Ethnography as Commentary

“Ethnography as Commentary is a fabulous (and short) book. It is an excellent introduction to the detailed practice of ethnographic interpretation; it is also a very thoughtprovoking meditation on the changing possibilities of the ethnographic monograph after the Internet and of the idea of ethnography as commentary.” - Christopher Kelty, American Anthropologist

“Central African specialists and those interested in genre and/or innovation in ethnography will form a natural readership for this book. However, Ethnography as Commentary has much to offer to anthropologists beyond these groups. I particularly thought of students, and not just for the insights which Fabian gives into fieldwork experience (as indicated on the back cover), but for the glimpse which the book offers into the thoughts of a distinguished scholar and fieldworker towards the close of his career.” - Nicholas Swann, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“The author presents an interesting and insightful discussion of an event that is usually not written about by anthropologists: how a recorded dialogue is turned into what we call 'ethnography'. . . . It is refreshing to read a work by an anthropologist who is not engulfed by jargon but is carefully articulating, defining, and questioning the terms he uses. . . . Ethnography as Commentary addresses students of anthropology as well as seasoned ethnographers because it stresses issues of anthropological methods that are often neglected in practical ethnographic work as well as in general methods classes. I found Chapter two especially helpful while teaching an undergraduate course on fieldwork methods. Students appreciated the good read and it offered interesting thoughts for discussing the 'making' of ethnographic texts.” - Barbara Gerke, Anthropology Review Database

“This slim volume is both an incisive discussion of ethnographic methodology and a pensive reflection on the nature of anthropological knowledge. . . . Because of its ability to lay bare the process of ethnography with disarming honesty the book would be very well-suited for classroom use, either in a course on ethnographic representation and writing or in social research methods courses.” - Niklas Hultin, Interventions

“Ethnography as Commentary is a timely contribution to contemporary problems of anthropological knowledge-making. It is an argument about what ethnography has come to and an experiment about what it might still become more than two decades after the intense period of critiquing anthropology’s emblematic research practices.” - George E. Marcus, co-author of Designs for an Anthropology of the Contemporary

“Johannes Fabian is one of the most prominent and original thinkers in anthropology. With Ethnography as Commentary, he makes a significant contribution to debates about modes of writing in anthropology and adjacent disciplines and to anthropological knowledge of postcolonial Central African culture and society. Younger scholars especially will find it a very instructive close-up portrayal of intensive ethnographic work.” - Ulf Hannerz, author of Foreign News: Exploring the World of Foreign Correspondents