Writing the New Ethnography
- An ethnography serves as a mode of creative research.
- It does not call for objective, emotionless analysis.
- Brevity is important.
- It is meant to raise questions and bring forward new questions for future research.
- Getting to the truth of a certain reality.
- The truth is subjective.
- Writing the ethnography is not defined by logic.
- “Who is entitled to represent the culture”.
- Building an appreciation for the differences in our realities.
- Bringing new understanding of others and oneself.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
I love the use of size in this piece. Lacks is described as a women of just over five feet, but the author uses the monumental things that her cells accomplished to sum up the vastness of her impact. The amount of cells replicated from the cells founding lacks could circle the world 3 times. Although her cells led to medical advances for polio, chemotherapy, and invitro-fertilization, Lacks was never able to see it. The tumor that allowed doctors to discover the wonder in her DNA also took her life. Its a cruel irony that she allowed so many to live but no one could save her. Its a cosmic altruism that is tragic but also pure. She was a hero and a catalyst for medicine that has saved countless lives and a piece of her lives on in everyone that she saved. So though her life was cut short she still lives on.
Jake Pavlica's Blog 