questioning the authorities

The article, “Issues in the Ethics of Research Method: An Interpretation of the Anglo-American Perspective” by Simeon W. Chilungu should be mandatory reading for all anthropology students…beginning with my cohort. Last fall in my Prosem I class we discussed some of the issues that Chilungu tackles. Most of my cohort, felt that they could be objective about the cultures they would be studying. They felt that they could be unbiased.  They felt that perhaps(just perhaps) they should reveal that they might have some biases in the first part of their ethnographies.  But that after initial short acknowledgement of where they were coming from any reflexivity would just get in the way.  They really hated the fact that postmodernism even existed. They were resentful of the postmodern questioning of authority.  I remember someone saying if they could not be judged to be objective, “then what was the point!!” This quote should be written in stone and placed in the hall of Turlington.

“The important point is that, at every stage, the observer is subjectively making decisions, which again reflect any experiential categories of affiliation and loyalty he/she may have. These categories significantly influence the researchers concept formation in the field, his/her epistemology, his/her description of what is observed, and his/her interaction and information transaction with members of the target culture”(Chilungu 1976:459).

I especially loved the How dare he! attitude of the replies.