Self Ethnography

Spanish and english (english at the end)

Self Ethnography

Abdel Hernandez San Juan

A que yo llamo y defino como self ethnography, cual es el origen de este concepto y cuales son las matrices y las lineas epistemologicas y metodologicas por donde pasan sus limites y sentidos?. 

Yo concebi esta nocion muchos anos despues, casi un decada despues de haber elaborado mis primeras teorias sociologicas de caracter fenomenologico sobre el self, aquellas teorias sociologicas las concebi desde una perspectiva disciplinaria interna a los limites de la sociologia como disciplina teorica, es decir, se referian a un individuo tipo occidental y a la relacion individuo sociedad -lo individual y lo social- presupuestos en nuestra propia cultura occidental, metropolitana y altamente diferenciada de caracter urbano, aquellas teorias sobre el self se aplicaban solo a la relacion entre un individuo, cada individuo, uno a uno, y la sociedad tal cual como lo desarrolle en mi primer libro bordes y desbordes del arte: sociologia del transarte

Se trataba de estudios fenomenologicos sobre la subjetividad y las axiologias a ser consideradas en la solucion de cuestiones de extranamiento y extrinsecacion que no ofrecian en las distintas escuelas de sociologia vias o alternativas para resolver como una cosa y la otra pasan la una en la otra y estan en relacion, las referencias mas proximas en la tradicion de la sociologia a este respecto fueron las teorias de george helbert mead quien estudiaba como el self se conformaba de lo social preexistente pero no asi a la inversa, como lo social se configura del self y como a su vez ambos el self y lo social se permean y en que modos especificos fenomenologicos adquiere forma ese paso de lo uno en lo otro, tema que profundize yo posteriormente desarrollando una teoria fenomenologica del self en mis libros self y acervo y pensando ciencia, donde discuto las bisagras de ese paso entre el self y lo social, y el self y lo simbolico, en estos dos ultimos libros mi teoria inicialmente disciplinaria en sociologia se volvio mas filosofica en sentido clasico deviniendo en una avenida fenomenologica entre filosofia y sociologia. 

En esta teoria sobre el self yo propuse que la fenomenologia del self es imprescindible para la teoria cultural y que esta ultima haya en gran medida sus posibilidades al desarrollarse desde la fenomenologia del self

Hasta aqui nada competia aun a conceptos o nociones propias a la antropologia cultural y la etnografia. Sin embargo, en paralelo a aquellas investigaciones teoricas, es decir, poco despues de que en 1992 escribi mi libro bordes y desbordes del arte, inicie en caracas una experimentacion de escritura enfocada en autoinvestigar la autopercepcion del intelectual en diaspora, no le llamaba diaspora, sino meramente subjetividad del intelectual emigrante, se trataba de escritos sobre mi mismo, sobre como mi propia subjtividad se transformaba en la emigracion y que consecuencias se derivaban de ello para la comprension por un lado de la autopercepcion de uno mismo como intelectual, de un lado, y para el analisis cultural de la cultura en cuestion, por el otro, de ahi nacio menjurgue, un libro experimental escrito en venezuela.

Mis investigaciones teoricas empiricas sobre el self se profundizaron luego varios anos mas tarde en houston, texas, por un lado, dado que mi libro bordes y desbordes discutia en ultima instancia cuestiones del arte, es decir, enfocaba individuo y sociedad desde la perspectiva disciplinaria de la sociologia pero alrededor de la relacion el autor individual y su obra, en el arte, en 1996 tuve la oportunidad de dirigir en caracas a traves de la fundacion transart de houston un taller experimental de arte y antropologia, en este taller enfocado en primer lugar como un taller de teoria semiotica, el trabajo desarrollado por surpik angelini mi cocuradora para las siete muestras resultantes que expusimos juntos en rice university, desarrollo una exploracion sobre sus propias autonarrativas de experiencia poniendo estas autonarrativas en relacion con o derivandola del analisis de determinados objetos, iconos e imagenes visuales que durante el taller yo analizaba semioticamente, la exploracion de surpik al igual que menjurgue derivaron en autoanalisis culturales sobre la subjetividad del emigrante, en este caso la experiencia de surpik como descendiente de padre armenio y madre estado unidense nacida en venezuela emigrada a houston, texas.

