Ethnography of Africa: The Usefulness of the Useless

Abstract

The complex epistemological and methodological problems of data‐quality control or ethnographer bias in anthropological research as they relate to the use of the native languages and/or the use of native‐interpreter informants are critically reexamined. Summarizing the 1939–1940 Mead‐Lowie debate, the paper suggests, on the basis of a close review of selected classic ethnographies of Africa, various ways by which the quality of comparative cross‐cultural data could be meaningfully improved. [methodology of cross‐cultural research, epistemological issues in anthropology, use of native languages in fieldwork, ethnography of Africa, history of anthropology]

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