ETHNOGRAPHY

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ETHNOGRAPHY
Ethno people or folk Graphy describe
something Ethnography describing and
understanding another way of life from the native
point of view (Neuman, 2007)

• Aim
• Alexis
• History
• Ardis/Kofi
• Methodology
• Katie
• Examples
• Alexis
• Strengths Weaknesses
• Exercise

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What is an Ethnography?

• It documents routine daily lives of people
  (Fetterman,1998)
• Explores a cultural group
• Lives with people, or spends a lot of time with
  them
• Has a guiding question that evolves during the
  study (Hall, 2003)

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Aim

• Aim of Ethnography
• Unobtrusive
• Identifies geographical and temporal coordinates
• Makes visible lives of those not normally told
  (Williams, 2000)
• Tries to obtain insiders view of how a group
  manages and organizes their time (Viller, 2004)
• Understands the point of view from inside the
  group (McCleverty, 1997)

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Aim

• To identify behavior patterns and predict to
  make the reader understand the perspective of the
  native to the culture studied (Fetterman, 1998)
• Understand context, complexity, and politics of
  social processes (Warren, 2004)

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History of Anthropology/Ethnography (USA)

• Morgan
• Lawyer and anthropologist
• In 1851 he published an ethnography about Indians
  in the USA. He didn't gather the information
  himself- was a sofa anthropologist

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History of Anthropology (United Kingdom)

• The first ethnographies in Britain were published
  in 1898-1899. They were built on field research
  like we know it today
• Malinowski
• Considered the father of modern anthropology
• Wrote numerous ethnographies that are well known
  still today

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Sir Frazer about Malinowskis Methods in
Argonauts of the Western Pacific.

• Malinowskis work was done under the best
  conditions and provided the best possible results
  at that time
• Good theoretical training
• Stayed with the Trobriands for a great time
• Lived as a native among natives
• Watched them daily at work and at play
• Had conversations with them in their own language
  
• Derived information from personal observation
• Statements directly by the natives
• Characteristics of Malinowskis method
  (Malinowski, 1922)

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Malinowskis Methods.

• I consider that only such ethnographic sources
  are of unquestionable scientific value, in which
  we can clearly draw the line between, on the one
  hand, the results of direct observations and of
  native statements and interpretations, and on the
  other hand, the inferences of the author, based
  on his common sense and psychological insight
  (Malinowski, 1922, p. 3)

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Malinowski - Important for Ethnographic Work

• Accurate information
• Complex information
• Observation
• Speaking the native language is important
• No contact with white people
• Seek information naturally, instead of having
  informants
• Should have a strong theoretical background
• Join yourself with the natives
• Typical ways of thinking and feeling
• Use the native language as an instrument
  (Malinowski, 1922)

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Evans-Pritchards Methodology

• Malinowskis student
• Did research among the Azande 1926-1930
• 1930 published his ethnography Witchcraft,
  oracles, and magic among the Azande
• Used informants
• Native language
• Length of stay 1-2 years
• Get to know natives through the children
• Live like the natives (Evans-Pritchard, 1988)

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1950s-1980s Ethnography as thick description
(Clifford Geertz)

• Culture based
• Meaning oriented. Meaning is a set of culturally
  constructed and historically specific guides,
  frames, or models of and for human feeling,
  intention, and action (Ortner 1999 137)
• Specific to time and place (i.e. cultural
  relativism)
• Opposed to power and politics. Culture is not
  power, something to which social events,
  behaviours, institutions, or processes can be
  causally attributed it is a context, something
  within which they can be intelligibly-that is,
  thickly-described( Geertz 197314)
• Opposed to the thin description of
  post-positivism

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Attributes of Thick Description

