Aditi Green Chris Packard 02/23/2009 Writing II What makes a successful ethnography?

When ethnographer Zora Neale Hurston arrives in her hometown of Eatonville, Florida, she wants to revisit past memories and key elements from her childhood. Gathered on the porch, her relatives retell folk stories that are passed on from generation to generation. She doesnt retell these stories using summaries but she uses the vernacular tense. Her essays narrative style makes her ethnography compelling. Ethnography is an analysis and presentation of a culture. It is the branch of anthropology that deals with the scientific description of specific human cultures(Houghton Mufflin Company, 1992). According to this definition, it has to be objective. It must not contain any bias whether from the perspective of an observer or a participant. The different viewpoints are similar to the situation of a reporter and a firefighter recording the events in a burning building. The reporter will only see what is observed from the outside. However, the view would be different in the eyes of a firefighter. It would be a description about the burning stairs, rescuing the children, and the struggle to escape. Although these two points of views offer factual information, the ethnography of a participant is less analytical because the author doesnt have to figure out the meaning of a symbol or ritual. For instance, in the novel, Mules and Men, Hurston provides the reader with a series of oral stories in the vernacular tense. John, who appears in most of the folk tales, is a hero according to Hurston. He doesnt exemplify the characteristics of a heroin, being an

optimum human being but he exposes the weaknesses. In the short narrative Witness of the Johnstown Flood, John complains about his death in a flood to Noah. Although he didnt do anything heroic, he served as a vessel to the moral of the story. Hurston also introduces Voodoo in a different light. Voodoo is a form of magic that originated in Haiti. Most people would imagine an old woman sticking needles in a doll in a candlelit room. However, an insider, the author tells you a different story. Hurston states Hoodoo isa religion(p.183). She goes on tell us the history and the various rituals that she observed in her studies. However, an observer may see these practices as strange, or even evil. Although it wont be blatantly stated in the report, the message will be in between the lines because of the human inclination to subjectivity. Geertz as the reporter just records what he observes about the event. Coining his term thick description(1973), he utilizes the information to go beyond the physical observation. For instance, Geertz wrote about the Balinese cockfighting as a form of gambling. It was similar to a boxing ring. People would gather around and watch to bet money on who they thought would win. Upon deeper analysis, he discovered that this game is an important aspect of their culture. He compares it to the American Culture and sports. Some of their values, beliefs, and tradition can be found within this sport. However, his conclusion may be wrong. It may be a large part of their life at this time of year. The difference between an observer and participant is that the observer is there to take down notes temporarily while the participant has been there a substantial amount of time. And with this kind of information, a participant would be able to give the full picture of every focus unlike the observer, whose information is limited. Therefore, the ethnography has to be partially drawn from subjectivity in order to fill that informal relationship between the reporter and the people being observed. Although Geertz tries to become a participant by fleeing with the men to

evade the Javanese police in his essay Deep Play: Notes on Balinese Cockfighting, he is still seen as the white man and the outsider in the minds of the Balinese people. Thus, the observers information can be faulty. And the ethnography becomes more analytical, which means less interesting to the reader. Therefore, it is easier to keep the story like form of the ethnography in the perspective of the participant. The information seems to be more interesting and less robotic. It makes it easier to make connections between ideas because that underlying transition that makes the reading flow. The Balinese never do anything that they can contrive to do in a complicated one, and to this generalization cockfight wagering is no exception.(Geertz, 1973, p. 425) as opposed to The town had not changed. Same love of talk and song. (Hurston, 1990, p.7) The latter sounds simple and less analytical compared to the former one. By conveying drama without losing objectivity could make an ethnographic report strong. Unlike a story, the setting or the place of the culture must be explained in detail to be accurate to the focus. At the beginning of Deep Play, Geertz describes the village. A small place, about five hundred people, and relatively remote, it was its own world.(Geertz, 1973, p. 412) As he continues into the paragraph, his focus is not on description but it is on the observation of the people there. The vernacular dialogue in Hurstons ethnography helps readers put themselves in the authors shoes. Git de car out Calvin kin tell you dat one while were on de way(p. 9). The dialogue is not corrected for grammatical errors or changed so that the audience can understand it better. It is written exactly how the speaker speaks it. The reader can come to his or her own conclusions about what is said.

The ethnography has to present new ideas to the reader. Hurston explains featherbed resistant. It is agreeing to disagree. It is a subtle rebellion that involves telling the oppressor what they want to hear in order to evade giving up information. In the story How the Church Came to Be Split up(Zora Neale Hurston, 1990), Peter didnt feel like following Jesus order that constituted picking up a rock and carrying it. Instead, Peter carried a small pebble. He didnt want to do the task at hand but he didnt want to cause attention to himself. Also, the folktale of How the Brother was Called to Preach was about a recently split church. The Churchgoers were upset with this new arrangement. Therefore, they would silently rebel by not responding to the sermons of the minister or show interest in what he was saying. However, these people still came to mass. They didnt blatantly complain about their disagreement. The goal of ethnographical piece of writing is to bring readers to another place. They get to see the culture through the eyes of the author by vivid details of setting and time. This can best be achieved through a narrative. The piece should have a plot, play on words, and a few cliffhangers to keep readers on the edge of their seats. This would be better conveyed in the viewpoint of the participant. There would be more of a chance of vernacular dialogue. It will probably be simpler in language. Geertz scholarly writing dilutes the substance of the cultures by masking it with his big words, and complicated sentences. It will easily lose the reader. This gives the reader a more authentic and straightforward taste of the culture that could have otherwise been diluted by the writer. Most importantly, the writer must have factual information about the culture that they are studying.

Works Cited Geertz, C. (1973). Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books. Geertz, C. (1973). Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture. The Intrepretation of Cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books. Houghton Mufflin Company. (1992). The American Heritage Dictionary. Hurston, Z. N. (1990). Mules and Men. New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.