Sound Scraps and Resources of Ethnographic Writing

Julie Métais

Ethnographic work generally involves making sound recordings (recorded interviews, field recordings, or archival documents), whether or not the research includes a sonic dimension. But the sonic corpus of ethnographical research does not stop there; it also includes recorded "notepads," recordings related to daily life, telephone messages, etc. A large part of these sound data is discarded at the time of analysis and writing. What if it were otherwise? Relying on my research on cultural expressions of political conflicts in Oaxaca (Mexico), I propose a reflective approach to an initially discarded corpus of sounds, in order to reevaluate my listening and recording position as an anthropologist.

Introduction

1. A Diverse Corpus of Acoustic Materials Formed Across Multiple Field Studies Over the Years

2. The Wheat of Discourse and the Chaff of Noise? What Defines a Corpus of Ethnographic Material?

3. Another Way to Write About Politics? Narrative and Sensory Resources of Ethnographic “Sound Scraps”

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