ABSTRACT
It took a while for the initial post-modern critiques of ethnographic writing (Marcus and Cushman, 1982; Clifford and Marcus, 1986) to catch on. First, a little spurt of books and articles (Geertz, 1988; Clifford, 1988; Rosaldo, 1989; Manganaro, 1990; Atkinson, 1990; Crapanzano, 1992, Clough, 1992) began seeping out the cracks in positivistic science. Soon the trickles turned into a torrent of philosophical statements and personal nostrums for writing ‘experimental ethnographies’. Although I fancy myself a fledgling writer of such texts (Foley, 1990, 1995), I have almost given up trying to survey this rising commentary.
