Recording the Miracle - Ethnography - page 128

of departure. Ideally, the ethnographic present is true to the ethnographer's
image of the culture at the time of the study.
ETHNOGRAPHIC PRESENCE
Ethnographers attempt to be unobtrusive and to reduce their influence on the
naturalsituation.Theirpurposeistodescribeanothercultureasitoperatesnat-
urally.Ethnographersarehonest,however.Theyrecognizethattheirpresenceis
a factor in this human equation.Thus, rather than present an artificial picture,
ethnographersopenlydescribetheirrolesineventsduringfieldwork.Thevoice
oftheethnographicwriterisheardindiscussionsofsite,data,andrelationships
with key actors. This is a form of reflexivity, in which the ethnographer is
embedded in the research, a significant departure from the ideology of objec-
tivity.The ethnographic presence tells the reader how close the ethnographer is
to the people and to the data and their role in the story.The technique can con-
tribute additional credibility to the researcher's findings.These embedded self-
portraits simultaneously serve as a quality control, documenting the degree of
contamination or influence the ethnographer has on the people under study.
At the same time, the ethnographer should not dominate the setting, nor
should the ethnographer's signature be in every word or on every page (unless
the focus is explicitly on the ethnographer as the topic of investigation as in
autoethnography 2 (Chang, 2008; Ellis & Bochner, 2000; Jones, 2005; Reed-
Danahay, 1997). The researcher need not include every parenthetical thought
to demonstrate intellectual prowess. In describing a culture, the focus of the
writing should be on the topic. Alfred Hitchcock's signature—appearing on
screen for a few seconds in each of his movies—is an example of an explicit
presence. His style, particularly his use of camera angles, is an example of
implicitpresence.Ethnographersleavebothexplicitandimplicitsignatureson
their work. Some are subtle, and others are as bold as van Gogh's brushstrokes
in his Cornfield With Crows . An artfully crafted ethnographic presence can
convey the depth and breadth of the ethnographer's experience in the field.
ETHNOGRAPHICALLY INFORMED REPORTS
Ethnographers do not always have the luxury of completing a full-blown
ethnography. Instead, they must write ethnographically informed reports or
other efforts. An ethnographically informed report may require the same
effort as an ethnography, or it may approximate the effort by applying some