ethnographic seduction

occupation / innovator as

physicist

nationality

American

theoretical physicist

scientist

innovator in the field of

theoretical physics

surfer

is the ways that informants attempt to use their authority and appearance to disarm, charm, and lead ethnographers away from critical inquiry.

Research at the School of the Americas, where my military interlocutors had a stake in making me adopt their interpretations, presents certain pitfalls. One is what Antonius Robben calls 'ethnographic seduction,' a concept he uses to refer to the disarming of ethnographers and their dissuasion from critical inquiry through the subtle molding of appearances in interview contexts. Ethnographic seduction is, according to Robben, based on emotion, appearances, and the illusion of congeniality, rather than reasoned argument, and it is easily confused with good rapport. He argues that this aspect of fieldwork. which may be unconscious, is particularly problematic in research on political violence, where verifying conflicting claims and assertions is impossible. The danger of ethnographic seduction is that one may 'be led astray from an intended course.' One becomes so familiar with the power holders and the institutions of domination, or temporarily dissuaded by their appearances and confused by their jargon, that the authority and destructiveness embodied in them is obscured from view (Robben 1995).

Antony Garrett Lisi

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Antony Garrett Lisi