188宝金博页面版

1Ab Imperio, 4/2006Myron J. ARONOFFFORTY YEARSAS A POLITICAL ETHNOGRAPHER*I, on my side, require of every writer, first orlast, a simple and sincere account of his own life,and not merely what he has heard of other men?slives; some such account as he would send to hiskindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sin-cerely, it must have been in a distant land to me.(Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854)1I choose the autobiographical approach in this discussion of politicalethnography for several reasons. First, I know my own work best and donot presume other’s familiarity with my publications beyond specialists in* An earlier draft was presented as the keynote address on October 26, 2006 at a workshopon “Political Ethnography: What Insider Perspectives Contribute to the Study of Power”held at the University of Toronto. All further references will be cited as op. cit., workshopon Political Ethnography. I thank Edward Schatz for inviting me to give the address andfor his helpful comments on it. I am grateful to my fellow participants for a moststimulating exchange of experiences and ideas. I am indebted to Marina Mogilner andAlexander Semynov for soliciting this essay for publication and for their probingcomments and questions.1 Cited by Dvora Yanow. Reading as Method: Interpreting Interpretations // Op. cit.Workshop on Political Ethnography.