Thin Description: Ethnography and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem
Abstract
The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are often dismissed as a fringe cult for their beliefs that African Americans are descendants of the ancient Israelites and that veganism leads to immortality. But John L. Jackson questions what "fringe" means in a world where cultural practices of every stripe circulate freely on the Internet. In this poignant and sophisticated examination of the limits of ethnography, the reader is invited into the visionary, sometimes vexing world of the AHIJ. Jackson challenges what Clifford Geertz called the "thick description" of anthropological research through a multidisciplinary investigation of how the AHIJ use media and technology to define their public image in the twenty-first century. Moving beyond the "modest witness" of nineteenth-century scientific discourse or the "thick descriptions" of twentieth-century anthropology, Jackson insists that Geertzian thickness is impossible, especially in a world where the anthropologist's subjects craft their own self-ethnographies and critically consume the ethnographer's offerings. Taking as its topic a group situated along the fault lines of several diasporas--African, American, Jewish-- Thin Description provides an account of how race, religion, and ethnographic representation must be understood anew in the twenty-first century, lest we reenact old mistakes in the study of black humanity.
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Algorithmic bias can occur in telematics-based scoring, penalizing users whose driving behavior does not correspond to algorithmic imaginations.
“However, an algorithmic bias can also occur here, which penalizes users with a driving behaviors that do not correspond to the 'algorithmic imaginations'.”
From Trust-Building in Peer-to-Peer Carsharing: Design Case Study for Algorithm-Based Reputation Systems (2024) · cites this paper as Jackson Jr, John L, 2013
Algorithmic bias can occur in algorithm-based reputation systems, potentially disadvantaging some users or driving behaviors in specific situations.
“Nonetheless, algorithmic bias can occur here as well, which may disadvantage some users or driving behaviors in specific situations (Jackson Jr, John L, 2013; Alkhatib, 2021).”
From Trust-Building in Peer-to-Peer Carsharing: Design Case Study for Algorithm-Based Reputation Systems (2024) · cites this paper as Jackson Jr, John L, 2013
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- Authors
- Jackson, J. L.
- Corresponding author
- Jackson, John L.
- ORCID
- Jackson, John L.
- Venue
- Harvard University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Harvard University Press
- Published
- 2013-11-01
- OpenAlex
- W4243565435
- Cited by
- 382
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 61 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 63 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 6.98
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Harvard University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Cultural Identity and Representation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Arts and Performance Studies
- Keywords
- African diaspora, autoethnography, ethnographic representation, thick description, Clifford Geertz, race, religion, media and technology, veganism, immortality, African American identity
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