Introduction
It is important to note that ethnographic research and writing can come in many forms, but there are key essentials to be ensured. Barker’s study of the Marshallese people and their victimization by the U.S. government is an outstanding demonstration of how ethnographic research and writing should be conducted. She used the engaged anthropology method and ethnographic authority writing to expose the apparent structural violence inflicted upon the Marshallese people.
Evaluating Ethnography
Firstly, one of the key elements of ethnographic research is to focus on the people being studied rather than data or records. Guest (2020) states that ethnographers can utilize a range of strategies, which range from qualitative and quantitative data gathering to key informant identification, kinship analysis, social network analysis, and mapping tactics. For the writing, Guest (2020) emphasizes the importance of polyvocality, reflexivity, and ethnographic authority. Some of these approaches and methods can be observed in Barker’s study used in her book. Specifically, she utilizes engaged anthropology, which Guest (2020) defines as “a commitment not only to revealing and critiquing but also to confronting systems of power and inequality” (p. 76). Barker’s (2013) methods include developing trust, learning the language, archival research, oral history gathering, observation, repeated fieldwork, and work on the policy realm. The latter part is a critical identifier of why she adhered to the engaged ethnographic research. She underwent all the essential ethnographic strategy steps ranging from preparation to strategies, mapping, perspective analysis, and proper documentation.
For the ethnographic writing, Barker adopts polyvocality, reflexivity, and ethnographic authority, as emphasized by Guest. However, the biggest element is authority since she utilized engaged anthropology to help the communities she was studying. Barker adopted these methods because she wanted to empower the Marshallese people, and it allowed her to find the most plausible solutions to their problems. She reported that “as an applied anthropologist working for the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) government, I worked with Marshallese leaders and their local attorneys to produce tangible outcomes for communities and the nation” (Barker, 2013, p. 148). Her goal was not limited to the acquisition of information only, but she sought to empower the Marshallese people and bring justice by ending their suffering. The engaged anthropology method and ethnographic authority writing adopted by Barker allowed her to meet the goal of her research project.
Structural Competency
Secondly, the concept of structural violence is of critical relevance and importance for the Marshallese case study. The term structural violence can be defined as a category of violence that is perpetrated by a social institution or structure aimed at a specific group of people, which leads to continuous health inequality (Guest, 2020). In sum, Barker’s (2013) linguistic analysis revealed that the language of the Marshallese people and their cultural elements essentially avoid assigning blame by using passive communication rather than active. In addition, the communities tended to respond as a collective instead of an individual. Barker (2013) writes: “instead of responding in the first person when they did not know the time, people often replied in the collective plural … ‘we don’t know’” (p. 94). She looks at language because it allows anthropologists to uncover “what people think about human behavior” (Barker, 2013, p. 93). Analyzing the language helps to expose structural violence by understanding how the victims perceive and communicate their pain and struggles.
Barker’s interviews essentially focused on the Marshallese women, who are the most vulnerable to linguistic taboos. The decoding process of their experiences with U.S. medical attention, atoll residence, and sex variables demonstrate that they were exposed to a severe form of structural violence (Barker, 2013). They were denied the basic care they required from the U.S., although the pain inflicted by the radiation was serious in most cases. It became apparent that the RMI government was effectively too weak to ensure justice for its people against the U.S. Their social institutions and structures inflicted significant harm to the Marshallese people’s health and well-being, constituting the textbook definition of structural violence. Although the local language is avoidant of assigning blame or speaking from the individual perspective, the negligence and dismissal of the U.S. were clear.
The concept of structural violence is useful to apply to other case studies described by Barker, especially the human radiation experiments. The victims of these experiments were military servicemen, prisoners, graveyard bodies, pregnant women, and people with mental disabilities (Barker, 2013). These actions by the United States Public Health Service, the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and the United States Department of Defense were examples of structural violence. These are institutions and government structures which inflict harm on specific groups of people, comprising the textbook definition.
My personal stance is that the broader public should be educated about structural violence and the hidden histories of radiation exposure because it is relevant to many other areas. For example, oil spills and company-caused pollution are examples of structural violence against certain communities. People need to know how to identify and act to fight back against institutions and organizations since they can inflict severe harm without being as evident compared to an individual perpetrator.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Barker exposed the structural violence inflicted upon the Marshallese people by utilizing the engaged anthropology method and ethnographic authority writing. Her accounts adhere to the principles of polyvocality and reflexivity as well. She approached her fieldwork by being prepared and engaged since she sought to empower the victims of structural violence. Her research is highly important outside radiation exposure cases since this form of damage can be done by companies, organizations, and institutions in various forms.
References
Barker, H. (2013) Bravo for the Marshallese: Regaining control in a post-nuclear, post-colonial world (2nd ed.). Thomson Learning.
Guest, K. (2020). Essentials of cultural anthropology: A toolkit for a global age (3rd ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.