Ethnographer as creation: A Whiteheadian interpretation of the ethnographic subject

Abstract

This article examines the dynamic process constituting the researcher-subject in ethnographic fieldwork. Applying the theoretical framework of AN Whitehead AN (1964) The Concept of Nature: The Tarnell Lectures Delivered in Trinity College in 1919. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Whitehead AN (1929/1985) Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology. New York: Free Press, I argue that the ethnographical researching subject is the outcome of fieldwork. I analyse field encounters and illustrate how the ethnographer is constituted differently depending on the field. The field encounter consists of multiple, sometimes overlapping, entities. The entities present in the field encounter may stem from the past illuminating how endurance and change simultaneously operate in the constitution of the ethnographer. Following Whitehead’s thinking, there is no separation between experience and datum. This emphasises how even in the process of knowing the subject and object of research are entwined. This article is a conceptual analysis of selected empirical cases illustrating the emergence of the researcher-subject in fieldwork encounters. I base my analysis on cases from four ethnographic fieldworks I have conducted.