Making Selected Observations
Review of Subject
There are three kinds of observations in an ethnographic research. The descriptive observation is the broad view of the social situations, watching everything that goes on. It continues throughout the entire project. The focused observation narrows the scope of what one is looking for, often categories that belong in a particular domain. In this assignment, the researcher performs selected observations, with the smallest focus and involving going to the social situation to look for differences among specific cultural categories.
Also, after five or six periods of field observations the researcher becomes recognized by people in the social situation and no longer a stranger. This offers opportunities
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Acting as an informant, an observer can get the answers to these questions from fieldnotes or by conducting additional periods of observations into specific domains of interest (Spradley, 1980).
An ethnographic interview can be informal or formal. Informal interviews occur whenever the researcher asks someone a question during period of participant observations. On the other hand, formal ethnographic interviews happen at an appointed time and require specific request to the interviewees. The interviewees could be previous acquaintances.
During a formal interview, it is best to begin with descriptive questions, followed by detailed notes taking or tape recording if appropriate, with the consent of the interviewees.
An interview is an opportunity to find folk terms to replace the analytic terms in one or more taxonomies. During interviewees, the researcher is drawing out the knowledge of the informants using their informal skills as participant observers themselves (Spradley,
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I was browing the genealogy section of the Bellevue library when a lady asked if I were waiting for the 'helpdesk', saying that it will open soon. It was 6.50pm. I asked if she were waiting for the helpdesk, and she explained that she was a volunteer for the helpdesk.
I asked what the 'helpdesk' was about, and she said it was the Genealogy Assistance program at the library, and that it opens on Tuesday from 7pm to 9pm, and Wednesday from 1pm to 3pm. I noticed then that we were talking outside a meeting room number 6, and there is a booking schedule pasted on the door, showing the usage of the library meeting rooms at various time slots for that day. For the meeting room number 6, the words 'Genealogy Assistance' is written with the time 7pm to 9pm.
I introduced myself as 'Meng' and asked for the volunteer's name. Her name was Judy. We chatted a little about the collection of books on genealogy. I pointed to a cabinet with lots of files and asked if there is an index showing what paper materials were in which files. She said her fellow volunteer might be more familiar with the files, but she looked at the files and tried to show me the name on the folder, showing that the folders were organized by the city or town in the State of
Gender Importance of the Anthropologist of Ethnography What importance may the sex of the anthropologist have on the ethnographic process? There are many factors which can influence the ethnographic process for an anthropologist, and a very important one is his/her sex. This essay will examine the different attitudes towards sex, the problems that face all ethnographers when they embark on fieldwork in a different environment to their own, as well as the problems and benefits which can arise due to the sex of an anthropologist. In order to produce a written work about a certain culture or society (an ethnography, anthropologists must embark on what is known as the ethnographic process". This term refers to all of the various activities and research methods which the anthropologist must undertake if he/she wants to obtain a profound and objective understanding of the culture being studied.
This essay is an ethnographic study of Whole Foods Market which is located in Kensington, London. Whole Foods Market is a niche supermarket that sells high quality organic and natural products at high prices. In this essay, I will provide a brief orientation of ethics with regards to the concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility - macroethics and Business Ethics - microethics and the theoretical frameworks of consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics. I will be using deontology framework in ethics devised by Immanuel Kant to assess if the marketing strategy and the products sold at Whole Foods Market support their principle of ‘organic and natural’.
Taking Two Of The Theoretical Approaches To Social Research Discussed In The Module, Demonstrate The Connections Between Their Ontological, Epistemological And Methodological Assumptions. Which Method Or Methods Would Proponents Of Each Theory Favour As A Result Of Their Assumptions.
Institutional ethnography (IE) was developed by Canadian sociologist Dorothy E. Smith. This is a method of social research that studies the way people’s everyday life is structured through institutions. This method looks at the way people interact within a social institution. A social institution can be work, school, marriage, etc. The goal of IE is to produce research that helps people understand their own lives better. IE helps people understand how their lives are organized and coordinated in ways they might not see. This does not necessarily mean understanding what they do, it is more along the lines of understand that what they do is controlled by an institution without the person even realizing it.
