ABSTRACT
This chapter dwells on method and on ethnographic interpretation by introducing and contextualizing the remainder of this volume and the research activities that led to it – yet the chapter is not an introduction. The chapter combines ethnographic reflexivity with historical review to situate some of the people I studied and the way in which I studied them. It presents a picture of the ethnographic process and of one ethnographic experience. The “sites” at which these contextualizations occur are a written contract (Appendix 4) and the negotiations over that contract, each of which is described below. The contract pertains to my publications about Curaçaoan Jews. In the end, I muse about the impact of the contract and the contract negotiations on this research and on my representations of Curaçaoan Jews. A more “traditional” presentation of the methods by which this research was conducted appears in Appendix 5.
