Ethnographic Fieldwork

605 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Cultural anthropology short field work ethnography

Ethnographic fieldwork involves several steps. The first step is to select a site. After site selection, the ethnographer must formulate a question. The third step in this process is to perform preparatory research. Next, ethnographers take part in participant observation and gathering data. Finally, the ethnographer takes all of their findings and brings them together to answer their question. Steps one (selecting a site), step two (forming a question), and step three (preparatory research) are all steps that you take during the preparation phase. During step one, an ethnographer must decide where they want their research to take place. Most often, they chose a foreign country and a culture or ethnic group that is very different from their own. During step one, work is also done to secure funding for the research and to gain permission from whatever community they will be studying. The second step in preparing for fieldwork is creating a question. Many times the ethnographer will visit the site before finalizing his/her …show more content…

This is the actual field work. Key consultants are a big part of the actual fieldwork. Key consultants are people within the group being studied that can translate, explain what is going on, and better help the fieldworker understand everything that they are observing and taking part in. Fieldwork consists of observation, participation, and gathering data. Data is gathered in a number of ways besides observation like surveys, interviews, mapping, filming, and taking photographs. Most importantly, an ethnographer must remember that they are a participant observer during fieldwork. They participate and observe. In no way should they try to change or manipulate any part of the society they are studying. The final step is to bring all of your findings together. This is done in many different ways like documentaries, articles, sound recordings,

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Fieldwork In The Era Of Aids By Claire Sterk Prostitution

    1227 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ion, to help their subject as with Chagnon and Kaobawä; this could be something as minimal as offering a ride to providing financial rewards for their help. However, this may raise the ethical question of involving oneself in a situation and its effect on the study. Moreover, as demonstrated by Sterk, engaging the subject in a two-way dialogue – as opposed to a formal, questionnaire-based conversation – usually proves beneficial for the study because it lets the subject feel like they have something substantial to offer, like an opinion that is valued. Another aspect that I found intriguing in Sterk’s case is removing oneself from the field; an anthropologist must be able to find a balance to not let emotional baggage of a case interfere with their own life but keeping a specific part of it to emotionally engage with the subject during the process of the research.

    Read More

  • Ethnographic Writing and Relationships with Research Subjects

    1397 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...nformation they sought and conduct their fieldwork effectively. Because they made the effort to associate with the people in the community, they were able to gain their trust, and a result acquired a better understanding and first-hand experience that strengthened their anthropological writing.

    Read More

  • Douglas Raybeck's Ethnography: The Essentials Of Cultural Anthropology

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Essentials of Cultural Anthropology, the book defines ethnography as “a written account of how a single human population lives” (Bailey & Peoples, 2014, p. 8). It seems to be such a simple definition to the multiple levels needed to make a successful ethnography as shown by Douglas Raybeck in Mad Dogs, Englishmen, and the Errant Anthropologist. These multiple levels of ethnographic methods include problems that often arise, the assimilation into a culture, and the many different ways of perceiving culture. This method of study is particularly unique to the social sciences because of the extensive amount of assimilation one does in order to interpret a society's culture. There is the need for a year-long period--occasionally even longer--

    Read More

  • Participant Observation in Anthropology

    1760 Words  | 4 Pages

    DeWalt, Kathleen M. & DeWalt, Billie R. (2002). Participant observation: a guide for fieldworkers. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

    Read More

  • Cultural Anthropology Essay

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ethnography is a research method used to explore different cultures from a personal view. Many anthropologists have sought to use ethnography as their main study method because of its specificity and opportunity to get hands on. Those that participate in ethnographies are expected to accurately record detailed accounts of the society in which they are staying, but at the same time maintain a critical distance.

    Read More

  • Ethnography

    1331 Words  | 3 Pages

    When I was a kid my parents always took me to Nathdwara to take the blessings of Lord Krishna every now and then because my parents are so religious. So by going there several times I am also attached to that place. Actually Nathdwara is situated in Rajasthan state and I live in the state called Gujarat and in the city called as Ahmedabad. It takes six hours drive from my city to Nathdwara and this is the only nearest place where I could get mental peace. This is very important place for me and my family because it is a tradition of our family that whoever goes there gives free food to the hungry and poor people. We do so because we think that if we do good work in our life we will be allowed by god to go to the heaven. [The two states on the left are Gujarat and Rajasthan. One in light blue color is Gujarat with the arrows and on the top of it with cream color is Rajasthan. I live in the middle of the state and Nathdwara is at the border of the Rajasthan]

    Read More

  • Cultural Anthropology and Ethnographic Fieldwork

    1792 Words  | 4 Pages

    James P. Spradley (1979) described the insider approach to understanding culture as "a quiet revolution" among the social sciences (p. iii). Cultural anthropologists, however, have long emphasized the importance of the ethnographic method, an approach to understanding a different culture through participation, observation, the use of key informants, and interviews. Cultural anthropologists have employed the ethnographic method in an attempt to surmount several formidable cultural questions: How can one understand another's culture? How can culture be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed? What aspects of a culture make it unique and which connect it to other cultures? If ethnographies can provide answers to these difficult questions, then Spradley has correctly identified this method as revolutionary.

