Abstract

ESCOBAR, Duvan. Ethnographic Authority: Fieldwork and the Production of Shared Knowledge. Tabula Rasa [online]. 2022, n.43, pp.223-241.  Epub Apr 16, 2022. ISSN 1794-2489.

This article presents some ongoing challenges faced by ethnography across Latin America. The fields of epistemology, methodology, politics, and experiencial are approached as interconnected nodes making up the ethnographic work. A guiding inquiry for anthropologists throughout the last decade is discussed, namely, what is the role of an ethnographer in the social reality he or she approaches? Thus, we aim to reveal the importance of producing shared knowledge among the so-called ‘interlocutors’ and researchers. Furthermore, we advance the possibility of conducting research by rethinking the paradigms guiding Western scholarly knowledge production, opening the possibility to validate local wisdoms through an intellectual exercise.

Keywords : Ethnography; fieldwork; traditional societies; shared knowledge; anthropologies of the south.

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