Laughter Out Of Place introduction and chapter 1: Research Methods
by Chris Cintron
1. "My own approach has been to work against sacrificing depth and therefore understanding, attempting instead to combine thickness with a sense of both political economy and the historical underpinnings of contemporary, ethnographically observed practice" (Goldstein 44).
2. Methodology - Ethnographic 1. Interviews 2. Participant observation 3. Use of Primary Informant - Gloria 4. Historic perspectives of politics, economics
3. Humor - Black Humor 1. Making light of things that would normally be unfunny or taboo (varies culturally) e.g. Jokes about "child death, rape, and murder" (Goldstein 45) 2. Used to cope with crushing poverty, cruel and unusual life circumstances 3. "Opens up a discursive place" where boundaries can be tested, injustices decried, silenced can have a voice; "a discourse created by the poor and used against the wealthier classes" (Goldstein 10).
4. Political and Economic History of Brazil 1. Long history with many forms of power -monarchy, empire, democracy, military rule, emerging democracy again 2. Economy defined by past reliance on slavery, exporting raw materials, importing finished goods 3. Period of economic growth in 1970s, but it widened the income gap 4. Marginalized poor pushed to slum outskirts of cities
5. Pervasive Poverty 1. Ethnography focuses on favela life 2. Cramped shacks, dirt floors, minimal plumbing 3. Residents are low class and have little access to healthcare, other amenities 4. Tragedy, suffering, and sorrow are a fact of life
6. Drawing on Ideas of Other Ethnographers 1. Scheper-Hughes - "Death Without Weeping" 2. Ortner - avoiding "ethnographic refusal" 3. Sahlins - not everything is power/resistance
