Clifford Introduction

Never before have I been so stressed to understand a reading with such little to gain from. Thankfully I had a reasonable comprehension of Ethnography after the Redfield reading, as his was at least somewhat direct and to the point. I found Clifford's writing so contrived that it was a struggle to read a simple paragraph while maintaining the idea of what he was talking about. I found myself reading the same sentences over and over again and learning nothing more as a result. I'd really like to read the respective studies of the countless names of ethnographers he mentioned on nearly every page (as if I could find the time) so that these references would have some meaning to me while receiving Clifford's message, and this desire would have been of no credit to him. When I think about Clifford's purpose in writing this, I see that he's trying to highlight defining examples of ethnography throughout the years, bringing up important questions of their value and legitimacy along the way. He shows the evolution of the ethnographical school of thought, and how the opinionated scientific recognition of this subject has changed throughout the years. Unfortunately, when I read this I couldn't help but visualize a convoluted intellectual pining for the validation from the scientific community. Provide this book to an individual of the average cognitive ability and you'd have someone so isolated and intimidated that they would have little to no desire to pursue the world of ethnography further, and that would be seemingly against Clifford's own interests.