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Representation and Reality in the Study of Culture
Author(s) -
Bowlin John R.,
Stromberg Peter G.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1997.99.1.123
Subject(s) - representation (politics) , ethnography , politics , epistemology , sociology , work (physics) , aesthetics , social science , philosophy , anthropology , political science , law , mechanical engineering , engineering
The contemporary debate over the scientific status of ethnographic inquiry is best regarded as a dispute between realist and antirealist treatments of truth and representation. Drawing on some of the work of philosopher Donald Davidson, this essay argues that both treatments are flawed. It concludes that the controversy about cross‐cultural truth claims is misconceived and unproductive when carried out in epistemological terms. In fact, the disagreements are largely moral and political and would be more productively discussed in precisely those terms.