The Vulnerable Observer : Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart

@book{citeulike:563756, abstract = {{In <I>The Vulnerable Observer,</I> Ruth Behar--ethnographer, essayist, editor, poet, and a professor of anthropology--challenges traditional theories and offers a more personal approach to anthropology in which the line between observer and observed is not so easily drawn and the observers themselves are not only visible, but vulnerable to their subjects. As she writes, "Call it sentimental, call it Victorian and nineteenth century, but I say that anthropology that doesn't break your heart just isn't worth doing anymore." These insightful, often poetic essays weave together memories of childhood as a Cuban Jewish immigrant with accounts of fieldwork in Spain, Cuba, and the United States. Along the way, Behar tirelessly investigates and elegantly communicates the "central dilemma of all aspects of witnessing." In her own words, "Are there limits--of respect, piety, pathos--that should not be crossed, even to leave a record?"} {Award-winning anthropologist Ruth Behar offers a new theory and practice for humanistic anthropology\&mdash;an anthropology that is lived and written in a personal voice.<BR><BR>"Behar has convinced me that ethnographic empathy will produce an anthropology that has greater meaning than the distanced and detached academic anthropology of the past."<BR>\&mdash;Barbara Fisher, The Boston Globe<BR><BR><BR><BR>Eloquently interweaving ethnography and memoir, award-winning anthropologist Ruth Behar offers a new theory and practice for humanistic anthropology. She proposes an anthropology that is lived and written in a personal voice. She does so in the hope that it will lead us toward greater depth of understanding and feeling, not only in contemporary anthropology, but in all acts of witnessing.<BR>"Her luminous essays build cultural bridges and challenge conventional ways of doing anthropology." <BR><BR><BR>\&mdash;Publishers Weekly}}, author = {Behar, Ruth }, citeulike-article-id = {563756}, comment = {Google Book Search http://books.google.com/books?id=jXQNAAAAYAAJ A review by Marjorie L. DeVault in Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 27, No. 6 (Nov., 1998), pp. 668-669 http://www.jstor.org/pss/2654305 A review by Edith Turner in American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 99, No. 4 (Dec., 1997), pp. 862-862 http://www.jstor.org/pss/682561 Yukti's class: Chapter 1: The Vulnerable Observer}, howpublished = {Paperback}, isbn = {0807046310}, keywords = {anthropology}, month = {November}, posted-at = {2008-06-07 18:01:10}, priority = {3}, publisher = {{Beacon Press}}, title = {The Vulnerable Observer : Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart}, url = {http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=citeulike09-20\&amp;path=ASIN/0807046310}, year = {1997} }

TY - BOOK ID - citeulike:563756 L3 - citeulike-article-id:563756 TI - The Vulnerable Observer : Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart PB - {Beacon Press} SN - 0807046310 N2 - {In <I>The Vulnerable Observer,</I> Ruth Behar--ethnographer, essayist, editor, poet, and a professor of anthropology--challenges traditional theories and offers a more personal approach to anthropology in which the line between observer and observed is not so easily drawn and the observers themselves are not only visible, but vulnerable to their subjects. As she writes, "Call it sentimental, call it Victorian and nineteenth century, but I say that anthropology that doesn't break your heart just isn't worth doing anymore." These insightful, often poetic essays weave together memories of childhood as a Cuban Jewish immigrant with accounts of fieldwork in Spain, Cuba, and the United States. Along the way, Behar tirelessly investigates and elegantly communicates the "central dilemma of all aspects of witnessing." In her own words, "Are there limits--of respect, piety, pathos--that should not be crossed, even to leave a record?"} {Award-winning anthropologist Ruth Behar offers a new theory and practice for humanistic anthropology&mdash;an anthropology that is lived and written in a personal voice.<BR><BR>"Behar has convinced me that ethnographic empathy will produce an anthropology that has greater meaning than the distanced and detached academic anthropology of the past."<BR>&mdash;Barbara Fisher, The Boston Globe<BR><BR><BR><BR>Eloquently interweaving ethnography and memoir, award-winning anthropologist Ruth Behar offers a new theory and practice for humanistic anthropology. She proposes an anthropology that is lived and written in a personal voice. She does so in the hope that it will lead us toward greater depth of understanding and feeling, not only in contemporary anthropology, but in all acts of witnessing.<BR>"Her luminous essays build cultural bridges and challenge conventional ways of doing anthropology." <BR><BR><BR>&mdash;Publishers Weekly} KW - anthropology N1 - Google Book Search http://books.google.com/books?id=jXQNAAAAYAAJ A review by Marjorie L. DeVault in Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 27, No. 6 (Nov., 1998), pp. 668-669 http://www.jstor.org/pss/2654305 A review by Edith Turner in American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 99, No. 4 (Dec., 1997), pp. 862-862 http://www.jstor.org/pss/682561 Yukti's class: Chapter 1: The Vulnerable Observer AU - Behar, Ruth PY - 1997/11/06/ UR - http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=citeulike09-20&amp;path=ASIN/0807046310 ER -