Chapter 15: Ethnographic Research

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Chapter 15 Ethnographic Research

• Its History, Methods, and Theories

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Chapter Overview

• History of studying culture
• Purpose of studying culture
• Ethnographic fieldwork
• Ethnology
• Challenges
• Theory

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History of Ethnographic Research

• Started during the colonial era (1870s-1950s)
  when Europeans wanted to understand the groups
  they colonized
• At first, they wanted to compare traditional
  lifeways with prehistoric European ancestors to
  understand primitive people.
• Anthropologists do not think in such ethnocentric
  ways anymore

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Uses of Ethnography

• Urgent anthropology (salvage) This type of
  anthropology documents endangered cultures
• Anthropologists tried to reconstruct traditional
  ways of life by interviewing elders within
  culture groups to understand how these people
  lived before colonization and acculturation (the
  disruptive process of culture change when
  traditional societies come in contact with states)

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Applied Anthropology

• Applied anthropology means using anthropological
  research and knowledge to help solve practical
  problems in communities confronting new
  challenges
• For instance, the British government had anthros
  study how international markets affect Zambias
  traditional societies

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Studying State Societies

• National character studies from a distance
  during the Cold War (accessing culture through
  newspapers, media, film)
• State-level studies can help inform the United
  Nations, UNCESCO, etc.
• Peasant studies people in between
  industrialization and food foraging i.e.,
  subsistence farmers (the word peasant is meant in
  this context, not as an insult)

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Advocacy Anthropology

• Research that is community-based and politically
  motivated
• Anthropologists use knowledge acquired during
  fieldwork to help the people they studied

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Ethnographic Fieldwork

• Ethnographic fieldwork is the extended,
  on-location research to gather detailed and
  in-depth information on a societys customary
  ideas, values, and practices through
  participation in its collective social life

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Steps of Ethnographic Fieldwork

• Step 1 Select the site and research question
  (funding, permission, fieldtrip)
• Step 2 Preparatory Research (language, history)
• Step 3 PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION a research
  method during which the researcher observes in
  and participates in a community during an
  extended stay
• Step 4 Talk to key consultants (informants)

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Data Gathering

• Quantitative data statistical or measurable
  information for instance, the types of crops
  grown or marriage, birth, death records
• Qualitative Data Nonstatistical information such
  as personal life stories and customary beliefs
  and practices

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Types of Qualitative Quantitative Data

• Surveys anthros dont typically rely on these as
  much as other social scientists b/c they are not
  always culturally relevant
• Interviews both informal (open-ended
  conversations) and formal (structured
  pre-prepared questions) using eliciting devices
  to help people remember things
• Mapping adding detail to maps in remote
  locations, citing places culturally important to
  their informants
• Film and photography

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Challenges of Ethnographic Fieldwork

• Gaining social acceptance (Ju/hoansi)
• Political challenges (Thull)
• Gender, age, ideology, ethnicity, skin color (Jew
  in Mississippi)

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Subjectivity

• 1. There is how people think their society ought
  to be (e.g., married people do not have relations
  with anyone other than their spouse)
• 2. There is how people think they follow these
  rules (e.g., I, of course, would follow those
  rules).
• 3. There is behavior that is actually observed
  (e.g., Married people in singles bars or dating
  websites)

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Ethnographer Reflexivity

• When the anthropologists thinks about how their
  own upbringing/values affect their interpretive
  presuppositions
• How did they acquire, share, and transmit the
  knowledge they gained?
• Anthros need to acknowledge that their research
  will be colored by themselves

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Completing the Ethnography

• It is usually written in a book format with
  various chapters devoted to the research
  questions about marriage, social structure,
  substance activities
• Can also be in another media form such as digital
  anthropology, which presents its results in film
• Ethnohistory historical ethnography that studies
  past cultures through oral histories or accounts
  of explorers, missionaries, etc.

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Ethnology

• Ethnology is a branch of cultural anthropology
  that makes cross-cultural comparisons and
  develops theories that explain why certain
  important differences or similarities occur
  between groups

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Theories and Doctrines

• A theory in science is an explanation of natural
  phenomenon, supported by reliable data
• A doctrine is an assertion or opinion or belief
  formally handed down by an authority as true and
  indisputable (aka, dogma)

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Comparative Method

• Tries to understand various cultural phenomena by
  comparing it to similar practices
• Uses HRAF Human Relations Area Files, which is a
  huge collection of ethnographic and
  archaeological data catalogued for various
  cultural and geographic areas

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Anthropological Theory

• Idealist perspective stresses the primacy of
  superstructure (worldview) in cultural research
  and analysis
• Materialist perspective Stresses the primacy of
  infrastructure (economy, material conditions) in
  cultural research and analysis

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Moral Dilemmas

• Informed consent
• Protecting the innocent
• Dissemination of material