ABSTRACT
Although ethnography is conventionally understood as a form of people-writing, the etymology of grapho equally links to modes of drawing, painting, mapping and image-making in general. Thus, at its root, ethnography suggests a much more diverse set of mediating activities than are captured in the common notions of “writing culture.” By recuperating these hidden graphic qualities, this chapter makes the case that ethnography offers an inherently multimodal approach to perceiving and understanding the world. Whereas many anthropologists are rightfully shifting debates about multimodality to new forms of digital accessibility and networked interconnectivity, it is imperative to emphasise the way different modes of attending and understanding at the core of this framework expand our conceptual and methodological horizons. In particular, by shifting registers of image-making from automatic processes of film and photography more common in visual anthropology to manual forms of documentation with pen and paper, this chapter explores how drawing offers a generative way of perceiving, depicting and understanding situations that inform ethnographic research. While drawing is gaining traction as a legitimate form of research output, particularly as graphic novels, the chapter stresses the need to develop modes of graphic literacy able to interpret the multimodal combination of words and images.
