The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande

Angela Garcia’s study of New Mexico’s Española Valley is an ethnographic study of individuals living with addiction and social inequality. The term “ethnography” has Greek origins: éthnos refers to people and nations, while gráphō translates as “I write.” Ethnography is a form of qualitative study that requires the researcher to make determinations about the experiences of individuals and societies through observation and interviews. Frequently used in anthropology, ethnography often involves the researcher participating in their subjects’ culture and setting. This form of immersion positions the researcher within the daily lives and practices of a culture.

Ethnographers examine how different elements of a setting and culture fit together. The researcher’s goal is never to generalize about a culture or to develop a comprehensive analysis. Instead, ethnography examines how individual pieces within a culture and a person’s life fit together, and it offers insight into how those elements interact with one another. Researchers use various data collection methods, including observation notes, surveys, and interviews. The goal of these methods is to gather information while minimizing the researcher’s individual perspective and bias within the work.