Dennis and Barbara Tedlock: The Dialogic Turn in Anthropology

The chapter discusses three main aspects of Barbara Tedlock’s and Dennis Tedlock’s anthropological reflection. Poetics. According to Barbara ad Dennis Tedlock, every act of speech, writing or doing has a poetic dimension. They discuss how the categories of a poetics based in Western literacy tradition require extensive revaluation in order to improve our comprehension of native arts. Participation. Barbara Tedlock created the concept of “Observation of participation.” During participant observation ethnographers attempt to be both emotionally engaged participants and coolly dispassionate observers. In the observation of participation, ethnographers both experience and observe their own and others’ coparticipation within the ethnographic encounter. Translation. Translation is the main topic of Barbara and Dennis Tedlock’s reflection. They proposed the concept of “dialogical anthropology”—an important epistemological paradigm shift. Theoretical and methodological implications of this shift will be analyzed in the chapter—also with regard to the contemporary discussion of the consequences of thinking anthropology as dialogue.