• Hermeneutics
• Semiotics
• Data our own constructions of other peoples
  constructions of what they and their compatriots
  are up to (Geertz 19739)
• Analysis guessing at meanings, assessing the
  guesses, and drawing explanatory conclusions for
  the better guesses (p. 20)
• Theory a General Theory of Cultural
  Interpretation is not possible, but a cultural
  theory could be derived
• Generalization not possible across cases but
  within cases
• Prediction not prediction but anticipation

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From 1980s Re-emergence of politics and power in
cultural/historical analysis of social Phenomena
(Edward Said and Michel Foucault)

• social phenomena as effects of external power
  structures (e.g. political and economic
  institutions at the national and international
  level)
• Influenced by the rise of new perspectives such
  as critical theory and neo-Marxist ideology
• cultural universalism

14
Todays Ethnography Holistic and Evolutionary in
nature

• Characterised by a lack of consensus
• Dissolving conceptual oppositions (Sahlins 1993)
• Departure from the approach of searching under
  the disturbed topsoil of modernity for the traces
  of a pristine and primitive existence (Sahlins
  1993)
• Analysis of local situations with reference to
  relevant external institutional/political
  structures
• Eclecticism of methodologies/ methods

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The Effects of Post-Modernism on Ethnography

• Postmodernist came into anthropology around 1980
• Interpretation on interpretation on
  interpretation
• Reflexivity
• Generalizations
• Power
• (Bowmann 1997, Layton 1997, Nugent 1996)

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Methodology

• Outline of Process
• Identifying problem or topic of interest
• Fieldwork Data collection and analysis
• Participant Observation Individuals and groups
• Analysis Holistic
• Report (Fetterman, 1998)

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Methodology

• Definition Documents the culture by studying
  the routine, daily lives of people (Fetterman,
  1998), (Morse and Richards, 2002)

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Methodology

• Ethnographers Jargon
• Emic inside (Hall, 2003)
• Etic outside (Hall, 2003)
• Key informant / key actor individual of group
  who closely interacts with ethnographer
  (Fetterman, 1998)
• Culture - beliefs, values, behaviors of a
  cohesive people (Morse and Richards, 2002)

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Methodology

• Characteristics of Ethnographies
• Holistic
• Data collection and analysis occur together
• Data collection oscillates between individuals
  and groups (Fetterman, 1998)

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Negotiate Access
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Methodology

• Fieldwork (Morse and Richards, 2002), (Fetterman,
  1998)
• Stages
• Negotiating entry the Gatekeeper, Key Actors,
  Key Informants
• Introductory period routines, roles,
  relationships
• Participatory observation important! (Hall,
  2003)
• Withdrawal Focus on analysis

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Methodology

• Fieldwork Methods
• Selection and sampling
• Participant observation
• Interviewing
• Autobiographical interviewing
• Questionnaires
• Projective techniques
• Participants classification
• Outcropping
• Existing documented information
• Proxemics and kinesics
• Folktales
• Notes, notes, notes!!! (Fetterman, 1998)

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Methodology

• Analysis
• Evaluating relevance
• Looking for patterns
• Considering phenomena through the cultural
  perspective
• Thick description (Morse and Richards, 2002)
• Classifications, parameters, etic observations
• Maps, drawings, charts (Fetterman, 1998)

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Methodology

• A few words on writing
• Writing must be good from the field notes to the
  final product
• Write for your audience
• Write for the objective to make the etic
  perspective see the emic perspective

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Methodology

• Software
• Dictation software
• MicNotePad
• Power Secretary
• IBM Voice Type Gold
• File-transfer Software
• File Transfer Protocol Software
• Telnet Software
• Timbukto Pro
• Fetch (Fetterman, 1998)
• Analysis Software
• NUDIST NVIVO

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Examples

• The National Park System Anthropology Background
• Embedding Cultural Anthropology in NPS
• Introduction of ERI (Ethnographic Resources
  Inventory) (Everett, 2006)
• Sense of Place
• By Keith Basso
• Anarcho-Environmentalism Study
• By Nicole Shepherd
• Gaining Access

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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

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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