Ethnography (from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
and the systematic study of individual
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
s. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of
social research
Social research is a research conducted by social scientists following a systematic plan. Social research methodologies can be classified as quantitative and qualitative.
* Quantitative designs approach social phenomena through quantifiable ...
that involves examining the behavior of the participants in a given social situation and understanding the group members' own interpretation of such behavior. Ethnography in simple terms is a type of qualitative research where a person puts themselves in a specific community or organization in attempt to learn about their cultures from a first person point-of-view.
As a form of inquiry, ethnography relies heavily on
participant observation
Participant observation is one type of data collection method by practitioner-scholars typically used in qualitative research and ethnography. This type of methodology is employed in many disciplines, particularly anthropology (incl. cultural an ...
—on the researcher participating in the setting or with the people being studied, at least in some marginal role, and seeking to document, in detail, patterns of social interaction and the perspectives of participants, and to understand these in their local contexts. It had its origin in social and cultural anthropology in the early twentieth century, but spread to other social science disciplines, notably sociology, during the course of that century.
Ethnographers mainly use
qualitative methods, though they may also employ
quantitative data. The typical ethnography is a
holistic
Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book ''Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED Onl ...
study and so includes a brief history, and an analysis of the
terrain
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...
, the
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...
, and the
habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
. A wide range of groups and organisations have been studied by this method, including traditional communities, youth
gang
A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectivel ...
s, religious
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
s, and organisations of various kinds. While, traditionally, ethnography has relied on the physical presence of the researcher in a setting, there is research using the label that has relied on interviews or documents, sometimes to investigate events in the past such as the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
''Challenger'' disaster. There is also a considerable amount of 'virtual' or online ethnography, sometimes labelled
netnography
Netnography, is a specific type of qualitative social media research. It adapts the methods of ethnography, is understanding social interaction in contemporary digital communications contexts. You can think of netnography as a particular set of a ...
or
cyber-ethnography
Online ethnography (also known as virtual ethnography or digital ethnography) is an online research method that adapts ethnographic methods to the study of the communities and cultures created through computer-mediated social interaction. As mod ...
.
Origins
Gerhard Friedrich Müller
Gerhard Friedrich Müller ( Russian: ''Фёдор Ива́нович Ми́ллер'', ''Fyodor Ivanovich Miller'', 29 October 1705 – 22 October 1783) was a Russian-German historian and pioneer ethnologist.
Early life
Müller was born in Herf ...
developed the concept of ethnography as a separate discipline whilst participating in the
Second Kamchatka Expedition
The Great Northern Expedition (russian: Великая Северная экспедиция) or Second Kamchatka Expedition (russian: Вторая Камчатская экспедиция) was one of the largest exploration enterprises in hi ...
(1733–43) as a professor of history and geography. Whilst involved in the expedition, he differentiated ''Völker-Beschreibung'' as a distinct area of study. This became known as "ethnography," following the introduction of the Greek neologism ''ethnographia'' by Johann Friedrich Schöpperlin and the German variant by A. F. Thilo in 1767.
August Ludwig von Schlözer
August Ludwig von Schlözer (5 July 1735, in Gaggstatt – 9 September 1809, in Göttingen) was a German historian and pedagogist who laid foundations for the critical study of Russian medieval history. He was a member of the Göttingen School ...
and
Christoph Wilhelm Jacob Gatterer
Christoph Wilhelm Jacob Gatterer (December 2, 1759 – September 11, 1838) was a German cameralist and natural historian born in Göttingen. He was the son of historian Johann Christoph Gatterer (1727–1799).
He studied natural sciences and m ...
of the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
introduced the term into the academic discourse in an attempt to reform the contemporary understanding of world history.
[Vermeulen, Han F., 2008, ''Early History of Ethnography and Ethnology in the German Enlightenment'', Leiden, p. 199.]
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
, known as the Father of History, had significant works on the cultures of various peoples beyond the Hellenic realm such as the
Scythians
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved f ...
, which earned him the title "philobarbarian", and may be said to have produced the first works of ethnography.
Forms
Autoethnography
Autoethnography is a form of
ethnographic research
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
in which a researcher connects personal experiences to wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings.
According to Adams et al., autoethnography
# uses a researcher’s personal experience to describe and critique cultural beliefs, practices, and experiences;
# acknowledges and values a researcher’s relationships with others
# uses deep and careful self-reflection—typically referred to as “reflexivity”—to name and interrogate the intersections between self and society, the particular and the general, the personal and the political
# shows people in the process of figuring out what to do, how to live, and the meaning of their struggles
# balances intellectual and methodological rigor, emotion, and creativity
# strives for social justice and to make life better.
Bochner and
Ellis
Ellis is a surname of Welsh and English origin. Retrieved 21 January 2014 An independent French origin of the surname is said to derive from the phrase fleur-de-lis.
Surname
A
* Abe Ellis (Stargate), a fictional character in the TV series ' ...
have also defined autoethnography as "an autobiographical genre of writing and research that displays multiple layers of consciousness, connecting the personal to the cultural."
They further indicate that autoethnography is typically written in first-person and can "appear in a variety of forms," such as "short stories, poetry, fiction, novels, photographic essays, personal essays, journals, fragmented and layered writing, and social science prose."
