Ethnography & Ethnology

Distinguishing Features of
Anthropological Research
• Concerned with exploring and interpreting social and
cultural phenomena (tries to understand how people make
sense of their world).
• Studies people in their own territory & in their natural
settings.
• Gives insight concerning questions in terms of ‘Who’,
’Where’, ’How’ & ’Why’ .
• Anthropologists have the expertise of studying complex
human behavior (HIV, drug abuse, gender discrimination
etc)
• Employs different methods and tools( qualitative and
quantitative)

2
Survey or field work research
• Quantitative data is the focus of research in ethnographies as
compared to surveys which is quantitate research methodology.
• Generalizations can be build by the surveys but not from
ethnographic research as they are bound to specific time and place.
• Presence of researcher in field is not required for surveys.
• For quick data collection surveys are good but questionable for its
reliability where as ethnographies are field work based and are time
taking but data is considered as more reliable.
• survey researchers often aim to answer “why” questions, field
researchers ask how the processes they study occur, how the people
they spend time with in the field interact, and how events unfold.
Accurately Describing a
Culture
• To accurately describe a culture an anthropologist
needs to seek out and consider three types of data:
1. The people’s own understanding of their
culture and the general rules they share.
2. The extent to which people believe they are
observing those rules.
3. The behavior that can be directly observed.
Methodologies in Anthropology

There are two main methodologies in

Anthropology
1. Ethnography -A detailed description of a
particular culture primarily based on
fieldwork.
2. Ethnology -The study and analysis of different
cultures from a comparative point of view.
Ethnology & Ethnography
• Ethnology started in the eighteenth century as a systematic
attempt to acquire and compare information on those non-
European populations who did not possess written records
of their history and cultural heritage.
• Ethnography was understood as data-gathering in a single
society, usually in a spatially and temporally bounded
situation, such as when the fieldworker spends one year as
a participant observer
• Ethnology, by contrast, utilizes the information collected in
a number of ethnographies in order to engage in systematic
cross-cultural comparisons between two or more societies.
Ethnography
• Ethnographic research comes purely from the
discipline of anthropology where an ethnographer is
required to spend a significant amount of time in
the field & conduct an in-depth research.

• Ethnographers immerse themselves in the lives of

the people they study (Lewis 1985, p. 380) and seek
to place the phenomena studied in their social and
cultural context.

7
Traditional vs. Modern
Ethnography
• Traditional- Early ethnographies that were
focused on the life ways of non-industrialized
communities which were thought to soon
disappear by “civilized” nations.
• Modern ethnography has changed focus from
documented dying cultures to changing cultures
in the face of globalization and forced
assimilation.
Ethnography: Research Methods

• Ethnographic fieldwork is best defined as

extended on-location research to gather
detailed and in-depth information on a society’s
customary ideas, values, and practices through
participation in its collective social life.
Site Selection
• Anthropologists primarily research cultures
outside of their own, in a foreign country. This is
based on the idea that studies done in one’s own
culture might bring biased to the research due to
the familiarity with the group or culture being
studied.
• Research will require several questions to be
asked such as:
– Finding funding
– Securing permission to research
– Deciding what focus the research will take
Research techniques
• There are many facets to researching a new
culture or cultural practice that the
ethnography will use:
– Consent (Acceptance)
– Participant Observant
– Key Consultants
– Quantitative & Qualitative Data
– Mapping, Photography & Filming
– Interviewing
Informed Consent
• Informed consent- a formal recorded
agreement to participate in research.

• When it is a challenge to obtain informed

consent, or even impossible to precisely explain
the meaning and purpose of this concept and
its actual consequences, anthropologists may
protect the identities of individuals.
Participant Observation
• Participant observation- a research method in
which one learns about a group’s beliefs and
behaviors through social participation and
personal observation within the community, as
well as interviews and discussion with individual
members of the group over an extended stay in
the community.
Participant Observation
• Participant observation is a dialectic process that cycles
back and forth between assuming a role of a
participant and the role of an observer.
• Guides ethnographic fieldwork.
• Participant observation techniques require professional
training and the allocation of the lead time necessary
to develop rapport with the people being studied.
• By becoming the member of a particular society, he
participate in their birth, marriage and death rituals,
gains an in-depth access to their cultural symbols.

