Practicing Ethnography in Law New Dialogues, Enduring Methods

by Starr, June; Goodale, Mark

• ISBN13: 9781403960702
• ISBN10: 1403960704
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-12-20
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Practicing Ethnography in Lawbrings together a selection of top scholars in legal anthropology, social sciences, and law to delineate the state of the art in ethnographic research strategies. Each of these original essays addresses a particular set of analytical problems and uses these problems to explore issues of ethnographic technique, research methodology, and the theoretical underpinnings of ethnographic legal studies. Subjects explored include the relationship between legal and feminist scholarship, between law and the media, law and globalization, and the usefulness of a wide variety of research techniques: comparative, linguistic, life-history, interview, archival. This volume will serve as a guide for students who are designing their own research projects, for scholars who are newly exploring the possibilities of ethnographic research, and for experienced ethnographers who are engaged with methodological issues in light of current theoretical developments. The book will be essential reading for courses in anthropological methods, legal anthropology, and sociology and law.

Author Biography

June Starr was one of the major figures in the ethnographic study of law and, until her death last year, was Professor at the Indiana University School of Law.

Mark Goodale is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Preface: June Starr	xi
Jane F. Collier
Sally Engle Merry
Introduction: Legal Ethnography: New Dialogues, Enduring Methods	1	(12)
June Starr
Mark Goodale
Part I Performing Legal Ethnography
Feminist Participatory Research on Legal Consciousness	13	(21)
Susan F. Hirsch
Trekking Processual Planes beyond the Rule of Law	34	(16)
Philip C. Parnell
Legal Ethnography in an Era of Globalization: The Arrival of Western Human Rights Discourse to Rural Bolivia	50	(22)
Mark Goodale
Analyzing Witchcraft Beliefs	72	(15)
Jane F. Collier
Exploring Legal Culture in Law-Avoidance Societies	87	(21)
Robert L. Kidder
Reconceptualizing Research: Ethnographic Fieldwork and Immigration Politics in Southern California	108	(20)
Susan Bibler Coutin
Ethnography in the Archives	128	(15)
Sally Engle Merry
Stories from the Field: Collecting Data Outside Over There	143	(17)
Herbert M. Kritzer
Doing Ethnography: Living Law, Life Histories, and Narratives from Botswana	160	(25)
Anne Griffiths
Part II Reflections on Ethnography in Law
A Few Thoughts on Ethnography, History, and Law	185	(5)
Lawrence M. Friedman
Moving On---Comprehending Anthropologies of Law	190	(13)
Laura Nader
Notes on the Contributors	203	(4)
Index	207