Digital ethnography
Digital ethnography is also seen as virtual ethnography. This type of ethnography is not so typical as ethnography recorded by pen and pencil. Digital ethnography allows for a lot more opportunities to look at different cultures and societies. Traditional ethnography may use videos or images, but digital ethnography goes more in-depth. For example, digital ethnographers would use social media platforms such as Twitter or blogs so that people's interactions and behaviors can be studied. Modern developments in computing power and AI have enabled higher efficiencies in ethnographic data collection via multimedia and computational analysis using machine learning to corroborate many data sources together to produce a refined output for various purposes. A modern example of this technology in application, is the use of captured audio in smart devices, transcribed to issue targeted adverts (often reconciled vs other metadata, or product development data for designers.
Digital ethnography comes with its own set of ethical questions, and the
Association of Internet Researchers' ethical guidelines are frequently used.
Gabriele de Seta's paper "Three Lies of Digital Ethnography" explores some of the methodological questions more central to a specifically ethnographical approach to internet studies, drawing upon Fine's classic text.
Multispecies ethnography
Multispecies ethnography in particular focuses on both nonhuman and human participants within a group or culture, as opposed to just human participants in traditional ethnography. A multispecies ethnography, in comparison to other forms of ethnography, studies species that are connected to people and our social lives. Species affect and are affected by culture, economics, and politics.
The study's roots go back to general anthropology of animals. One of the earliest well-known studies was
Lewis Henry Morgan's The American Beaver and His Works (1868). His study closely observed a group of beavers in Northern Michigan. Morgan's main objective was to highlight that the daily individual tasks that the beavers performed were complex communicative acts that had been passed down for generations.
In the early 2000s multi-species ethnography took on a huge increase in popularity. The annual meetings of the
American Anthropological Association
The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, ...
began to host th
Multispecies Salon a collection of discussions, showcases, and other events for anthropologists. The event provided a space for anthropologists and artists to come together and showcase vast knowledge of different organisms and their intertwined systems.
Multispecies ethnography highlights a lot of the negative effects of these shared environments and systems. Not only does multispecies ethnography observe the physical relationships between organisms, it also takes note of the emotional and psychological relationships built between species. On a global scale, between 17 and 22 million animals are experimented on each year.
The relationship between species and their negative outcomes do not stop at experiments. For every medical-related death of an animal, ten times the number of animals are killed on the road. In terms of consumption, around 9,000,000,000 farm animals are utilized for consumption and animal products each year.
Relational ethnography
Most ethnographies take place in specific places where the observer can observe specific instances that relate to the topic involved. Relational Ethnography articulates studying fields rather than places or processes rather than processed people. Meaning that relational ethnography doesn't take an object nor a bounded group that is defined by its members shared social features nor a specific location that is delimited by the boundaries of a particular area. But rather the processes involving configurations of relations among different agents or institutions.
Features of ethnographic research
According to Dewan (2018), the researcher is not looking for generalizing the findings; rather, they are considering it in reference to the context of the situation. In this regard, the best way to integrate ethnography in a quantitative research would be to use it to discover and uncover relationships and then use the resultant data to test and explain the empirical assumptions.
In ethnography, the researcher gathers what is available, what is normal, what it is that people do, what they say, and how they work.
[Preece, J., Sharp, H., & Rogers, Y. (2015). Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction (4th edition). Wiley.]
Ethnography can also be used in other methodological frameworks, for instance, an action research program of study where one of the goals is to change and improve the situation.
Ethnographic research is a fundamental methodology in cultural ecology, development studies, and feminist geography. In addition, it has gained importance in social, political, cultural, and nature-society geography. Ethnography is an effective methodology in qualitative geographic research that focuses on people's perceptions and experiences and their traditionally place-based immersion within a social group.
Data collection methods
![Ethnography Museum Budapest architecture](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Ethnography_Museum_Budapest_architecture.jpg)
According to
John Brewer, a leading social scientist, data collection methods are meant to capture the "social meanings and ordinary activities"
[ rewer, John D. (2000). ''Ethnography.'' Philadelphia: Open University Press. p.10./ref> of people (informants) in "naturally occurring settings"] that are commonly referred to as "the field." The goal is to collect data in such a way that the researcher imposes a minimal amount of personal bias in the data. Multiple methods of data collection may be employed to facilitate a relationship that allows for a more personal and in-depth portrait of the informants and their community. These can include participant observation, field notes, interviews, and surveys.
Interviews are often taped and later transcribed, allowing the interview to proceed unimpaired of note-taking, but with all information available later for full analysis. Secondary research and document analysis are also used to provide insight into the research topic. In the past, kinship charts were commonly used to "discover logical patterns and social structure in non-Western societies". In the 21st century, anthropology focuses more on the study of people in urban settings and the use of kinship charts is seldom employed.
In order to make the data collection and interpretation transparent, researchers creating ethnographies often attempt to be "reflexive". Reflexivity refers to the researcher's aim "to explore the ways in which heresearcher's involvement with a particular study influences, acts upon and informs such research". Despite these attempts of reflexivity, no researcher can be totally unbiased. This factor has provided a basis to criticize ethnography.
Traditionally, the ethnographer focuses attention on a community, selecting knowledgeable informants who know the activities of the community well. These informants are typically asked to identify other informants who represent the community, often using snowball or chain sampling. This process is often effective in revealing common cultural denominators connected to the topic being studied. Ethnography relies greatly on up-close, personal experience. Participation, rather than just observation, is one of the keys to this process. Ethnography is very useful in social research.
