ABSTRACT
The creativity and inventiveness of the ethnographic encounter requires consideration of the irreducible singularities of field situations and their relevance for ethnographic inquiry. Taking inventory means attending to improvisational gestures and creative responses in the field. An inventory of ethnography enables the reader to recognize the value of the minor improvisational and creative activities engendered by each field inquiry. The long history of rich and varied attempts to document everyday invention presents a reading of creativity as a non-specialist activity. Thus, capturing the singularities of the field encounter and bringing these together is an invitation to acknowledge the distinctiveness of the relational engagements in each ethnographic investigation. The principal aim is to raise awareness without inhibiting exploration, and hence animating the invention that every ethnographic inquiry demands.
