Abstract
As Everett Hughes noted, there is an “underside” to all work. Each job includes ways of doing things that would be inappropriate for those outside the guild to know. Illusions are essential for maintaining occupational reputation, but in the process they create a set of moral dilemmas. So it is with ethnographic work. This article describes the underside of ethnographic work: compromises that one frequently makes with idealized ethical standards. It argues that images of ethnographers—personal and public—are based on partial truths or self-deceptions. The focus is on three clusters of dilemmas: the classical virtues (the kindly ethnographer, the friendly ethnographer, and the honest ethnographer), technical skills (the precise ethnographer, the observant ethnographer, and the unobtrusive ethnographer), and the ethnographic self (the candid ethnographer, the chaste ethnographer, the fair ethnographer, and the literary ethnographer). Changes in ethnographic styles and traditions alter the balance of these deceptions but do not eliminate the need for methodological illusions.
Keywords
EthnographySociologyReputationAestheticsAnthropologySocial scienceArt
Related Publications
Ethnography: Principles and Practice
Acknowledgements Preface 1. What is ethnography? 2. Research design: problems, cases, and samples 3. Access 4. Field relations 5. Insider Accounts: listening and asking question...
THE FUTURE OF MUSLIM NATIONS
Pakistan is an Islamic country. So is my country, Indonesia. But, though we recognize Islam to be the faith of the Indonesian people, we have not made an express mention of it i...
Synthesis through meta-ethnography: paradoxes, enhancements, and possibilities
Despite theoretical differences and methodological questions, the conversation about synthesizing qualitative research raises interest. Meta-ethnography, as initially described ...
the ecological basis for Aztec sacrifice<sup>1</sup>
The Aztec emphasis on ritualized human sacrifice and the sheer quantities of victims involved have long been recognized as apparent extremes of cultural behavior in the world et...
Using meta ethnography to synthesise qualitative research: a worked example
Objectives: To demonstrate the benefits of applying meta ethnography to the synthesis of qualitative research, by means of a worked example. Methods: Four papers about lay meani...
Publication Info
- Year
- 1993
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 267-294
- Citations
- 460
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
460
OpenAlex
Cite This
Gary Alan Fine
(1993).
TEN LIES OF ETHNOGRAPHY.
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
, 22
(3)
, 267-294.
https://doi.org/10.1177/089124193022003001
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1177/089124193022003001