Ybema ''et al.'' (2010) examine the ontological and epistemological presuppositions underlying ethnography. Ethnographic research can range from a realist perspective, in which behavior is observed, to a constructivist perspective where understanding is socially constructed by the researcher and subjects. Research can range from an objectivist account of fixed, observable behaviors to an interpretive narrative describing "the interplay of individual agency and social structure." Critical theory researchers address "issues of power within the researcher-researched relationships and the links between knowledge and power."
Another form of data collection is that of the "image." The image is the projection that an individual puts on an object or abstract idea. An image can be contained within the physical world through a particular individual's perspective, primarily based on that individual's past experiences. One example of an image is how an individual views a novel after completing it. The physical entity that is the novel contains a specific image in the perspective of the interpreting individual and can only be expressed by the individual in the terms of "I can tell you what an image is by telling you what it feels like." The idea of an image relies on the imagination and has been seen to be utilized by children in a very spontaneous and natural manner. Effectively, the idea of the image is a primary tool for ethnographers to collect data. The image presents the perspective, experiences, and influences of an individual as a single entity and in consequence, the individual will always contain this image in the group under study.
Differences across disciplines
The ethnographic method is used across a range of different disciplines, primarily by anthropologists/ethnologists but also occasionally by sociologists. Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...
, occupational therapy
Occupational therapy (OT) is a global healthcare profession. It involves the use of assessment and intervention to develop, recover, or maintain the meaningful activities, or ''occupations'', of individuals, groups, or communities. The field of ...
, sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
, economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
, social work
Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...
, education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
, design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
, psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
, computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
, human factors and ergonomics, ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...
, folkloristics, religious studies, geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
, history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
, linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, communication studies
Communication studies or communication science is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in differen ...
, performance studies, advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
, accounting research
Accounting research examines how accounting is used by individuals, organizations and government as well as the consequences that these practices have. Starting from the assumption that accounting both measures and makes visible certain economic ...
, nursing
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...
, urban planning
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...
, usability
Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a soft ...
, political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
, social movement
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may ...
, and criminology
Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...
are other fields which have made use of ethnography.
Cultural and social anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...
and social anthropology
Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...
were developed around ethnographic research and their canonical texts, which are mostly ethnographies: e.g. ''Argonauts of the Western Pacific
''Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea'' is a 1922 ethnological work by Bronisław Malinowski, which has had enormous impact on the ethnographic genre. The bo ...
'' (1922) by Bronisław Malinowski
Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (; 7 April 1884 – 16 May 1942) was a Polish-British anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthropol ...
, ''Ethnologische Excursion in Johore'' (1875) by Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay, '' Coming of Age in Samoa'' (1928) by Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...
, ''The Nuer
''The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People'' is an ethnographical study by the British anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard (1902–73) first published in 1940. The work examined the polit ...
'' (1940) by E. E. Evans-Pritchard
Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, Kt FBA FRAI (21 September 1902 – 11 September 1973) was an English anthropologist who was instrumental in the development of social anthropology. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University ...
, ''Naven'' (1936, 1958) by Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to an ...
, or " The Lele of the Kasai" (1963) by Mary Douglas
Dame Mary Douglas, (25 March 1921 – 16 May 2007) was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism, whose area of speciality was social anthropology. Douglas was considered a follower of Émile Durkhei ...
. Cultural and social anthropologists today place a high value on doing ethnographic research. The typical ethnography is a document written about a particular people, almost always based at least in part on emic
In anthropology, folkloristics, and the social and behavioral sciences, emic () and etic () refer to two kinds of field research done and viewpoints obtained.
The "emic" approach is an insider's perspective, which looks at the beliefs, values, ...
views of where the culture begins and ends. Using language or community boundaries to bound the ethnography is common. Ethnographies are also sometimes called "case studies." Ethnographers study and interpret culture, its universalities, and its variations through the ethnographic study based on fieldwork
Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fie ...
. An ethnography is a specific kind of written observational science which provides an account of a particular culture, society, or community. The fieldwork usually involves spending a year or more in another society, living with the local people and learning about their ways of life. Ruth Fulton Benedict uses examples of Enthrotyhy in her serious of field work that began in 1922 of Serrano, of the Zuni in 1924, the Cochiti in 1925 and the Pina in 1926. All being people she wished to study for her anthropological data. Benedict's experiences with the Southwest Zuni pueblo is to be considered the basis of her formative fieldwork. The experience set the idea for her to produce her theory of "culture is personality writ large" (modell, 1988). By studying the culture between the different Pueblo and Plain Indians, She discovered the culture isomorphism that would be considered her personalized unique approach to the study of anthropology using ethnographic techniques.
A typical ethnography attempts to be holistic
Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book ''Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED Onl ...
[Ember, Carol and Melvin Ember, ''Cultural Anthropology'' (Prentice Hall, 2006), chapter one.][Heider, Karl. ''Seeing Anthropology''. 2001. Prentice Hall, Chapters One and Two.] and typically follows an outline to include a brief history of the culture in question, an analysis of the physical geography
Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, h ...
or terrain inhabited by the people under study, including climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...
, and often including what biological anthropologists call habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
. Folk notions of botany and zoology are presented as ethnobotany and ethnozoology alongside references from the formal sciences. Material culture, technology, and means of subsistence are usually treated next, as they are typically bound up in physical geography and include descriptions of infrastructure. Kinship and social structure (including age grading, peer groups, gender, voluntary associations, clans, moieties, and so forth, if they exist) are typically included. Languages spoken, dialects, and the history of language change are another group of standard topics. Practices of child rearing, acculturation, and emic views on personality and values usually follow after sections on social structure. Rites, rituals, and other evidence of religion have long been an interest and are sometimes central to ethnographies, especially when conducted in public where visiting anthropologists can see them.
