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Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
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On Studying Ethnologs (Not Just People, Societies in Miniature)

The Necessities of Ethnography, History, and Comparative Analysis

Robert Prus

University of Waterloo

Because language is so central to community life, everyone who acquires a language effectively becomes an ethnolog or a "society in miniature." This is because language does not just consist of sounds and their referents but is interconnected with all realms of knowing and acting within the community. Moreover, even in achieving some rudimentary degree of intersubjectivity with the other, one begins to access the broader, historically accomplished, and actively engaged resources of human group life. In discussing ethnologs as instances of societies in miniature, the author not only attends to (a) the processes, functions, and "whatness" of language but also considers (b) how ethnologs routinely assume roles as ethnographers, historians, philosophers, pragmatists, moralists, and politicians; (c) memory as a socially enabled, humanly engaged process; and (d) the necessity of using ethnography, history, and comparative analysis for achieving a more genuine, informed, and productive social science.

Key Words: language • ethnography • pragmatism • memory • symbolic interaction • history • comparative analysis

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 36, No. 6, 669-703 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0891241606299030
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