From "Reading over the Shoulders of Natives" to "Reading Alongside Natives," Literally: Toward a Collaborative and Reciprocal Ethnography

Abstract

In the last several decades, the metaphor of dialogue has influenced the work of a growing number of ethnographers. Many have taken to heart the critiques of those such as Clifford, Rosaldo, or Crapanzano and accordingly replaced "reading over the shoulders of natives" with "reading alongside natives." They have thus sought to develop ethnography along dialogical lines and have in their individual accounts shifted the dominant style of writing from authoritative monologue to involved dialogue between ethnographer and interlocutor. Fewer ethnographers, however, have sought to literally extend the metaphor of dialogue to its next logical step--the collaborative reading and interpretation (between the ethnographer and his or her "informants") of the very ethnographic text itself. In this article I explore the political and ethical implications of a collaborative and reciprocal ethnography, especially how a collaborative practice can further narrow the gap between the academy and the communities in which ethnographers work.