On sitting and doing: Ethnography as action in global health

Contemporary discussions within the arenas of medical anthropology and global health are often restricted by the driving imperatives to “do something” about a particular health problem. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Nepal in 1997, which sought to follow the translation of AIDS prevention policies into local awareness, this paper addresses the need to revitalize theories of ethnography for an understanding of global health goals. The Nepal example underscores how the path toward decisions is never entirely clear, nor is it always obvious who benefits or loses from different approaches, even as public health discourse seeks to set a strict agenda around what the problem is and what should be done about it. Ethnography shows that definitions of what matters as well as understandings of why certain things matter are formulated from specific social locations. The paper therefore advocates for a practice of patient ethnographic “sitting” as a means to understanding, as a form of critical reflexivity, and as a diagnostic of the politics of relevance.