Book review: Norman K Denzin, Indians on Display: Global Commodification of Native America in Performance, Art, and Museums

Abstract

Qualitative Research 16 (2) is that the interviewees are allowed to speak for themselves. What might surprise some readers is that each interviewee believed that Distance courses provide an effective way of learning and teaching. It suggests the need in the 'purposive sampling' (pp. 94-5) to find educators who are dissatisfied with the new pedagogy, and not just the competing demands of research and teaching.The reviewers of my journal submissions would probably want even more emphasis on objectivity and method. The researcher would have to discuss and test some body of theory. She might have to speak to university administrators to supply a 'balanced view'. She would be asked to condense or remove the lengthy extracts from the interviews. After all, what do interviews show that cannot be represented using quantitative methods? This is why qualitative researchers need a credo, but this text falls some way short of a statement that will unite the warring factions and provide an intellectually coherent, scientific justification for qualitative research.

Norman and Ishi: A Performative Ethnography

“…And as I learned more about the need for scholars to actively engage in social research, I took up this topic. I wrote five books on it (Denzin, 2008(Denzin, , 2011(Denzin, , 2013(Denzin, , 2015(Denzin, , 2021. I had started on the sixth one, also about you.…”

Staged Otherness

“…Ethnographic shows developed in the second half of the nineteenth century, primarily in Europe, but also in the United States of America , though researchers have documented ethnographic shows as early as the sixteenth century, when Europeans brought residents of the New World to the Old World to present them at royal courts (see Denzin 2013;. Therefore the notion of "ethnographic shows" encompasses a vast array of different types of show, ranging from quasi-scientific presentations in the style of an anthropological examination-the "human zoo," exhibiting craftwork, dancing, and skills-to performances at circus arenas Blanchard, Boëtsch, and Nanette 2011;.…”

“…Originally, organizers of ethnographic shows explained their activity as scientifically motivated (see Bogdan 1988). Moreover, the shows reinforced colonial policies as they demonstrated remote cultures and their representatives as uncivilized, and requiring civilizing by Europeans (see Arnaut 2011;Blanchard, Boëtsch, and Nanette 2011;Denzin 2013;.…”

“…The majority of research on ethnographic shows has concerned Western Europe and the United States (e.g. Bank 2002;Blanchard, Boëtsch and Nanette 2011;Denzin 2013;. Analyses resulting from such research leave out or give only very general accounts of the territory of today's Central and Eastern Europe, across which the shows were also performed.…”

“…Even though the very idea of ethnographic shows, including those performed in circuses, has been criticized by most researchers due to unquestionable, significant ethical reservations (see Arnaut 2011;Denzin 2013;, as suggested by Luis , not all of the shows should be examined using a single set of standards. Shows representing distant cultures, also part of the circus, were underpinned by inequalities resulting from the colonial policy of European superpowers or attitudes toward non-European cultures, which were commonly positioned as inferior in relation to Western ones.…”