Rosaldo, Renato 1941 - Present

## Quotes

“The truth of objectivism—absolute, universal and timeless—has lost its monopoly status. It now competes, on more nearly equal terms, with the truths of case studies that are embedded in local contexts, shaped by local interests, and colored by local perceptions. The agenda for social analysis has shifted to include not only eternal verities and lawlike generalizations but also political processes, social changes, and human differences. Such terms as objectivity, neutrality and impartiality refer to subject positions once endowed with great institutional authority, but they are arguably neither more nor less valid than those of more engaged, yet equally perceptive, knowledgeable social actors. Social analysis must now grapple with the realization that its objects of analysis are also analyzing subjects who critically interrogate ethnographers—their writings, their ethics, and their politics” (Rosaldo, 1989).

## Biography and History

Renato Rosaldo was born in 1941 and received his Ph.D from Harvard in 1971. He is of Mexican descent and taught as a professor at Stanford University. He held the chair of anthropology at Stanford University, before leaving to teach at New York University. He currently serves as the inaugural Director of Latino Studies at New York University. He was married to Michelle Rosaldo, a bright and promising anthropologist, until her untimely death during a fieldwork accident in the Philippines in 1981. Michelle and Renato were both studying the llongot tribe in the Philippines for their own anthropological purposes at the time. He is currently married to Mary Louise Pratt, a scholar of comparative literature, who is also a professor at New York University. Rosaldo has also served as the president of the American Ethnological Society.

Renato Rosaldo has conducted research among the the Ilongots of northern Luzon, Philippines, and more recently on cultural citizenship in San Jose, California. He is also well known for his poetry, of which he has published three volumes, and won the Many Mountains Moving Poetry Book Contest for his work in Diego Luna’s Insider Tips.

Renato Rosaldo lived and contributed to the Critical Turn Era. His main contribution to the Critical Turn era was that he advocated the importance of the indigenous perspective on the ethnographer’s own culture and the ethnographer’s work.

## Work

Some of his well known works include:

* Editor, Cultural Citizenship in Island Southeast Asia : Nation and Belonging in the Hinterlands, University of California Press, 2003.

* Editor, of Anthropology of Globalization: A Reader, (with Jon Inda), Blackwell’s, 2001.

* Editor, Creativity/Anthropology (with Smadar Lavie and Kirin Narayan), Cornell University Press, 1993a.

* Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis, Beacon Press, 1989.

* Editor, The Incas and the Aztecs, 1400-1800 (with George Collier and John Wirth), Academic Press, 1982a.

* Ilongot Headhunting. 1883-1974: A Study in Society and History, Stanford University Press, 1980a.

As well as his three volumes of poetry:

* Prayer to Spider Woman. Gobierno del Estado de Coahuila, Instituto Coahuilense de Cultura (ICOCULT). 2003.

* Diego Luna's Insider Tips. Many Mountains Moving. 2012.

* The Day of Shelly's Death: The Poetry and Ethnography of Grief. Duke University Press. 2014.

The theorhetical trends that Renato Rosaldo contributed to was reflexive turn during the Critical Turn. The reflexive turn refers to an emerging reflection on how anthropologists represented others in their writings as well as how their own personal biases affected their perception. As a result of the reflexive turn many anthropologists situated their own position as an anthropologist in order to make their biases as transparent as possible.

Rosaldo coined the term 'distanced normalizing' which is a writing style that which anthropologists used prior to post-modernism. Distanced normalizing is characterized by describing social life in the present tense which creates the illusion of objectivity (Reyna, 1994).

## Influences

Renato Rosaldo was influenced by the works of both Clifford Geertz & Mikhail Bakhtin. While in turn his works Influenced anthropologists like Lila Abu-Lughod as well as the field of Virtual Ethnography.

The School of Thought most associated with Rosaldo is Hermenutics.

## Analysis

Rosaldo sets out in his work, particularly *llongot headhunting,* to show that culture isn't static and can adapt as needed to fit the social situation demanded by the people within the culture. He does field research on the question of citizenship, culture, and the relation they play with daily lives. He argues that this is shown through the oral traditions of the llongot people as headhunting is not constant in their society, but rather stops and starts as needed to fit their social needs. For these reasons he believes that Anthropologists should not view societies as static, but rather as dynamic and changing environments.

His works start to shift when he is overcome with grief at the loss of his wife, as it shows within his work *Culture and truth.* He explains that detached observation and description are not always relevant in anthropology. This is because sometimes the case requires emotional reasoning to be understood. By eliminating personal emotions the anthropologists distorts and misinterprets the meanings and his analysis is in turn compromised. His example revolves around his using his emotional turmoil to help him connect on a different level with the llongot and view them in an attached, emotional level. Not the detached, analytical method normally advocated for. He also notes that cultures are not easily understood by one who does not live them, and that are complex creatures to fully describe and define to others. Particularly when they are driven by emotion or non rational thoughts at times.

One key note on Renato's contribution is that he wishes us to understand that while we do our field work studying our subject, the subject is in turn studying us. The works of anthropologists are now in turn scrutinized by the hands of the subjects, who can criticize the assumptions and interpretations made by the anthropologist. "Social analysis must now grapple with the realization that its objects of analysis are also analyzing subjects who critically interrogate ethnographers—their writings, their ethics, and their politics.” -Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis" There is no longer a linear progression of knowledge upwards, from the native to the educated scholar. The works are now seen by all, including the subjects, and criticism can be taken from any level by the anthropologist. Who must understand that not only will his peers be watching his works, but his subjects as well.

## Critique

Renato Rosaldo has made claims that the Weberian tradition attempts to clarify the world under a value-free ideal. S. Reyna emphasizes Rosaldo's belief that Weberian tradition removes the personal values from their research; however Max Weber was firm in his belief that there is no such thing as an objective analysis of culture or social phenomena. As a result Rosaldo’s interpretation of Weberian tradition is not comprehensive (Reyna, 1994).

According to Reyna, within Renaldo’s Culture and Truth text he refers to the Classic Period as twentieth century anthropology before postmodernism. Renaldo was referring to a style of writing where the Anthropologist remains distanced from the subject to which he refers to as distanced normalizing. Distanced normalizing is often characterized by describing social life in present tense which creates the perception that the anthropologist is objective. Rosaldo is suggesting that objectivity stems from “thoughts and feelings of impartiality or neutrality that can be provoked in people by certain social positions or styles” (Reyna, 1994). As a result when Renaldo is referring to objectivity he is focusing on the credibility of social situations. When Rosaldo is referring to the thoughts and feelings of neutrality he is no longer examining an epistemological matter but a psychological matter. Thus he is not interested in objectivity but rather the “thoughts and feelings that make something appear objective (Reyna, 1994).

## Sources

Reyna, S. (1994). Literary Anthropology and the Case Against Science. *Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britian and Ireland,* 29 (3), 555-581.

Rosaldo, Renato. (1989). *Culture & Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis.* Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

http://www.shmoop.com/ethnic-studies/renato-rosaldo-quotes.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renato\_Rosaldo

http://anthropology.as.nyu.edu/object/RenatoRosaldo.html