14
Key Consultant
• Key consultants- will be a member of the
society being studied, who provides information
that helps researchers understand the meaning
of what they observe.
Developing Rapport

• Developing Rapport having complementary relation-ships

with the people.

• Rapport means trust and communication as well as

commitment and skills in interpersonal relations.

• The develop rapport is an advantage of qualitative methods

and an important factor in assuring the validity of the data.

• Building relationships can contribute to the execution of

qualitative interviews in more controlled settings.

16
Data Collection
• There two main types of data collection used in
many types of researches are
• Quantitative- Statistical or measurable
information, such as demographic composition,
the types and quantities of crops grown, or the
ratio of spouses born and raised within or
outside the community.
• Qualitative- Nonstatistical information such as
personal life stories and customary beliefs and
practices.
• Focused throughout the research
on the five “w”’s
–“Who” practices this?
“What” is practiced?
–“Where” is this practiced?
“When” is it practiced?
–“Why” is it practiced?
Field Notes
a list of points that should be included in all field notes:
• Date, time, and place of observation
• Specific facts, numbers, details of what happens at the
site
• Sensory impressions: sights, sounds, textures, smells,
tastes
• Personal responses to the fact of recording fieldnotes
• Specific words, phrases, summaries of conversations,
and insider language
• Questions about people or behaviors at the site for
future investigation
• Page numbers to help keep observations in order
(Chiseri-Strater and Sunstein (1997)

19
 Interviewing
• These conversations may take two approaches:
• Informal interview
– An unstructured, open-ended conversation in
everyday life.
• Formal interview
– A structured question/answer session carefully
notated as it occurs and based on prepared
questions.
Eliciting Devices
• Apart from traditional techniques of interview, data
collection, and the use of a key cultural consultant
are eliciting devices.
• These techniques can be activities or objects that
can be used to draw out individuals and encourage
them to recall and share information.
– Taking a walk
– Asking about particular stories
– Share details of one’s own childhood or a fond
memory.
– Pictures
Challenges of Ethnographic
Fieldwork
• Ethnographic research creates a tough challenge in
itself. Often anthropologists must face personal
challenges while trying to adjust to a new culture
and conduct fieldwork. Among the numerous
mental challenges anthropologists commonly face
are
– Culture shock
– Loneliness
– Feeling like an ignorant outsider
– Being socially awkward in a new cultural setting.
Challenges of Ethnography
• Physical challenges typically include but are not
limited too:
– Adjusting to unfamiliar food, climate, and
hygiene conditions.
– The need to be constantly alert to relevant
conversations that are significant to one’s
research.
– Ethnographers must spend considerable time
interviewing, making detailed notes, and
analyzing data.
Challenges of Ethnography
• Social & political challenges typically include but
are not limited too:
– The need to gain acceptance within the
community.
– Issues involving the researchers age, skin
color, ethnicity, religion, or gender.
– Being the center of rivaling groups while
trying to maintain a neutral position.
Completing an Ethnography
• Upon completion of the data collection in the
field the ethnographer must begin to piece
together their information. Written
ethnographies are more traditional but certainly
not the only method to document the data.
Digital photography is the method by which the
use of audio and visual technologies can be
used to collect and analysis the information
collected.
According to Anthropologists…
• Ethnographic research is not objective but an
interpretive endeavor.
• Not all field sites are "foreign" for
ethnographers in the same way.
• Ethnography is not replicable research.
• Ethnography is not based on large numbers
of cases (like quantitative research).

27
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages:
• In-Depth understanding of a culture amongst a
group of people (detailed and more likely valid
interpretations)
• Gives a voice to a culture to express their views,
which might not otherwise be heard
• Influential in creating an understanding among
outsiders
• Also may reveal embedded cultural values that
were not obvious to the group
Advantages and Disadvantages
Disadvantages:
• cumbersome and Time-consuming, and can be
expensive
• Possibility that researcher is changing the natural
way a culture behaves by being present
• Not really able to generalize findings
• Inappropriate for analyzing complex
environmental problems whose cause-effect
relationships are external to the place and time of
study (e.g., climate change)
• Difficulty of reconciling constructive engagement
with critical reflection
Franz Boas
Franz Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942)
was a German-American anthropologist who has
been called the "Father of American
Anthropology". Like many such pioneers, he
trained in other disciplines; he received his
doctorate in physics, and did post-doctoral work
in geography. He is famed for applying the
scientific method to the study of human cultures
and societies.