The vulnerable observer
Subtitle: anthropology that breaks your heart
By: Ruth Behar.
Publisher: Beacon Pr
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 195
Subjects: Anthropologists -- Attitudes; Anthropologists -- Psychology; Participant observation -- Psychological aspects
Description: In classical anthropology, subjects of study are seen as vulnerable while their observers are instructed to remain detached and objective. Yet with the emergence during the last decade of a group of anthropologists with recognizable connections to the cultures in which they work, the lines between participant and observer, insider and outsider are no longer so easily drawn.

In The Vulnerable Observer, the award-winning anthropologist Ruth Behar offers a new theory and practice for this humanistic anthropology. No longer looking over others' shoulders, she becomes one of the subjects of study as she reflects upon the observer as well as the observed.

. Eloquently interweaving ethnography and memoir, Ruth Behar reflects on fieldwork in Spain, Cuba, and the United States through her personal stories of loss as a young Cuban Jewish immigrant. Beginning with a poignant essay exploring the refuge she found in her fieldwork as her grandfather died, she proposes an anthropology that is lived and written in a personal voice in the hope that it will lead us toward greater depth of understanding and feeling for those about whom we write.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 178-191) and index.

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