10

The Four Seasons of Ethnography

A Creation-Centered Ontology for Ethnography

Sarah Amira de la Garza

In this chapter, similar to Aluli-Meyer’s endeavor to introduce an alternative epistemology for knowledge production (Chapter 9), Sarah Amira de la Garza proposes a non-Eurocentric method of ethnography called “The Four Seasons of Ethnography,” which is predicated on the creation-centered ontology of organic and circular order as opposed to the “naturalistic” paradigm grounded in the Western linear, mechanistic, and positivistic worldview. She critically reflects on the four guiding ideals of Western “naturalistic” ethnography: (1) opportunism with linear and material orientations to time and process; (2) the assumption of independence of researcher ...

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