Qualitative research

[Eric Henry]

To flip things around, instead of trying to justify ethnography as a "scientific" (and thus valid) process, I like to challenge my students to think of science as a social process. I've found Jonathan Marks' works very helpful in this regard, as he is a biological anthropologist with a deep interest in culture. Several of the chapters in his recent book "Why I am Not a Scientist" would be good candidates. Also, in a class on ritual last week I asked my students to read Hugh Gusterson's Nuclear Rites, which offers a ritual analysis of nuclear weapons testing. Some of them were shocked to think that something so exotic as ritual plays a role in theoretical physics.

Regards,

Eric Henry
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow
Carleton University
Ottawa, ON.