As ethnography developed, anthropologists grew more interested in less tangible aspects of culture, such as values, worldview and what Clifford Geertz
Clifford James Geertz (; August 23, 1926 – October 30, 2006) was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology and who was considered "for three decades. ...
termed the "ethos" of the culture. In his fieldwork, Geertz used elements of a phenomenological
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
approach, tracing not just the doings of people, but the cultural elements themselves. For example, if within a group of people, winking was a communicative gesture, he sought to first determine what kinds of things a wink might mean (it might mean several things). Then, he sought to determine in what contexts winks were used, and whether, as one moved about a region, winks remained meaningful in the same way. In this way, cultural boundaries of communication could be explored, as opposed to using linguistic boundaries or notions about the residence. Geertz, while still following something of a traditional ethnographic outline, moved outside that outline to talk about "webs" instead of "outlines" of culture.
Within cultural anthropology, there are several subgenres of ethnography. Beginning in the 1950s and early 1960s, anthropologists began writing "bio-confessional" ethnographies that intentionally exposed the nature of ethnographic research. Famous examples include '' Tristes Tropiques'' (1955) by Lévi-Strauss, ''The High Valley'' by Kenneth Read, and ''The Savage and the Innocent'' by David Maybury-Lewis
David Henry Peter Maybury-Lewis (5 May 1929 – 2 December 2007) was a British anthropologist, ethnologist of lowland South America, activist for indigenous peoples' human rights, and professor emeritus of Harvard University.
Born in Hyderaba ...
, as well as the mildly fictionalized ''Return to Laughter'' by Elenore Smith Bowen ( Laura Bohannan).
Later " reflexive" ethnographies refined the technique to translate cultural differences by representing their effects on the ethnographer. Famous examples include ''Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight'' by Clifford Geertz
Clifford James Geertz (; August 23, 1926 – October 30, 2006) was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology and who was considered "for three decades. ...
, ''Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco'' by Paul Rabinow
Paul M. Rabinow (June 21, 1944 – April 6, 2021) was professor of anthropology at the University of California (Berkeley), director of the Anthropology of the Contemporary Research Collaboratory (ARC), and former director of human practices f ...
, ''The Headman and I'' by Jean-Paul Dumont, and ''Tuhami'' by Vincent Crapanzano. In the 1980s, the rhetoric of ethnography was subjected to intense scrutiny within the discipline, under the general influence of literary theory
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...
and post-colonial
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...
/ post-structuralist thought. "Experimental" ethnographies that reveal the ferment of the discipline include ''Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man'' by Michael Taussig
Michael T. Taussig (born 3 April 1940 in Sydney) is an Australian anthropologist and professor at Columbia University. He is best known for his engagement with Karl Marx, Marx's idea of commodity fetishism, especially in terms of the work of Walt ...
, ''Debating Muslims'' by Michael F. J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, ''A Space on the Side of the Road'' by Kathleen Stewart, and ''Advocacy after Bhopal'' by Kim Fortun.
This critical turn in sociocultural anthropology during the mid-1980s can be traced to the influence of the now classic (and often contested) text, ''Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography'', (1986) edited by James Clifford and George Marcus. ''Writing Culture'' helped bring changes to both anthropology and ethnography often described in terms of being 'postmodern,' 'reflexive,' 'literary,' 'deconstructive,' or 'poststructural' in nature, in that the text helped to highlight the various epistemic and political predicaments that many practitioners saw as plaguing ethnographic representations and practices.
Where Geertz's and Turner's interpretive anthropology recognized subjects as creative actors who constructed their sociocultural worlds out of symbols, postmodernists attempted to draw attention to the privileged status of the ethnographers themselves. That is, the ethnographer cannot escape the personal viewpoint in creating an ethnographic account, thus making any claims of objective neutrality highly problematic, if not altogether impossible. In regards to this last point, ''Writing Culture'' became a focal point for looking at how ethnographers could describe different cultures and societies without denying the subjectivity of those individuals and groups being studied while simultaneously doing so without laying claim to absolute knowledge and objective authority. Along with the development of experimental forms such as 'dialogic anthropology,' 'narrative ethnography,' and 'literary ethnography', ''Writing Culture'' helped to encourage the development of 'collaborative ethnography.'[Olaf Zenker & Karsten Kumoll. Beyond Writing Culture: Current Intersections of Epistemologies and Representational Practices. (2010). New York: Berghahn Books. . p. 12] This exploration of the relationship between writer, audience, and subject has become a central tenet of contemporary anthropological and ethnographic practice. In certain instances, active collaboration between the researcher(s) and subject(s) has helped blend the practice of collaboration in ethnographic fieldwork with the process of creating the ethnographic product resulting from the research.
Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
is another field which prominently features ethnographies. Urban sociology
Urban sociology is the sociological study of life and human interaction in metropolitan areas. It is a normative discipline of sociology seeking to study the structures, environmental processes, changes and problems of an urban area and by doing ...
, Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University), and the Chicago School, in particular, are associated with ethnographic research, with some well-known early examples being '' The Philadelphia Negro'' (1899) by W. E. B. Du Bois, ''Street Corner Society
''Street Corner Society'' (originally titled ''Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum'') is an ethnography written by William Foote Whyte and published in 1943. It was Whyte's first book. It received little attention when ...