Interviewing is a procedure which recounts to a controlled situation in which one person asks a chain of questions to another person, relating to a specific field (Sommers-Flanagan and Sommers-Flanagan, 2008, p. 18). Interviewing skills are pivotal in making an interview more effective, as it is an overall judgement of candidate’s capabilities (Interviewing skills, 2002, p. 8). The process of Interviewing is divided into five phases i.e. Introduction, opening, body, closing, and termination (Sommers-Flanagan and Sommers-Flanagan, 2008, p. 144). According to Sommers-Flanagan and Sommers-Flanagan (2008, p. 145-154), introduction also named “initiation”, is the initial phase in which the interviewer explains his role, confidentiality policy, rules and regulations, and the purpose of the meeting. Also a person is put at ease and a short informal talk, develops a therapeutical relationship. Then the opening commences with the first question which is more about the person’s current concern (Sommers-Flanagan and Sommers-Flanagan, 2008, p. 154-160). The body or “exploration” phase is the main section of interview as major information regarding the ...
Reflexivity has recently been designated as an indicator of postmodernism in anthropological texts. In this context, the practice is attacked as self-indulgent narcissism, but its true scope reaches much further. While some ethnographic texts exhibit an overemphasis on the author, and his position within the work, this is one extreme of the range reflexivity, which also serves as a methodological tool, unincorporated into the writing, and as a means to account for the ethnographers biases and affects on his informants. This entire span of meaning is shown in anthropological research and writings, in varying manners and to different ends.
Reflexivity is a qualitative method of research that takes an ethnography one step further, displaying the personal thoughts and reflections of the anthropologist on his informants. Ethnographies generally take an outside or foreign perspective of a culture, like reading a text, and reflexivity introduces a new component of inside description. Here, the anthropologist may describe personal interactions and experiences with natives and use this inside information to make additional conclusions about the people being studied. The ethnographer may also reflect on his ethnic connections with his informants, or his acceptance into the society, explaining that it provides valuable, inside knowledge of the culture and ultimately leads to a greater understanding of the native people as a whole.
First, I had asked my grandma to tell me a little about herself, and what she does on a daily basis; a little about her duties. When asking her, I had used both cognitive and inferential interviewing, she did the talking while I listened to some of what she was saying then, based on her story she was giving me I would ask her questions so I can get an accurate recall, or accuracy, using inferential interviewing.
Schensul, Stephen L.; Schensul, Jean J. & LeCompte, Margaret D. (1999). Essential ethnographic methods: observations, interviews, and questionnaires (Book 2 in Ethnographer's Toolkit). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
One of the most complex and interesting aspects of cultural anthropology is the ethnography. The idea of being able to read stories about groups of individuals is something that is intriguing to many people. With the ethnography, the authors many times feel that they have control and understanding over the individuals that they are writing about. Furthermore, many of these authors assume that the individuals among whom they are living and studying exemplify the entire society as a whole. Ethnographers have used many different means of establishing their ethnographic authority. One such method is the use of reflexivity in the ethnography. Ethnographers such as Renato Rosaldo in his work Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis and Bronislaw Malinowski in his work Argonauts of the Western Pacific assume their authority through the use of reflexivity. On the other hand, there are authors such as George E. Marcus in his work Ethnography Through Thick and Thin, who explain that reflexivity should be used as a means of demonstrating that one cannot assert such authority, and Dorinne Kondo, in her work Dissolution and Reconstruction of Self: Implications for Anthropological Epistemology, who use reflexivity to make a distinction between the ethnographer's role in the field, and the ethnographer’s role when writing the ethnography.
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]
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.
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.
The purpose of their research is to acquire ethnography data. They anthropologist obtaining qualitative data and observing how the people they are researching are living and their day -to-day activities. Some of their methodology includes participant observations in which the anthropologist is involved in the day-to-day activities to observe from first-hand experience of how the people live.
...ion, assessment, and treatment .Using research helps to understand human behavior but also to develop assessment techniques and treatment strategies. “Psychologists are not just practitioners who conduct psychotherapy but investigators who conduct research.” (Plante, 2005)