{"id":108,"date":"2020-03-12T18:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T05:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/?page_id=108"},"modified":"2021-05-06T14:35:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T02:35:51","slug":"communicating","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/anthnav\/practicing-social-anthropology\/communicating\/","title":{"rendered":"Communicating like a Social Anthropologist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social anthropologists have the tricky task of communicating knowledge about complex cultural and social lifeworlds.<\/p>\n

In some fundamental ways \u201cAnthropology is a writing discipline\u201d, as Carol McGranahan discusses in this book <\/a>(just click ‘read the introduction’). This is because writing has long been part of the process<\/i>, as well as the product<\/i>, of social anthropology. However, film, photography, and other creative mediums can be a wonderful part of the process of communicating anthropological knowledge too – and also have a long history in the discipline.<\/p>\n

Below we explore some of styles of writing anthropologists get up to, as well as some of the other mediums for communicating ethnographic knowledge.<\/p>\n

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Writing<\/h1>\n

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When social anthropologists write about a culture, community, or society, it is called an \u2018ethnography<\/strong><\/a>\u2019 (which, somewhat confusingly, is both the name of the type of fieldwork social anthropologists do, and <\/i>the texts they produce). This page<\/a> gives a great 3-paragraph intro to what an ethnography typically looks like, as a text, and why they are useful.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>However, not all ethnographies are alike. Writing produced by social anthropologists has changed over time, and been shaped by different ideas and different fields, from a very scientific \u2018realist\u2019 form involving detailed descriptions, with a distanced, objective voice; to more evocative, \u2018impressionist\u2019 descriptions of a place and peoples; to narrative-driven \u2018confessional\u2019 tales that make visible the writer\/anthropologist\u2019s own struggles, mistakes and triumphs, as part of the story. These three \u2018genres<\/strong>\u2019 of writing were described by American professor John Van Maanen<\/a>. There are other ways of thinking about our writing though, and the important thing to note is that many forms of anthropological writing co-exist today. This useful web page<\/a> briefly lays out some of the things that social anthropology values in writing, no matter the style\/genre.<\/p>\n

This recent book chapter<\/a>, by Italian anthropologist Franca Tamasari, also deeply discusses reflexive practices as part of writing.<\/p>\n

Below we explore some of the forms in which ethnographic writing can be presented and shared.<\/p>\n

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