'' by William Foote Whyte and ''Black Metropolis
''Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City'', authored by St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton, Jr., is an anthropological and sociological study of the African-American urban experience in the first half of the 20th century. P ...
'' by St. Clair Drake
John Gibbs St. Clair Drake (January 2, 1911 – June 15, 1990)Calloway, Earl (June 28, 1990). "Memorial services held for Dr. Drake, noted author and Roosevelt professor." ''Chicago Defender'', p. 10. was an African-American sociologist and anthr ...
and Horace R. Cayton, Jr.
Horace Roscoe Cayton Jr. (April 12, 1903 – January 21, 1970) was a prominent American sociologist, newspaper columnist, and writer who specialized in studies of working-class black Americans, particularly in mid-20th-century Chicago. Cayton ...
Major influences on this development were anthropologist Lloyd Warner
William Lloyd Warner (October 26, 1898 – May 23, 1970) was a pioneering anthropologist and sociologist noted for applying the techniques of British functionalism to understanding American culture.
Background
William Lloyd Warner was born in ...
, on the Chicago sociology faculty, and to Robert Park's experience as a journalist. Symbolic interactionism
Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory that develops from practical considerations and alludes to particular effects of communication and interaction in people to make images and normal implications, for deduction and correspondence w ...
developed from the same tradition and yielded such sociological ethnographies as ''Shared Fantasy'' by Gary Alan Fine
Gary Alan Fine (born May 11, 1950, in New York City) is an American sociologist and author.
Life and career
The son of Bernard David Fine and Bernice Estelle Tanz, Fine grew up in Manhattan and went to the Horace Mann School. He studied psych ...
, which documents the early history of fantasy role-playing games. Other important ethnographies in sociology include Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence i ...
's work in Algeria and France.
Jaber F. Gubrium's series of organizational ethnographies focused on the everyday practices of illness, care, and recovery are notable. They include ''Living and Dying at Murray Manor,'' which describes the social worlds of a nursing home; ''Describing Care: Image and Practice in Rehabilitation,'' which documents the social organization of patient subjectivity in a physical rehabilitation hospital; ''Caretakers: Treating Emotionally Disturbed Children,'' which features the social construction of behavioral disorders in children; and ''Oldtimers and Alzheimer's: The Descriptive Organization of Senility,'' which describes how the Alzheimer's disease movement constructed a new subjectivity of senile dementia and how that is organized in a geriatric hospital. Another approach to ethnography in sociology comes in the form of institutional ethnography Institutional ethnography (IE) is an alternative approach of studying and understanding the social. IE has been described as an alternative philosophical paradigm, sociology, or (qualitative) research method. IE explores the social relations that st ...
, developed by Dorothy E. Smith
Dorothy Edith Smith (née Place; 6 July 1926 – 3 June 2022) was a British-born Canadian ethnographer, feminist studies scholar, sociologist, and writer with research interests in a variety of disciplines, including women's studies, feminist t ...
for studying the social relations which structure people's everyday lives.
Other notable ethnographies include Paul Willis
Paul Willis (born 1945) is a British social scientist known for his work in sociology and cultural studies. Paul Willis' work is widely read in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and education, his work emphasizing consumer culture, sociali ...
's ''Learning to Labour,'' on working class youth; the work of Elijah Anderson Elijah Anderson may refer to:
* Elijah Anderson (rugby league) (born 1999), Australian rugby league footballer
*Elijah Anderson (sociologist)
Elijah Anderson (born 1943 in Hermondale, Missouri) is an American sociologist. He is the Sterling Pr ...
, Mitchell Duneier
Mitchell Duneier is an American sociologist and ethnographer. He is currently Maurice P. During Professor and department chair of Sociology at Princeton University and has also served as a regular Visiting Distinguished Professor of Sociology at ...
, and Loïc Wacquant
Loïc J. D. Wacquant (; born 1960) is a sociologist and social anthropologist, specializing in urban sociology, urban poverty, racial inequality, the body, social theory and ethnography.
Wacquant is a Professor of Sociology and Research A ...
on black America, and Lai Olurode's ''Glimpses of Madrasa From Africa''. But even though many sub-fields and theoretical perspectives within sociology use ethnographic methods, ethnography is not the '' sine qua non'' of the discipline, as it is in cultural anthropology.
Communication studies
Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, ethnographic research methods began to be widely used by communication scholars. As the purpose of ethnography is to describe and interpret the shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language of a culture-sharing group, Harris, (1968), also Agar (1980) note that ethnography is both a process and an outcome of the research. Studies such as Gerry Philipsen's analysis of cultural communication strategies in a blue-collar, working-class neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, ''Speaking 'Like a Man' in Teamsterville'', paved the way for the expansion of ethnographic research in the study of communication.
Scholars of communication studies
Communication studies or communication science is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in differen ...
use ethnographic research methods to analyze communicative behaviors and phenomena. This is often characterized in the writing as attempts to understand taken-for-granted routines by which working definitions are socially produced. Ethnography as a method is a storied, careful, and systematic examination of the reality-generating mechanisms of everyday life (Coulon, 1995). Ethnographic work in communication studies seeks to explain "how" ordinary methods/practices/performances construct the ordinary actions used by ordinary people in the accomplishments of their identities. This often gives the perception of trying to answer the "why" and "how come" questions of human communication. Often this type of research results in a case study or field study such as an analysis of speech patterns at a protest rally, or the way firemen communicate during "down time" at a fire station. Like anthropology scholars, communication scholars often immerse themselves, and participate in and/or directly observe the particular social group
In the social sciences, a social group can be defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties ...
being studied.
