Ethnography after anthropology

Abstract

AbstractFor many today, extraction is a damning feature of all ethnography. Yet anthropologically minded ethnographers should not think of themselves as multinational mining corporations. The self‐estimation of any ethnographer, especially an anthropologically minded ethnographer, should be much lower and smaller, as low and small as tiny moles that make new connections by digging channels in the dark. Moles might not be the perfect analogy. They do, however, demonstrate to anthropologically minded ethnographers two important characteristics: they are fuzzy, and they spend an enormous amount of time digging. Ethnographers should be like moles, maintaining a sensitivity to where they tread and where they might dig, feeling compelled to dig deeper instead of staying on the open surface, and being open to a synesthesia of fuzziness.