Equivocation and the construction of ethnographic knowledge in Why Kĩsêdjê Sing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2525-3123.gis.2025.224212Keywords:
Ethnography, Ethnomusicology, Semiotics, Equivocation, Ontological conflictAbstract
In this essay, I intend to demonstrate the productivity of the idea of equivocation for the construction of ethnographic knowledge. To do this, I perform a semiotic analysis of two examples taken from Anthony Seeger's ethnography Why Kĩsêdjê Sing. These examples were chosen because they reveal how equivocations are made in fieldwork, allowing us to notice how knowledge about a given subject is constructed. Rather than just having finished knowledge, rather than just a demonstration of what was learned during fieldwork, we have a discourse that demonstrates the process that made it possible to obtain this knowledge. So, the result is presented and the process that made that result possible is also made explicit. I also point out that equivocations during ethnographic practice emerge from ontological conflicts established by the relationship between the ontologies of the ethnographer and his interlocutors.
Downloads
References
Albuquerque de Oliveira, Renato. 2022. A tradução da experiência de campo para um escrito etnográfico: figurativização sonora em Tristes trópicos. Dissertação (Mestrado em Semiótica e Linguística Geral) – Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.
Almeida, Mauro. 2013. Caipora e outros conflitos ontológicos. Revista de Antropologia da UFSCar, vol. 5, n. 1: 7-28.
Barthes, Roland. 2004. O rumor da língua. Tradução de Mario Laranjeira. São Paulo: Martins Fontes.
Feld, Steven. 1996. Waterfalls of song: an acoustemology of place resounding in Bosai, Papua New Guinea. In Senses of place, org. Steven Feld, Keith H. Basso, 91-135. Santa Fé: School of American Research Press.
Feld, Steven. 2020. Alternativas pós-etnomusicológicas: a acustemologia. Tradução de Rafael do Nascimento Cesar. PROA: Revista de Antropologia e Arte, vol. 10, n. 2: 193-210.
Latour, Bruno. 1994. Jamais fomos modernos: ensaio de antropologia simétrica. Tradução de Carlos Irineu da Costa. São Paulo: Editora 34.
Peirano, Mariza. 2008. Etnografia, ou a teoria vivida. Ponto Urbe, vol. 2: 1-11.
Seeger, Anthony. 2015. Por que cantam os Kĩsêdjê: uma antropologia musical de um povo amazônico. Tradução de Guilherme Werlang. São Paulo: Cosac Naify.
Solis, Gabriel. 2012. Thoughts on an Interdiscipline: Music Theory, Analysis, and Social Theory. Ethnomusicology, vol. 56, n. 3: 530-554.
Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo. 2018. A antropologia perspectivista e o método da equivocação controlada. Tradução de Marcelo Giacomazzi Camargo e Rodrigo Amaro. Aceno: Revista de Antropologia do Centro-Oeste, vol. 5, n. 10: 247-264.
Wisnik, José Miguel. 1989. O som e o sentido: uma outra história da música. 2ª ed. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Renato Albuquerque de Oliveira
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:
a. All rights reserved for authors. Journal has right to first publication. Work is simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License which permits sharing work with recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal for non-commercial ends.
b. Authors are authorized to separately make additional contracts for non-exclusive distribution of version of work published in this journal (e. g. publish in institutional repository or as book chapter), with recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal.