Other fields
The American anthropologist George Spindler George Dearborn Spindler was a leading figure in 20th-century anthropology and regarded as the founder of the anthropology of education.
He edited a very large series of short monographs, turning nearly every significant ethnographic text of the 2 ...
was a pioneer in applying the ethnographic methodology to the classroom.
Anthropologists such as Daniel Miller and Mary Douglas
Dame Mary Douglas, (25 March 1921 – 16 May 2007) was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism, whose area of speciality was social anthropology. Douglas was considered a follower of Émile Durkhei ...
have used ethnographic data to answer academic questions about consumers and consumption. In this sense, Tony Salvador, Genevieve Bell
Genevieve Bell is an Australian cultural anthropologist best known for her work at the intersection of cultural practice research and technological development (including as a pioneer in the field of futurist research), and for being an industry ...
, and Ken Anderson describe design ethnography as being "a way of understanding the particulars of daily life in such a way as to increase the success probability of a new product or service or, more appropriately, to reduce the probability of failure specifically due to a lack of understanding of the basic behaviors and frameworks of consumers." Sociologist Sam Ladner argues in her book, that understanding consumers and their desires requires a shift in "standpoint," one that only ethnography provides. The results are products and services that respond to consumers' unmet needs.
Businesses, too, have found ethnographers helpful for understanding how people use products and services. By assessing user experience in a "natural" setting, ethnology yields insights into the practical applications of a product or service. It's one of the best ways to identify areas of friction and improve overall user experience. Companies make increasing use of ethnographic methods to understand consumers and consumption, or for new product development (such as video ethnography
Video ethnography is the video recording of the stream of activity of subjects in their natural setting, in order to experience, interpret, and represent culture and society. Ethnographic video, in contrast to ethnographic film, cannot be used ind ...
). The ''Ethnographic Praxis in Industry'' (EPIC) conference is evidence of this. Ethnographers' systematic and holistic approach to real-life experience is valued by product developers, who use the method to understand unstated desires or cultural practices that surround products. Where focus groups fail to inform marketers about what people really do, ethnography links what people say to what they do—avoiding the pitfalls that come from relying only on self-reported, focus-group data.
Evaluating ethnography
The ethnographic methodology is not usually evaluated in terms of philosophical standpoint (such as positivism
Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...
and emotionalism). Ethnographic studies need to be evaluated in some manner. No consensus has been developed on evaluation standards, but Richardson (2000, p. 254) provides five criteria that ethnographers might find helpful. Jaber F. Gubrium and James A. Holstein's (1997) monograph, ''The New Language of Qualitative Method,'' discusses forms of ethnography in terms of their "methods talk."
# ''Substantive contribution'': "Does the piece contribute to our understanding of social life?"
# ''Aesthetic merit'': "Does this piece succeed aesthetically?"
# ''Reflexivity'': "How did the author come to write this text…Is there adequate self-awareness and self-exposure for the reader to make judgments about the point of view?"
# ''Impact'': "Does this affect me? Emotionally? Intellectually?" Does it move me?
# ''Expresses a reality'': "Does it seem 'true'—a credible account of a cultural, social, individual, or communal sense of the 'real'?"
Ethics
Gary Alan Fine
Gary Alan Fine (born May 11, 1950, in New York City) is an American sociologist and author.
Life and career
The son of Bernard David Fine and Bernice Estelle Tanz, Fine grew up in Manhattan and went to the Horace Mann School. He studied psych ...
argues that the nature of ethnographic inquiry demands that researchers deviate from formal and idealistic rules or ethics that have come to be widely accepted in qualitative and quantitative approaches in research. Many of these ethical assumptions are rooted in positivist and post-positivist epistemologies that have adapted over time but are apparent and must be accounted for in all research paradigms. These ethical dilemmas are evident throughout the entire process of conducting ethnographies, including the design, implementation, and reporting of an ethnographic study. Essentially, Fine maintains that researchers are typically not as ethical as they claim or assume to be — and that "each job includes ways of doing things that would be inappropriate for others to know".
Fine is not necessarily casting blame at ethnographic researchers but tries to show that researchers often make idealized ethical claims and standards which are inherently based on partial truths and self-deceptions. Fine also acknowledges that many of these partial truths and self-deceptions are unavoidable. He maintains that "illusions" are essential to maintain an occupational reputation and avoid potentially more caustic consequences. He claims, "Ethnographers cannot help but lie, but in lying, we reveal truths that escape those who are not so bold". Based on these assertions, Fine establishes three conceptual clusters in which ethnographic ethical dilemmas can be situated: "Classic Virtues", "Technical Skills", and "Ethnographic Self".
Much debate surrounding the issue of ethics arose following revelations about how the ethnographer Napoleon Chagnon
Napoleon Alphonseau Chagnon (27 August 1938 – 21 September 2019) was an American cultural anthropologist, professor of sociocultural anthropology at the University of Missouri in Columbia and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Chagn ...
conducted his ethnographic fieldwork with the Yanomani
The Yanomami, also spelled Yąnomamö or Yanomama, are a group of approximately 35,000 indigenous people who live in some 200–250 villages in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil.
