Reflections on the ontology of ethnography

Between experience, power and intersubjectivity

  • Pablo Wright Sección Etnología, ICA, FFyL, Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Keywords: Ethnography, Praxis, Ontology, Existencialism, Radical empiricism

Abstract

This paper presents a reflection on the ontological and epistemological assumptions of Anthropology and its stage of encountering the field: ethnography. For this purpose, and under a combined format of commented bibliography, essay and article, I present ideas posed by philosophers, social scientists and intellectuals who critique the modes of production of anthropological knowledge and the ontology of ethnography from the perspective of existentialism, radical pragmatism, phenomenology, and political economy. From my own field experiences among the Qom population of Formosa, and the epistemological ruptures produced by the visit of a Qom friend to Buenos Aires, I propose a common thread that recovers an existential critique of the anthropological discipline. The idea is to question the rigid positivism of classical Anthropology by proposing critical and reflective paths towards the realization of the praxis for a new, contemporary anthropological contract in our discipline.

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Author Biography

Pablo Wright, Sección Etnología, ICA, FFyL, Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Pablo Wright es Licenciado en Ciencias Antropológicas por la Universidad de Buenos Aires, y Magíster y Doctor en Antropología por Temple University. También ha sido Senior Fellow en el Center for the Study of World Religions de la Universidad de Harvard. Es Investigador Superior del CONICET, Profesor Regular Titular de Antropología Simbólica, en la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la UBA y director de la Sección Etnología del Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas (ICA) de dicha facultad.
Published
2022-08-10
How to Cite
Wright, P. (2022). Reflections on the ontology of ethnography. RUNA, Archivo Para Las Ciencias Del Hombre, 43(3), 403-430. https://doi.org/10.34096/runa.v43i3.10294
Section
Ensayos libres y entrevistas por invitación