La exploracion de surpik tenia a su vez precedentes no solo en la investigacion mia sobre la subjetividad del emigrante, yo mismo en venezuela, sino tambien en el caracter autosociologico y autoantropologico de proyectos que concebi y dirigi yo en cuba de sociologia urbana y teoria cultural donde estudiar a grupos culturales era un modo tambien de comprenderse a uno mismo y donde tambien habia enfocado la relacion entre autonarrativas de experiencia y reflexividades de analisis cultural.

La exploracion de Surpik derivo en su muestra psyche ethnography report que expusimos ambos en el rice media center y fue la primera vez en que en ensayos discutiendo la muestra de Surpik hable y defini mi concepto de self ethnography, un ano mas tarde en un taller de teoria semiotica sobre materias, materiales, objetos y lenguajes instalativos que desarrolle con la artista cubano americana puerto riquena maria cristina jadick en houston, texas, volvi a hayar esta intrincada relacion entre semiotica de lenguajes visuales, autonarrativas de experiencia y analisis culturales desarrollados desde y enfocados en el self. 

El taller con maria cristina jadick nos permitio profundizar esto derivando no solo en las tres muestras de cristina silencios sonoros, cuerpos culturales y conexiones desconexiones, sino tambien en el ensayo mio sobre su muestra cultural bodies tambien titulado cultural bodies, en este ensayo por segunda vez traze las perspectivas y posibilides de que un analisis cultural enfocado en el self pueda adquirir una dimension de valia etnografica de nuevo respecto a cristina tambien en torno a la autopercepcion de la subjetividad del migrante. 

La intrincada relacion entre el concepto de self ethnography que concebi y el analisis cultural sobre y o a partir de las subjetividades migratorias o diasporicas, adquirio luego un desarrollo aun mas profundo con mi conferencia de antrologia cultural viviendo entre culturas que imparti en el instituto de cultura hispana de houston y que derivo en un seminario teorico de un ano que desarrolle con emigrantes mexicano americanos y argentino americanos en houston, texas, este seminario me permitio a lo largo de mis clases profundizar las posibilidades antropologico culturales de mi teoria del self inicialmente y sobre todo desarrollada entre filosofia clasica y sociologia y en el mismo llegamos a hablar tambien de self ethnography para referirnos a lo que haciamos, mientras yo teorizaba cultura moderna y contemporanea desde una perspectiva filosofica y sociologica, haciamos analisis culturales de nosotros mismos en esa sociedad culturalistamente hablando, estados unidos, la sociedad a la que emigramos todos los presentes en el seminario, enfocamos las formas de subjetividad y comprension de la cultura derivada de autopercibirnos como emigrantes incluyendome a mi mismo.

Sin embargo, solo en mis libros Self y acervo, y pensando ciencia, sobre todo en dos enayos self y acervo y las bisagras del self y lo simbolico se sientan las bases de mi teoria fenomenologica del self y son la base para desarrollos futuros en los que me propongo enfocar y analizar hasta que punto la teoria cultural que es posible desde mi fenomenologia del self puede moverse mas alla de un campo empirico hasta el momento corrobado en torno a los siguientes asuntos

sociologia de la relacion individuo sociedad como tipo ideal abstraido a traves del analisis de la relacion autor obra en el arte

investigaciones experimentales filosoficas y autosociologicas sobre la subjetividad del emigrante como autopercepciones reflexivas y las formas de analisis y teorizaciones culturales de ello derivadas

Estudios de relaciones en teoria semiotica sobre dimensiones afectivas de objetos, materias y lenguajes instalativos, y exploracion de sus relaciones sobre autonarrativas de experiencia o autobiograficas como vias para analisis y teorizaciones culturales en experiencias de artistas de vanguardia

Teorizaciones generales filosofico sociologicas y analisis culturales de las relaciones entre individuo y sociedad, self y cultura, en base a experiencias concretas de migrantes hispanos