Etymology
The ethnonym ''Yanomami' ...
people of South America.
While there is no international standard on Ethnographic Ethics, many western anthropologists look to the American Anthropological Association for guidance when conducting ethnographic work.[''American Anthropology Association Code of Ethics'' http://www.aaanet.org/issues/policy-advocacy/upload/AAA-Ethics-Code-2009.pdf, p.1] In 2009, the Association adopted a code of ethics, stating: Anthropologists have "moral obligations as members of other groups, such as the family, religion, and community, as well as the profession". The code of ethics notes that anthropologists are part of a wider scholarly and political network, as well as human and natural environment, which needs to be reported on respectfully. The code of ethics recognizes that sometimes very close and personal relationship can sometimes develop from doing ethnographic work. The Association acknowledges that the code is limited in scope; ethnographic work can sometimes be multidisciplinary, and anthropologists need to be familiar with ethics and perspectives of other disciplines as well. The eight-page code of ethics outlines ethical considerations for those conducting Research, Teaching, Application and Dissemination of Results, which are briefly outlined below.
* "Conducting Research" – When conducting research Anthropologists need to be aware of the potential impacts of the research on the people and animals they study.[American Anthropology Association Code of Ethics, p.2–3] If the seeking of new knowledge will negatively impact the people and animals they will be studying they may not undertake the study according to the code of ethics.
* "Teaching" – When teaching the discipline of anthropology, instructors are required to inform students of the ethical dilemmas of conducting ethnographies and field work.
* "Application" – When conducting an ethnography, Anthropologists must be "open with funders, colleagues, persons studied or providing information, and relevant parties affected by the work about the purpose(s), potential impacts, and source(s) of support for the work."[American Anthropology Association Code of Ethics, p.5]
* "Dissemination of Results" – When disseminating results of an ethnography, " thropologists have an ethical obligation to consider the potential impact of both their research and the communication or dissemination of the results of their research on all directly or indirectly involved." Research results of ethnographies should not be withheld from participants in the research if that research is being observed by other people.
Classic virtues
* "The kindly ethnographer" – Most ethnographers present themselves as being more sympathetic than they are, which aids in the research process, but is also deceptive. The identity that we present to subjects is different from who we are in other circumstances.
* "The friendly ethnographer" – Ethnographers operate under the assumption that they should not dislike anyone. When ethnographers find they intensely dislike individuals encountered in the research, they may crop them out of the findings.[Fine, p. 270-77]
* "The honest ethnographer" – If research participants know the research goals, their responses will likely be skewed. Therefore, ethnographers often conceal what they know in order to increase the likelihood of acceptance by participants.
Technical skills
* "The Precise Ethnographer" – Ethnographers often create the illusion that field notes are data and reflect what "really" happened. They engage in the opposite of plagiarism, giving undeserved credit through loose interpretations and paraphrasing. Researchers take near-fictions and turn them into claims of fact. The closest ethnographers can ever really get to reality is an approximate truth.
* "The Observant Ethnographer" – Readers of ethnography are often led to assume the report of a scene is complete – that little of importance was missed. In reality, an ethnographer will always miss some aspect because of lacking omniscience. Everything is open to multiple interpretations and misunderstandings. As ethnographers' skills in observation and collection of data vary by individual, what is depicted in ethnography can never be the whole picture.
* "The Unobtrusive Ethnographer" – As a "participant" in the scene, the researcher will always have an effect on the communication that occurs within the research site. The degree to which one is an "active member" affects the extent to which sympathetic understanding is possible.[Fine, p. 277–81]
Ethnographic self
The following are commonly misconceived conceptions of ethnographers:[Fine, p. 282–89]
* "The Candid Ethnographer" – Where the researcher personally situates within the ethnography is ethically problematic. There is an illusion that everything reported was observed by the researcher.
* "The Chaste Ethnographer" – When ethnographers participate within the field, they invariably develop relationships with research subjects/participants. These relationships are sometimes not accounted for within the reporting of the ethnography, although they may influence the research findings.
* "The Fair Ethnographer" – Fine claims that objectivity is an illusion and that everything in ethnography is known from a perspective. Therefore, it is unethical for a researcher to report fairness in findings.
* "The Literary Ethnographer" – Representation is a balancing act of determining what to "show" through poetic/prosaic language and style, versus what to "tell" via straightforward, 'factual' reporting. The individual skills of an ethnographer influence what appears to be the value of the research.
According to Norman K. Denzin, ethnographers should consider the following seven principles when observing, recording, and sampling data:
# The groups should combine symbolic meanings with patterns of interaction.
# Observe the world from the point of view of the subject, while maintaining the distinction between everyday and scientific perceptions of reality.
# Link the group's symbols and their meanings with the social relationships.
# Record all behavior.
# The methodology should highlight phases of process, change, and stability.
# The act should be a type of symbolic interactionism.
# Use concepts that would avoid casual explanations.
Notable ethnographers
* Manuel Ancízar Basterra
Manuel may refer to:
People
* Manuel (name)
* Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers''
* Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies
* Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire
* M ...
(1812–1882)
* Franz Boas
Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...
(1858–1942)
* Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to an ...
(1904–1980)
* Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck ()
* Mary Douglas
Dame Mary Douglas, (25 March 1921 – 16 May 2007) was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism, whose area of speciality was social anthropology. Douglas was considered a follower of Émile Durkhei ...
