—to present a feminist framework for thinking critically about how we document everyday experiences. The book begins with an introduction to feminist perspectives, their meanings over time, and a brief history of feminist ethnography. Then the authors examine feminist methodologies, answering the question, how does one do feminist ethnography, and investigates common challenges such as ethical dilemmas and logistical constraints faced during fieldwork. Finally, Davis and Craven discuss what it means to be a feminist activist ethnographer, including advocacy efforts and engagement with public policy, and ask students to consider: what is your vision for the future of feminist ethnography? New to this Edition: Six new interviews with feminist ethnographers include reflections on the intersections of trans studies, disability studies, and the Cite Black Women movement New section on safety, accessibility, and fieldwork to address the risks all ethnographers face, but in particular those who challenge long-held assumptions that ethnographers are (all) white, Western, able-bodied, well-funded, cisgender, and usually male Enhanced discussion of virtual ethnography in the wake of COVID-19 Added content on transgender/nonbinary experiences and disability studies