Abstract

MENENDEZ, Eduardo L.. Antropología social como práctica y como representación. Alteridades [online]. 2005, vol.15, n.29, pp.65-80. ISSN 2448-850X.

This paper analyzes discordances and contradictions between theoretical proposal and ethnographic report observed in much of current medical anthropologic works. For that purpose three problems are examined here: a) use/no use of native language at fieldwork; b) works focalized from actor’s point of view, and c) relations between social representations and practices. This work considers those discordances not only as an evidence of distance between theory and ethnography but also a way to skew descriptions and interpretations regarding the studied reality. The purpose is to question reality as a methodological instrument to modify that tendency.

Keywords : methodology; anthropological theory; ethnography.

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