Opening Up Fieldwork with Ethnographic Poetry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3138/anth-2019-0068Keywords:
ethnographic poetry, creative ethnographic writing, anthropological poetry, refugee resettlement, healing and trauma, anthropology of media, American individualismAbstract
Four ethnographic poems are used to explore, elucidate and complexify four ethnographic encounters in the field. Each poem is accompanied by a brief explanation as to the ethnographic context in which the poem was written, as well as the reasons why an ethnographic poem was chosen as a tool to illuminate, complexify and do justice to these varying fieldwork experiences. The strengths of ethnographic poetry as a rigorous and subtle tool for cross-cultural understanding is addressed.
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