Reflexive Ethnographic Science

In recent years, major debates have arisen regarding the nature of ethnographic authority and the validity of ethnographic descriptions. In an effort to reestablish the status of ethnography as science, Aunger (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) proposes an empirical protocol for reflexive ethnographic research which forces the researcher to focus on intra-cultural variation. The author lays out the characteristics and methods of a reflexive analytical approach by applying it to his own ethnographic data on food avoidances in a multiethnic population, including pygmy foragers and their horticulturist Bantu associates living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR