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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page essay that contrasts and compares Nisa (1981) by Marjorie Shostak and In an Antique Land (1992) by Amitav Ghosh. Ethnography constitutes an area of research that reaches into the most intimate details of personal life, as researchers seek to understand a particular culture, from the inside out. Due to the gendered nature of culture in most societies, this necessarily means that the male ethnographers have an easier time establishing rapport with men and, likewise, the female researcher finds it easier to learn about a culture from talking with women. The gender of the ethnographer has a direct influence on the manner in which research is conducted. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khinfeth.rtf
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out. Due to the gendered nature of culture in most societies, this necessarily means that the male ethnographers have an easier time establishing rapport with men and, likewise, the female
researcher finds it easier to learn about a culture from talking with women. The gender of the ethnographer has a direct influence on the manner in which research is conducted.
This is fact is exemplified in two extremely well-written ethnographies, Nisa (1981) by Marjorie Shostak and In an Antique Land (1992) by Amitav Ghosh. Ghosh is a New
Delhi and Oxford-trained social anthropologist who sets his account of ethnographic fieldwork in Egypt against his investigations into the history of and travels of an Indian slave in the twelfth
century. In so doing, he provides historical depth to his descriptions of life in a small Egyptian village in the 1980s. Naturally, since he is a man, Ghosh finds it
easier to establish himself with the men of the village. In fact, he records that he was so inhibited, after reading about "Arab traditions of shame and modesty" in regards
to women, that he barely glances at the women of the village in his first months there (Ghosh, 1992, p. 40). When Ghosh is asked to share an evening
meal in Shaikh Musas home, rather than in his exterior "guest room," it constitutes a sign of acceptance into the social structure of this society. Ghosh records that "We were
sitting in his bedroom that evening. Shaikh Musa, his son Ahmed, his two grandsons and I were eating out of one tray, while the women of the household were sharing
another, at the other end of the room" (1992, p. 40). It was a "special occasion" for Ghosh, as it signified that he had crossed an "invisible barrier" (p. 40).
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