Research Findings as Testimony: A Note on the Ethnographer as Expert Witness

This paper recounts a number of difficulties encountered by the author (then a graduate student) in the course of giving "expert" testimony in a class-action lawsuit seeking recognition of the right to shelter for homeless men in New York. Chief among such difficulties was the presumptive classification of much ethnographic material as "hearsay." An obscure exception to the hearsay rule—"reputation"—is introduced, and its value as applied in the present case and as a device for introducing evidence obtained through interviews generally is discussed.