Challenge Question response to Bryan's response to my response to his question!

Bryan's Response to My Response: http://bryanmusc1900.blogspot.com/2008/11/challenge-question-feedback-julie.html

Bryan’s comments regarding my response to his challenge question were generally very helpful. He brings up a good point that reflexivity is important not only in the conclusive processes of putting an ethnography together, but at all times during the fieldwork experience. Reflecting on the ways in which the ethnomusicologist might have influenced the music culture certainly reduces the problem of asymmetries of power, as the ethnomusicologist is acknowledging that he is not necessarily the best or most objective candidate for the job. Bryan also has a good point in that a method of polyphonic discourse would be beneficial when interviewing many people. I agree, as incorporating opinions of everyone involved will provide a more diverse and extensive pool of information.

However, I disagree with Bryan’s comment that it “should not be a problem” for the ethnomusicologist to make objective and reflexive choices from that large pool of information in the editing process. Choosing what information is “important” after information has been gathered may be a slightly less difficult process than choosing what information to include in the process of taking fieldnotes, but I would argue that there can be just as much bias in making choices once information has been gathered. How exactly one should approach this issue and choose which information to include in an ethnography could require a challenge question response of its own. Reflexivity is certainly helpful in this process, but there is no way to maintain objectivity, and the choices one makes at all stages of the ethnographic process will always be subjective to some degree. Again, I do not offer a solution or strategy for approaching the choices an ethnographer must make, but I simply suggest that this is a problem, and it is one that requires much thought.

Overall, Bryan seems to have thought out his own question thoroughly, and has come up with his own valid conclusions.