Revealers, Skeptics, and Witnesses: Advancing a Witness Methodology in Ethnographic Theology and Ethics

Abstract Drawing on original ethnographic fieldwork with a Christian environmental initiative in Appalachia and Alabama, this article argues that moral theologians should conceive of ethnography as witnessing witnesses to aid and multiply witnesses. An ethnographic ‘witness methodology’ is contrasted with two other approaches that the author calls revealer and skeptic methodologies. This witness methodology is developed primarily by analyzing a creation care organization’s practice of citizen science in places devastated by coal mining and coal burning. The author develops the concept of witness by reflecting on his role in helping the organization develop a slogan to describe their work and how this slogan encapsulates their citizen science practice. Though developed primarily in conversation with the author’s fieldwork, the proposed witness methodology is also supported through dialogue with Scripture, Christian ethics, and cultural anthropology.

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Cultural Particularity and the Globalisation of Ethics in the Light of Inculturation

Pacifica Australasian Theological Studies ◽

10.1177/1030570x9600900106 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 69-86 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

James T. Bretzke

Keyword(s):

Cultural Anthropology ◽

Christian Ethics ◽

Ethical System ◽

Scant Attention ◽

Principal Elements ◽

Communicative Theories

Increased interest in the so-called “globalisation of ethics” has led to a number of studies which utilise various hermeneutical and communicative theories to sketch out viable paradigms for developing a fundamental Christian ethics as a whole. Scant attention has been given to the cultural particularity of each and every ethos and ethical system. This article rehearses the principal elements of the concerns raised by the globalisation of ethics and then focuses on the particularity of culture using insights from both cultural anthropology and inculturation. The Confucian context of Korea is employed to illustrate some of the issues raised by greater attention to cultural particularity.

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The Merits of Using “EthnoQuest” as an English Language Learning Tool and a Medium of Cultural Transmission

The EuroCALL Review ◽

10.4995/eurocall.2011.16270 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. 35

Author(s):

Fiona Creaser

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Cultural Transmission ◽

English Language ◽

Cultural Anthropology ◽

Private University ◽

Student Feedback ◽

English Language Learning ◽

Two Dimensional ◽

High Quality ◽

Ethnographic Fieldwork

<p>This paper will focus on the experience of using the game 'EthnoQuest' as part of a content-based course at a small private university in Japan. 'EthnoQuest' is an interactive multimedia simulation for cultural anthropology fieldwork, and students enter the virtual environs of Amopan, a small Mexican village. The game is text based and two-dimensional and by comparison does not have any of the high quality graphics or adventure stimulating challenges of a commercial game. Nevertheless, I felt it was extremely beneficial to students taking ethnographic fieldwork courses as it opened up the field in a very accessible way. Two groups of students will be discussed; one group of students had very limited abilities in English and were very conscious of this fact. The second group, had advanced English skills and were able to use the simulations as a<br />stepping stone to fruitful discussions about topics such as bilingualism and cultural and religious beliefs. Students with lower levels of English were able to interact with villagers at their own pace creating a comfortable and safe study environment from which to improve their English skills and enhance their knowledge of a different culture. Four simulations from the game will be analysed for their language building skills and cultural content. Finally, student feedback and problems with the software will be discussed.</p>

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Evangelical Christians and the Environment: “Christians for the Mountains” and the Appalachian Movement against Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

Worldviews Global Religions Culture and Ecology ◽

10.1163/156853511x617786 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 1-29 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Dwight B. Billings ◽

Will Samson

Keyword(s):

Discourse Analysis ◽

Coal Mining ◽

Communicative Action ◽

Participant Observation ◽

Evangelical Christianity ◽

Mountaintop Removal ◽

Creation Care ◽

Theory Of Communicative Action ◽

National Movements ◽

Evangelical Protestants

Prior research has described evangelical Protestants as hostile toward environmentalism, but this traditional stance, however deeply rooted, is being challenged from within by the Creation Care movement. We analyze an important current example of evangelical environmentalism, an organization known as “Christians for the Mountains” (CFTM) that opposes the highly destructive practice of mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR) in Appalachia. We focus on Christians for the Mountains in relation to larger national movements such as the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI). We use attitude interviews, participant observation, discourse analysis, and Jurgen Habermas's theory of communicative action to examine how both movements are attempting to overcome the opposition toward environmentalism within evangelical Christianity.

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Nacjonalizm zwyczajnych ludzi. Etnicyzowanie tradycji muzycznej na przykładzie festiwalu w Gučy

Slavia Meridionalis ◽

10.11649/sm.2011.009 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

pp. 157-171

Author(s):

Waldemar Kuligowski

Keyword(s):

Popular Culture ◽

Cultural Anthropology ◽

Specific Kind ◽

Specific Nature ◽

Entertainment Media ◽

Popular Entertainment ◽

Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽

Normal People ◽

Brass Music ◽

The Relationship

Normal people’s nationalism. Ethnicization of music tradition for instance some festival in GučaSince the 1980’s ethnology and social and cultural anthropology have witnessed an increasing number of studies and debates on nationalism in the light of popular culture. In the light of theory formulated by Hobsbawm, Gellner, Hayes and Comaroff nationalism is effect not big symbols and official politics, but rather popular entertainment, media and normal practices normal people in its normal life. Traditional primordial concepts of nationalism are deep regressive.In this paper, I discuss a few contradictions in the relationship between tradition, nationalism and music. An excellent example illustrating specific nature of these contradictions is Dragačevski sabor trubača (Guča Trumpet Festival) in Guča, Serbia and particular music genre – brass music. In my opinion there are three distinctive discourses/narrations about history and meaning this festival and specific kind of music: dominating Serbian discourse, ‘weak’ Gypsy discourse, and researcher’s discourse. This study is effect an ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2010 by an author and large group of students from Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań, Poland.

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„Potęga ciszy” — z antropologicznych studiów nad genderowym wymiarem alternatywnej duchowości

Kultura i Spoleczenstwo ◽

10.35757/kis.2008.52.3.6 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 52 (3) ◽

pp. 91-108

Author(s):

Agnieszka Kościańska

Keyword(s):

Middle Class ◽

Gender Identity ◽

Everyday Life ◽

Cultural Anthropology ◽

Religious Movement ◽

Cultural Transition ◽

Liberal Feminism ◽

Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽

Feminist Discourse

The paper is based on ethnographic ﬁeldwork among converts from Catholicism to a marginal Hindu-rooted, female dominated new religious movement in Poland, the Brahma Kumaris, and explores the role of silence in the religious practices and everyday lives of its members. It argues that silence is a performative act in reconstruction of the informants’ gender identity and is perceived by them as form of self-valuation. From the perspective of the feminist discourse, particularly Western liberal feminism, as well as within cultural anthropology silence is often interpreted as a lack of power and opposition to speech. But drawing on the respondents’ experiences, silence can also be understood as and expression of strength and a means of resistance. The author presents the ways how middle class, urban women have resort to silence in he aim to deal better with the problems of everyday life as well as with those of economic and cultural transition, Western-style feminism, and Polish Catholicism.

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