SELF-REPRESENTATION THROUGH PHOTO-EMBROIDERY AS A GENERATOR OF DIALOGUE IN EXPERIMENTAL ETHNOGRAPHY

Abstract

This study focuses on knowing if, through an experimental ethnography of self-representation through photo-embroidery, relevant data can be obtained about the socio-cultural discourses generated. Given the few ethnographic studies carried out under this method, its importance lies in the methodological and experiential contribution for the generation of a specific theoretical perspective. In 2001, a group of women weavers from the community of Nizag, in Alausí canton, Chimborazo province, Ecuador; They are organized around their ancestral fabrics and make up the Corporación de Mujeres Artesanas de Nizag, COMANI, to face loneliness and abandonment due to high migration rates, scarce agricultural production and poverty. Through an experimental ethnography lasting three months, each participant was given his own portrait printed on canvas, so that through embroidery they self-express themselves and tell us about them and their feelings with threads, needles, shapes and colors. In spite of the inconveniences arising in the development of this ethnographic exercise, self-representations, their concerns, desires, emotions and elements of their culture were evident; data and knowledge necessary for future methodological applications.