Practicing Ethnography in Law

""PRACTICING ETHNOGRAPHY IN LAW opens up to searching scrutiny the ways and means of legal anthropology. But it is much, much more than a primer on method or a textbook on technique. At once critically acute and creatively wide-ranging, the eleven essays--headed by an unusually thoughtful introduction--also interrogate the epistemic foundations and conceptual scaffolding of the comparative study of law. Drawing on a broad spectrum of ethnographic sites, and addressing an equally broad range of important theoretical and analytical questions, this volume is a must-read." --John L. Comaroff, University of Chicago "This cutting-edge collection of essays on legal ethnography is a fitting tribute to the memory of June Starr, as it does justice to her strongly-held concern about maintaining high methodological standards in legal anthropology. The essays are marked by a searching honesty, which doesn't shrink from acknowledging the dilemmas and compromises necessary to performing good ethnography in unsettling times and circumstances. With feet firmly planted in the time-honored requirements of in-depth ethnographic work, which are not always met by some professing to perform 'ethnography, ' these authors nonetheless also deal boldly with the variations, flexibility, and new ethical binds raised by a vigorous engagement with fieldwork and ethnography in today's world." --Elizabeth Mertz, Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School ""PRACTICING ETHNOGRAPHY IN LAW "opens up to searching scrutiny the ways and means of legal anthropology. But it is much, much more than a primer on method or a textbook on technique. At once critically acute and creatively wide-ranging, the eleven essays--headed by an unusually thoughtful introduction--also interrogate the epistemic foundations and conceptual scaffolding of the comparative study of law. Drawing on a broad spectrum of ethnographic sites, and addressing an equally broad range of important theoretical and analytical questions, this volume is a must-read." --John L. Comaroff, University of Chicago "This cutting-edge collection of essays on legal ethnography is a fitting tribute to the memory of June Starr, as it does justice to her strongly-held concern about maintaining high methodological standards in legal anthropology. The essays are marked by a searching honesty, which doesn't shrink from acknowledging the dilemmas and compromises necessa ""PRACTICING ETHNOGRAPHY IN LAW "opens up to searching scrutiny the ways and means of legal anthropology. But it is much, much more than a primer on method or a textbook on technique. At once critically acute and creatively wide-ranging, the eleven essays--headed by an unusually thoughtful introduction--also interrogate the epistemic foundations and conceptual scaffolding of the comparative study of law. Drawing on a broad spectrum of ethnographic sites, and addressing an equally broad range of important theoretical and analytical questions, this volume is a must-read." --John L. Comaroff, University of Chicago "This cutting-edge collection of essays on legal ethnography is a fitting tribute to the memory of June Starr, as it does justice to her strongly-held concern about maintaining high methodological standards in legal anthropology. The essays are marked by a searching honesty, which doesn't shrink from acknowledging the dilemmas and compromises necessary to performing good ethnography in unsettling times and circumstances. With feet firmly planted in the time-honored requirements of in-depth ethnographic work, which are not always met by some professing to perform 'ethnography, ' these authors nonetheless also deal boldly with the variations, flexibility, and new ethical binds raised by a vigorous engagement with fieldwork and ethnography in today's world." --Elizabeth Mertz, Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School "PRACTICING ETHNOGRAPHY IN LAW "

JUNE STARR was one of the major figures in the ethnographic study of law and, until her death last year, was Professor at the Indiana University School of Law, USA. MARK GOODALE is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, Virginia, USA.

Preface; J.Starr, J.Collier & S.Merry Introduction - Legal Ethnography: New Dialogues, Enduring Methods; J.Starr & M.Goodale PART I: PERFORMING LEGAL ETHNOGRAPHY Feminist Participatory Research on Legal Consciousness; S.Hirsch Trekking Processual Planes Beyond the Rule of Law; P.Parnell Legal Ethnography in an Era of Globalization: The Arrival of Western Human Rights Discourse to Rural Bolivia; M.Goodale Analyzing Witchcraft Beliefs; J.Collier Exploring Legal Culture in Law-Avoidance Societies; R.Kidder Reconceptualizing Research: Ethnographic Fieldwork and Immigration Politics in Southern California; S.Coutin Ethnography in the Archives; S.Engle Merry Stories from the Field: Collecting Data Outside Over There; H.M.Kritzer Doing Ethnography: Living Law, Life Histories, and Narratives from Botswana; A.Griffiths PART II: REFLECTIONS ON ETHNOGRAPHY IN LAW A Few Thoughts on Ethnography, History, and Law; L.Friedman Moving On: Comprehending Anthropologies of Law; L.Nader