El alcance de mi teoria fenomenologica entre filosofia y sociologia sobre el self y el acervo para la teoria cultural en general esta fuera de dudas en sus posibilidades, alcances y horizontes incluso no solo alrededor de la persona individual sino desde los tipos de ideales hacia la teorizacion cultural en general, sin embargo, la pregunta es esta, es posible tambien mover las posibilidades de lo que he llamado self ethnography mas alla de la persona individual concreta?, esto es lo que aun no esta del todo ni demostrado ni explorado suficientemente, que funciona para la persona individual esta fuera de dudas, mi concepto de self ethnography se aplica con avanzados resultados en el analisis cultural derivado de una experiencia empirica individual autobiografica, pero, puede aplicarse mas alla de la persona individual?.

El futuro de mis estudios en self ethnography estara enfocado en responder esta pregunta. Al respecto en la actualidad me encuentro desarrollando rumbos: exploraciones en antropologia cultural, un libro en conjunto con alberto mendez suarez, no dedicado al self ethnography, pero el cual tiene algunos acapites donde intento vias y alternativas a estas preguntas.

Self Ethnography

Abdel Hernandez San Juan

What I call and define as self ethnography, what is the origin of this concept and what are the matrices and the epistemological and methodological lines through which its limits and meanings pass?

I conceived this notion many years later, almost a decade after having developed my first sociological theories of a phenomenological nature about the self. I conceived those sociological theories from an internal disciplinary perspective to the limits of sociology as a theoretical discipline, that is, they referred to to a Western-type individual and the individual-society relationship or the individual and the social presupposed in our own Western, metropolitan and highly differentiated urban culture, those theories about the self applied only to the relationship between an individual, each individual, one one, and society as I developed it in my first book borders and overflows of art: sociology of transarte

These were phenomenological studies on subjectivity and axiologies to be considered in the solution of questions of estrangement and extrinsication that did not offer in the different schools of sociology ways or alternatives to resolve how one thing and the other pass into each other and They are related, the closest references in the tradition of sociology in this regard were the theories of George Helbert Mead who studied how the self was made up of the pre-existing social but not the other way around, how the social is made up of the self and How, in turn, both the self and the social permeate each other and in what specific phenomenological ways this passage from one to the other takes shape, a topic that I later deepened by developing now whether a phenomenological theory of the self in my books self and acquis and thinking science, where I discuss the hinges of that step between the self and the symbolic, in these last two books my initially disciplinary theory in sociology became more philosophical in the classical sense, becoming a phenomenological avenue between philosophy and sociology.

In this theory about the self, I proposed that the phenomenology of the self is essential for cultural theory and that the latter has, to a large extent, its possibilities in developing from the phenomenology of the self.

Up to this point nothing even competed with concepts or notions specific to cultural anthropology and ethnography. However, in parallel to those theoretical investigations, that is, at the same time that in 1992 I wrote my book Edges and Overflows of Art, I began in Caracas a writing experiment focused on self-investigating the self-perception of the intellectual in diaspora, I did not call it diaspora, but merely the subjectivity of the emigrant intellectual. These were writings about how my own subjectivity was transformed in emigration and what consequences were derived from it for the understanding, on the one hand, of the self-perception of oneself as an intellectual, of a On the one hand, and for the cultural analysis of the culture in question, on the other, Menjurgue was born, an experimental book written in Venezuela.

My empirical theoretical research on the self was then deepened several years later in Houston, Texas, on the one hand, since my book Edges and Overflows ultimately discussed issues of art, that is, it focused on the individual and society from the disciplinary perspective of sociology but around the relationship between the individual author and his work, in art, in 1996 I had the opportunity to direct in Caracas through the transart foundation of Houston an experimental workshop on art and anthropology, in this workshop focused first As a semiotic theory workshop, the work developed by Surpik Angelini, my co-curator for the seven samples resulting from the workshop that both of us exhibited together at Rice University a year later, developed an exploration of her own self-narratives of experience, putting these self-narratives in relation to or deriving it. From the analysis of certain objects, icons and visual images that during the workshop I analyzed semiotically, Surpik's exploration, as well as Menjurgue's, led to cultural self-analysis on the subjectivity of the emigrant, in this case Surpik's experience as a descendant of an Armenian father and mother. American born in Venezuela who emigrated to Houston, Texas.