    Read More

  • Ethnography

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    Personal experience and reflexivity should be used within anthropology as a tool to reflect on the culture that is being studied and not a refocusing of attention on the self. Works such as Dorinne Kondo’s “Dissolution and Reconstitution of Self,” use the idea of reflexivity as a mirror in which to view the culture being studied in a different manner. This use of reflexivity allows for the focus to stay on the culture being studied. A move away from this is the new branch of humanistic anthropology represented in this essay by Renato Rosaldo’s “Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage” and Ruth Behar’s “Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart” allows anthropologists to use reflexivity as a way to explore universal human feelings. For me, this is not the study of anthropology as much as self-reflexive psychology. The focus shifts from culture to self. The anthropologists completely understands the feelings of the people he/she is studying. I think that it is rather ambitious to state that emotion is univeral, and I do not think that it is the job of anthropologists to do so. The reflexive voice is a necessary aspect of ethnographic writing, but the anthropologist must be careful not to shift focus from concentrating on culture to concentrating on herself.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Grounded Theory

    2480 Words  | 5 Pages

    meaning a company, people or a nation; and the word, ?-graphy,? meaning a ?field of study?. Ethnographic research, thus, focuses ?on developing a complex and complete description of the culture of a group, or a culture-sharing group? (Creswell, J. W., 2013). In other words, it can be mentioned that an ethnographic research (a) documents routine daily lives of people (Fetterman, 1998); (b) explores a cultural group (Creswell, J. W., 2013); (c) interprets situation from participants? perspectives ( Nurani, L. M., and Kemanusiaan, K. K. Ilmu, 2008); (d) interacts and interviews participants in a natural setting ( Nurani, L. M., and Kemanusiaan, K. K. Ilmu, 2008); and (e) possesses a guiding question that evolves during the study (Hall,

    Read More

  • Qualitative Research Interview Essay

    1432 Words  | 3 Pages

    The term methodology refers to the way in which we approach problems and try to find answers and in social science, it applies to how research is conducted, our assumptions, interest and purposes shape which methodology we choose (Steven, 2016:3).Qualitative research is understanding people from their own perspectives, their viewpoint and experiencing reality as they experience it. Qualitative research has many approaches or methods of collecting data and one of them is an interview which I have chosen to explain further based on it as a method of collecting data. The interview is the most common method of data gathering used in qualitative research and it is used in deferent ways by every main theoretical and methodological approach.

    Read More

  • Qualitative Interview

    2456 Words  | 5 Pages

    Reviewing the previous qualitative studies, the interview has become one of key research approaches (along with field observations and document analysis) for gathering data that is closely conducted by qualitative researchers. (Kvale, 1996; Brinkmann, 2008; Seidman, 2006). As Gubrium & Holstein (2003) suggest that the qualitative interviews are able to assist researchers to investigate the discovery-oriented enquiries and the increased understanding of subjectivities in the researching fields of social science, media, health care, etc.

    Read More

  • Mchough's Anthropology In The Gurung People

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    Participation is also a crucial part of fieldwork, as it creates bonds and deepens the fieldwork through emotional involvement. McHugh managed to achieve the first two elements by participating and quietly observing, proving how necessary it is during fieldwork. She makes an exemplary effort to stick to the ethnographic commitments of an anthropologist, shown by how she embraces the different dress code and how she is eager to engage herself in the public activities. Fieldwork isn’t just about describing the details of people’s lives, but also analysing them to find out why people do the things that their culture has conditioned them to do

    Read More

  • Cross-cultural Funeral Service Rituals

    1935 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...es of the other participants, nor did it jeopardized the validity of the data collected and conclusions reached. This field experience certainly allowed the observer to begin to draw preliminary connections to her personal research interest based on what was learned about covert observation, note taking, ethnography study, and qualitative research.

    Read More

  • Personal Ethnography

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    During my first month in graduate school at Harvard, I attended an afternoon tea service at one of the undergraduate dorms (or Houses, like in Harry Potter). I wouldn't have known about it on my own, but I was tagging along with another first year graduate student, who had also been an undergraduate there; the tea was at his old House. It was a beautiful event in the headmaster's living quarter, which was cozy and stuffed with antiques. Tiny white china cups neatly stacked on a linen covered wooden table with the headmaster presiding over it. All the attendees (except for me) were current or past house residents; in my memory, that afternoon they discussed literature, philosophy, and other topics that I felt unequal to contribute. My own undergraduate

    Read More

  • Essay On Cultural Anthropology

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    The American Anthropological Association 's (AAA) aim is to offer guidelines and promote education and discussion. American anthropologists do this often by speaking and interacting with individuals living and experiencing the culture. Truly understanding, learning, and becoming accustomed to a new cultural environment takes a significantly long period of time, perhaps even years of exposure to the culture in order to truly understand traditions, morals, and customs. For instance in the Shostak`s study on the !Kung people, it was important for the researchers to say words correctly, at appropriate times, and in a culturally accepted manner, in addition, in order to interview individuals, specifically women, the anthropologist would ask one to “enter work” with her and they would talk for an hour or a day, or over a long period of time, perhaps two weeks. When studying another culture, American anthropologists include host country colleagues in their research planning and when requesting funding, establish true collaborative relationships, include host country colleagues in dissemination, including publication, and they also ensure that something is given back to the host. When studying other countries, the process is done carefully and thoughtfully, in order to end the study with new information on a culture and to establish new connections

    Read More

More about Ethnographic Fieldwork

Open Document