Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss the problems of the use of auto-ethnography in different situations, and specifically in the study of one's own community. It will further analyse whether this approach is ethical, and to what extent.

Paper long abstract:

Auto-ethnography has emerged as a significant method in anthropology and the social sciences for answers that are many times difficult to procure through ethnography alone. In the Indian context, "native" anthropologists have been studying their own societies and cultures, both caste and tribe, for a very long time. This has helped bring out certain facets of their societies which hitherto lay hidden.

However, such an approach is far from being ideal. When the study of one's self is concerned a few debatable issues emerge: How scientific can one's own experiences be? Why study one's own self, when others could be studied? If one's own self is studied, then how anthropological is such a study? In my decade-long auto-ethnographic experiences, I frequently came across situations where I could not identify myself either with the self or the other. There were situations where questions of ethics plagued me. I realized being a "native" researcher of a society, which did not have many researchers to call its own, that the society was looking up at me for answers for which I myself was grappling. Again, the dilemma was whether to listen to what the society wanted me to do, or whether I should cut myself off from the emotional entanglements of the society and be scientific in my approach.

In this paper I propose to discuss some of these issues and critically look at the different methods of auto-ethnogaphy and how ethical an approach it is.