Overcoming Fear and Resisting Essentialism

As I read the chapter on ethnographic work by Paredes, I was reminded of a couple of articles that I had read previously that discussed the dichotomy between Americans and immigrants from Mexico. The first article “Americanization and The Mexican Immigrant, 1880-1930” by Mario T. Garcia, discusses Americans wanting to “Americanize” the Mexican immigrants. When I question the motive behind this need for everyone to be the same, my response is that people are inherently fearful of things that are different, and instead of welcoming their curiosity and exploring these differences, they put up barriers and try to force the foreign into becoming the familiar. Cantwell discusses this same idea: “It is, again, intimidation, racial, sexual, or social difference by cleaving slavishly to the demanded stereotype, and intimidation that compels us habitually to conceive of one another stereotypically.” What I gathered from Paredes’ chapter and several other readings is that because it takes time and effort to learn about other cultures and to appreciate others’ differences, it is easier for people to remain fearful and generalize an entire culture based on a few stereotypes.
Although Paredes mainly focuses on the aspect in ethnographic studies of misinterpretation of language when he says, “It is a different matter when you attempt to interpret people’s feelings and attitudes in actual speech situations” there are many dangers that ethnographers can fall into when collecting data. For example, he states that: "anthropologists are trained to watch out for the unrepresentative informant." "The deviant may not appear so to the ethnographer if the deviant’s assessment of his own culture confirms biases or stereotypes the ethnographer has brought with him into the field." I had not thought of the person, who is the subject of the study in this way, but several of the examples he wrote about were very telling, such as the woman who said that her husband was a jealous and controlling—a typical macho jerk. Paredes goes on to say, "Too much of the ethnographic work conducted among Mexican Americans has been aimed at compiling data by the most direct means possible—that of asking people for facts." As folklorist Glenn Ohrlin points out: “People get mad when you ain’t what they expect you to be” (qtd. in Cantwell). Consequently, the ethnographer needs to be aware of this and of his/her own perceptions and be aware not to make them obvious to his/her subject.
In another article, “Discovering a Land “Mysterious and Obvious: The Renarrativizing of Postrevolutonary Mexico,” Eric Zolov suggests that American tourists are drawn to the “exoticness” of an advertised Mexico; however, if things become too unfamiliar, they criticize the foreignness of their surroundings. Rather than reflecting and educating themselves on the realities of a different culture, they allow their apprehension to control them. It is this lack of education of another’s culture that promotes essentializing and brings out the “ugly American” persona. Again, people have expectations of how others are suppose to be and if they are not then people fall back into a state of fear and rejection.
When Paredes says, "Anthropological training is supposed to teach one a certain degree of objectivity, but anthropologists are well aware how fragile are the defenses we build against subjectivity and unconscious bias," we are reminded of how easy it is to allow untruths and stereotypes to control our impressions of others. Many ethnographers study other cultures and while they may not have fully overcome essentialism, I believe that it is important to read, critique, and learn from studies such as this in order for people to increase their awareness and education of this type of work for future studies. Kristin