Towards a community ethnography : experiences from Oaxaca, Mexico

Hacia una etnografía comunal : experiencias desde Oaxaca, México

Drawing from my experience as both a doctoral student and member of an Aboriginal People from Oaxaca, Mexico, I reflect here upon an ethnographic approach in indigenous territories based on a community perspective, which takes commonality as a way of life among Oaxacan Aboriginal Peoples. In this approach, ethnography is built among various members of the community, including the ethnographer. Thus, the object of study, fieldwork, data analysis, and the discussion of results involve collaborative work, even though there are activities, like systematizing data and writing reports, which are the exclusive task of the researcher. Thus, the researcher becomes the final responsible of the writings stemmed from ethnographic work.