What’s (in) a Vignette? History, Functions, and Development of an Elusive Ethnographic Sub-genre

Despite their great diversity, most anthropologists would agree that they recognise a vignette when see one. What, then, is vignette? By untreading etymological and historical origins of the in anthropology, we discuss its development since it first entered ethnographic texts. We argue vignettes were long treated as tokens effeminate textual embellishment, therefore missing systematic methodological attention. then show how recently, affective turn boosted epistemological significance by focusing on writing not only seeks to transport lived affects from field onto paper, but aims evoke such reader. In final step, offer set quality criteria for vignette. Discussing place style, relation fiction retrospection well trends towards independency, propose render this lucid sub-genre epistemologically uniquely valuable.