Surpik's exploration had precedents not only in my research on the subjectivity of the emigrant, myself in Venezuela, but also in the autosociological and autoanthropological character of projects that I conceived and directed in Cuba on urban sociology and cultural theory where Studying cultural groups was also a way of understanding oneself and where I had also focused on the relationship between self-narratives of experience and reflexivities of cultural analysis.

Surpik's exploration led to his exhibition psyche ethnography report that we both exhibited at the rice media center and it was the first time that in essays discussing Surpik's exhibition I spoke and defined my concept of self ethnography, a year later in a workshop semiotic theory on materials, materials, objects and installation languages ​​that I developed with the Puerto Rican Cuban American artist Maria Cristina Jadick in Houston, Texas, there was once again this intricate relationship between semiotics of visual languages, self-narratives of experience and cultural analysis developed from and focused in the self.

The workshop with Maria Cristina Jadick allowed us to deepen this, deriving not only in Cristina's three samples sound silences, cultural bodies and connections, disconnections, but also in my essay on her sample cultural bodies, also titled cultural bodies, in this essay for the second time. Abdel traces the perspectives and possibilities that a cultural analysis focused on the self can acquire a dimension of ethnographic value again with respect to Cristina also around the self-perception of the migrant's subjectivity.

The intricate relationship between the concept of self ethnography that I conceived and the cultural analysis on and or based on migratory or diasporic subjectivities, later acquired an even deeper development with my conference on cultural anthrology living between cultures that I gave at the Institute of Hispanic Culture of Houston and which led to a one-year theoretical seminar that I developed with Mexican American and Argentine American emigrants in Houston, Texas. This seminar allowed me throughout my classes to deepen the cultural anthropological possibilities of my theory of the self initially and above all developed between classical philosophy and sociology and in it we also came to talk about self ethnography to refer to what we did, while I theorized modern and contemporary cultural from a philosophical and sociological perspective, we did cultural analyzes of ourselves in that society culturally speaking and focusing The forms of subjectivity and understanding of culture derive from perceiving ourselves as immigrants, including myself.

However, only in my books Self and acquis, and thinking science, especially in two essays self and acquis and the hinges of the self and the symbolic, do you lay the foundations for my phenomenological theory of the self and are the basis for future developments in the that I propose to focus and analyze to what extent the cultural theory that is possible from this phenomenology of the self can move beyond its empirical field until now corroborated, that is,

sociology of the individual-society relationship as an ideal type abstracted through the analysis of the author-work relationship in art

experimental philosophical and autosociological investigations on the subjectivity of the emigrant as reflective self-perceptions and the forms of analysis and cultural theorizations derived from it

Studies of relationships in semiotic theory on the affective dimensions of objects, materials and installation languages, and exploration of their relationships on self-narratives of experience or autobiography as avenues for analysis and cultural theorization in the experiences of avant-garde artists.

General philosophical, sociological theorizations and cultural analysis of the relationships between individual and society, self and culture, based on concrete experiences of Hispanic migrants

The scope of my phenomenological theory between philosophy and sociology on the self and the heritage for cultural theory in general is beyond doubt in its possibilities, scope and horizons even not only around the individual person but from the types of ideals towards theorization. cultural in general, however, the question is this, is it also possible to move the possibilities of what I have called self ethnography beyond the concrete individual person, this is what is not yet fully demonstrated or sufficiently explored, that it works For the individual person it is beyond doubt, my concept of self ethnography is applied with advanced results in the cultural analysis derived from an individual autobiographical empirical experience, but can it be applied beyond the individual person?

The future of my studies in self ethnography will be focused on answering this question. In this regard, I am currently developing directions: explorations in cultural anthropology, a book together with Alberto Mendez Suarez, not dedicated to self ethnography, but which has some sections where I try ways and alternatives to these questions.