Ethnographers work anywhere from communities in
small villages to bustling cities, but 1 its work is always
the same: listening to someone else’s story. 2 A subfield
of anthropology, ethnography is the study of people and the
cultures in which they live. While an objective approach
to collecting and sharing information is traditionally
encouraged, 3 anthropology professor Ruth Behar believes
that integrating her personal experience into her work is not
only inevitable but valuable. Doing so, Behar argues, allows
readers to better connect with her work.
Born in Cuba in 4 1956, the granddaughter of
Eastern European Jewish émigrés. Behar moved with her
family to New York in 1962. These early experiences
5 in her younger years generated an interest in how
people form identity based on community, eventually
leading Behar to pursue a PhD in cultural anthropology at
Princeton. After her graduation in 1983, she wrestled with
the norms of her chosen field. While many ethnographers
6 pressured the importance of maintaining emotional
impartiality during the research process, Behar felt that
divorcing personal experience from ethnography was too
clinical.
She first tackled this dilemma in her 1993 book
Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s
Story. Based on the four years Behar spent interviewing
Esperanza Hernández, a street peddler in the Mexican
town of Mexquitic, 7 Hernández felt torn between her
Mexican and Indian identities. Behar identified with this
tension. 8 Because she maintains an objective tone for
most of the book, the final chapter of Translated Woman
offers a personal reflection on Behar’s struggle to define her
own cultural identity, influenced by 9 Latin America, her
birthplace—and the United States. This chapter garnered
a divided critical 10 reception, some anthropologists
insisted, that Behar had strayed beyond the bounds of her
field, while others lauded her unique approach. Behar
addressed this topic again in her next book, The Vulnerable
Observer (1996), contending that ethnography should be
tackled with a combination of tenderness and toughness.
While her technique is unorthodox, Behar finds her
work fruitful when she allows her own experience to shape
her understanding of the stories she hears. By rejecting
an objective approach, she is able to cultivate a personal
relationship with her interview subjects, learning about
both their identities and her own. She then shares these
revelations with her audience. 11
small villages to bustling cities, but 1 its work is always
the same: listening to someone else’s story. 2 A subfield
of anthropology, ethnography is the study of people and the
cultures in which they live. While an objective approach
to collecting and sharing information is traditionally
encouraged, 3 anthropology professor Ruth Behar believes
that integrating her personal experience into her work is not
only inevitable but valuable. Doing so, Behar argues, allows
readers to better connect with her work.
Born in Cuba in 4 1956, the granddaughter of
Eastern European Jewish émigrés. Behar moved with her
family to New York in 1962. These early experiences
5 in her younger years generated an interest in how
people form identity based on community, eventually
leading Behar to pursue a PhD in cultural anthropology at
Princeton. After her graduation in 1983, she wrestled with
the norms of her chosen field. While many ethnographers
6 pressured the importance of maintaining emotional
impartiality during the research process, Behar felt that
divorcing personal experience from ethnography was too
clinical.
She first tackled this dilemma in her 1993 book
Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s
Story. Based on the four years Behar spent interviewing
Esperanza Hernández, a street peddler in the Mexican
town of Mexquitic, 7 Hernández felt torn between her
Mexican and Indian identities. Behar identified with this
tension. 8 Because she maintains an objective tone for
most of the book, the final chapter of Translated Woman
offers a personal reflection on Behar’s struggle to define her
own cultural identity, influenced by 9 Latin America, her
birthplace—and the United States. This chapter garnered
a divided critical 10 reception, some anthropologists
insisted, that Behar had strayed beyond the bounds of her
field, while others lauded her unique approach. Behar
addressed this topic again in her next book, The Vulnerable
Observer (1996), contending that ethnography should be
tackled with a combination of tenderness and toughness.
While her technique is unorthodox, Behar finds her
work fruitful when she allows her own experience to shape
her understanding of the stories she hears. By rejecting
an objective approach, she is able to cultivate a personal
relationship with her interview subjects, learning about
both their identities and her own. She then shares these
revelations with her audience. 11