Sensory ethnography: a creative turn

Este ensaio visual trata do mundo da vida cotidiana de camponeses agroextrativistas no Pará, especificamente no baixo Tocantins, região das ilhas do município de Mocajuba. Segue o método da etnografia sensorial, discute a relação entre corpo, ambiente e formas de aprendizagem técnica com a virtuosidade dos indicadores socioambientais e argumenta que tais técnicas não são transmitidas, mas ensinadas e aprendidas por meio de um complexo engajamento sensorial com o ambiente.Palavras-chave: Camponeses agroextrativistas. Cotidiano. Trabalho. Etnografia Sensorial. Corpo. Ambiente. Glueing fragments of the world of life: cuttings from the daily life of peasants from downtown Tocantins paraense Abstract: This visual essay deals with the respect of the everyday life world of agro-extractivist peasants in Pará, specifically in the lower Tocantins, region of the islands of the municipality of Mocajuba. It follows the method of sensory ethnography, discusses the relationship between body, environment and forms of technical learning with the virtuosity of socio-environmental indicators and argues that such techniques are not transmitted, but taught and learned through a complex sensory engagement with the environmentKeywords: Agroextractive peasants. Daily. Work. Sensory Ethnography. Body. Environment.

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Skateboarding in Seoul: A Sensory Ethnography

10.21827/6090facd36a4f ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sander Hölsgens

Keyword(s):

South Korea ◽

Small Group ◽

Lived Experience ◽

New Wave ◽

Site Specific ◽

Sensory Ethnography ◽

Ethnographic Writing

As skaters increasingly engage with and respond to socio-political surges across the globe, skateboarding begins to refract into a multiplicity of situated practices. This includes a new wave of collectives and communities who re-imagine what cities could sound, feel, and be like. Combining filmmaking with ethnographic writing, Sander Hölsgens traces the lived experience of a small group of skaters in South Korea. As a skater among skaters, he unravels the site-specific nuances and relational meanings of skateboarding in Seoul – working towards an intimate portrait of a growing community.

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Reverse tomboy: (Re)definitions of gender fluidity through sensory engagement with material culture

Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture ◽

10.1386/qsmpc_00033_1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (2-3) ◽

pp. 149-170

Author(s):

Charlie Athill

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Subject Position ◽

Sex And Gender ◽

Key Factors ◽

Sensory Ethnography ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Cross Dressing ◽

And Gender ◽

Embodied Practice

This narrative case study explores how material culture, in the form of dress, grooming and accessories, is utilized to establish a gender-fluid presentation of the self. It focuses on Tim Mustoe, a 42-year-old heterosexual creative living and working in London, whose embodied practice contributes to the problematization of gender normativity through a disruption of culturally established links between appearance, gender and sex. The study considers how a particular form of non-spectacular cross dressing is used to integrate into a work environment and also operate within a non-queer social environment. The study explores the affective power of material culture in the reification of subject position and as a means of resilience and empowerment through everyday practice and also considers its significance on a social, intersubjective level. The methodology used for this case draws on sensory ethnography and includes a queer reflexive turn to consider parallels and contrasts between my own and Tim’s experience and practice. Conceptualizations of subjectivity, sex, gender are considered in relation to those on material culture, and the study draws on scholarship related to cross-dressing in the United Kingdom. Tim identifies as a man, as do I; however, his embodied practice and gender identification proffer a particular response to culturally embedded norms relating to the binaries of sex and gender. Therefore, in relation to male femininity, I propose the notion of feminizing as an amendment to the concept of femaling, which assumes the identification with or transition to a cisgender position. This study explores the phenomenology of dress as an expressive tool of gratification and as a means of integration for which the imperatives of professionalism, age and respectability are key factors.

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The Interpretation of “Local” Literacy Practices through Ethnography

10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1704 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Kate Pahl ◽

Zanib Rasool

Keyword(s):

Literacy Practices ◽

Power Sharing ◽

Multiple Literacies ◽

Community Literacy ◽

Social Anthropology ◽

Hearing Voices ◽

Sensory Ethnography ◽

Research Questions ◽

Collaborative Ethnography ◽

Local Literacies

Ethnography is a practice of inscribing local practice into texts, developed in the context of social anthropology. Local literacy practices often remain hidden, dependent on context and shaped by histories and cultures. Literacy is entwined with how lives are lived. Collaborative ethnography enables an approach that permits researchers to collaboratively develop research questions with participants and, rather than researching on people, researchers work with people as coresearchers. Local literacy practices are situated in homes and communities as well as within everyday contexts such as markets and mosques. Community literacy practices can be collaboratively understood and studied using this approach. Communities experience and practice diverse and multiple literacies, both locally and transnationally, and mapping this diversity is key to an understanding of the fluid and changing nature of literacies. Literacies can be understood as being multilingual, digital, transnational, and multimodal, thus expanding the concept of literacy as lived within communities. Threaded through this analysis is a discussion of power and whose literacy practices are seen as powerful within community contexts. Collaborative ethnography is a powerful methodology to excavate and co-analyze community literacy practices. Other methods that can explore local literacies include visual and sensory ethnography. Power sharing in terms of the design and architecture of the research is important for hearing voices and working equitably. There are many concepts introduced within, including the idea of literacy practices, the link between literacy and identity, the importance of an understanding of multilingualism, and the importance of situating literacy in communities.

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Beyond the Ethico-aesthetic: Toward a Re-valuation of the Sensory Ethnography Lab

Visual Anthropology Review ◽

10.1111/var.12184 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 138-147

Author(s):

Toby Lee

Keyword(s):

Sensory Ethnography

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Multisensory Anthropology

Annual Review of Anthropology ◽

10.1146/annurev-anthro-102218-011324 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 17-28 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

David Howes

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Review Article ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Not Given ◽

Culture Studies ◽

Multispecies Ethnography ◽

Sensory Ethnography ◽

Anthropological Theory ◽

Making Sense ◽

The Senses

The senses are made, not given. Multisensory anthropology focuses on the variable boundaries, differential elaboration, and many different ways of combining the senses across (and within) cultures. Its methodology is grounded in “participant sensation,” or sensing—and making sense—along with others, also known as sensory ethnography. This review article traces the sensualization of anthropological theory and practice since the early 1990s, showing how the concept of sensory mediation has steadily supplanted the prior concern with representation. It concludes with a discussion of how the senses are engaged in filmmaking, multispecies ethnography, and material culture studies as well as in achieving social justice.

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