(1921–2007)
* Raymond Firth
Sir Raymond William Firth (25 March 1901 – 22 February 2002) was an ethnologist from New Zealand. As a result of Firth's ethnographic work, actual behaviour of societies (social organization) is separated from the idealized rules of behaviou ...
(1901–2002)
* Leo Frobenius (1873–1938)
* Thor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography.
Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000&nb ...
(1914–2002)
* Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on Hoodoo (spirituality), hoodoo. The most ...
(1891–1960)
* Diamond Jenness (1886–1969)
* Mary Kingsley
Mary Henrietta Kingsley (13 October 1862 – 3 June 1900) was an English ethnographer, scientific writer, and explorer whose travels throughout West Africa and resulting work helped shape European perceptions of both African cultures and ...
(1862–1900)
* Carobeth Laird
Carobeth (Tucker) Laird (July 20, 1895 – August 5, 1983) was an American ethnographer and linguist, known for her memoirs and ethnographic studies of the Chemehuevi people in southeastern California and western Arizona. Her book, ''The Chemehuev ...
(1895–1983)
* Ruth Landes
Ruth Landes (October 8, 1908 – February 11, 1991) was an American cultural anthropologist best known for studies on the Brazilian religion of Candomblé and her published study on the topic, ''City of Women'' (1947). Landes is recognized by som ...
(1908–1991)
* Edmund Leach (1910–1989)
* José Leite de Vasconcelos
José Leite de Vasconcelos Cardoso Pereira de Melo (7 July 1858 – 17 May 1941) was a Portuguese ethnographer, archaeologist and prolific author who wrote extensively on Portuguese philology and prehistory. He was the founder and the first direc ...
(1858–1941)
* Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...
(1908–2009)
* Bronisław Malinowski
Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (; 7 April 1884 – 16 May 1942) was a Polish-British anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthropol ...
(1884–1942)
* David Maybury-Lewis
David Henry Peter Maybury-Lewis (5 May 1929 – 2 December 2007) was a British anthropologist, ethnologist of lowland South America, activist for indigenous peoples' human rights, and professor emeritus of Harvard University.
Born in Hyderaba ...
(1929–2007)
* Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...
(1901–1978)
* Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay (1846–1888)
* Gerhard Friedrich Müller
Gerhard Friedrich Müller ( Russian: ''Фёдор Ива́нович Ми́ллер'', ''Fyodor Ivanovich Miller'', 29 October 1705 – 22 October 1783) was a Russian-German historian and pioneer ethnologist.
Early life
Müller was born in Herf ...
(1705–1783)
* Nikolai Nadezhdin
Nikolai Ivanovich Nadezhdin (russian: Николай Иванович Надеждин) ( – ) was a Russian literary critic and Russia's first ethnographer.
Biography
Born in Beloomut, Ryazan Governorate, Nadezhdin graduated from Ryazan Se ...
(1804–1856)
* Lubor Niederle (1865–1944)
* Dositej Obradović
Dositej Obradović ( sr-Cyrl, Доситеј Обрадовић; 17 February 1739 – 7 April 1811) was a Serbian writer, biographer, diarist, philosopher, pedagogue, educational reformer, linguist, polyglot and the first minister of education ...
(1739–1811)
* Alexey Okladnikov
Alexey Pavlovich Okladnikov (russian: Алексе́й Па́влович Окла́дников; 1908–1981) was a Soviet archaeologist, historian, and ethnographer, an expert in the ancient cultures of Siberia and the Pacific Basin. He was elect ...
(1908-)_1981)
* Sergey Oldenburg
Sergey Fyodorovich Oldenburg (russian: Серге́й Фёдорович Ольденбу́рг; 26 September 1863, in Byankino, Transbaikal Oblast – 28 February 1934, in Leningrad) was a Russian orientalist who specialized in Buddhist stud ...
(1863–1934)
* Edward Sapir (1884–1939)
* August Ludwig von Schlözer
August Ludwig von Schlözer (5 July 1735, in Gaggstatt – 9 September 1809, in Göttingen) was a German historian and pedagogist who laid foundations for the critical study of Russian medieval history. He was a member of the Göttingen School ...
(1735–1809)
* James Spradley
James P. Spradley (1933–1982) was a professor of Anthropology at Macalester College from 1969. Spradley wrote or edited 20 books on ethnography and qualitative research including ''Participant Observation'' and ''The Ethnographic Interview'' ( ...
(1933–1982)
* Jean Briggs (1929–2016)
* Cora Du Bois
Cora Alice Du Bois (October 26, 1903 – April 7, 1991) was an American cultural anthropologist and a key figure in culture and personality studies and in psychological anthropology more generally. She was Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray ...
(1903–1991)
* Lila Abu-Lughod
* Elijah Anderson Elijah Anderson may refer to:
* Elijah Anderson (rugby league) (born 1999), Australian rugby league footballer
*Elijah Anderson (sociologist)
Elijah Anderson (born 1943 in Hermondale, Missouri) is an American sociologist. He is the Sterling Pr ...
(born 1943)
* Ruth Behar
Ruth Behar (born 1956) is a Cuban-American anthropologist and writer.[Ruth Beh ...](_blank)
* Zuzana Beňušková
Prof. PhDr. Zuzana Beňušková, CSc. (née Zuzana Wagnerová, born 27 October 1960) is a Slovaks, Slovak Ethnology, ethnologist, Ethnography, ethnographer, Cultural anthropology, cultural and Social anthropology, social anthropologist. She is a p ...
(born 1960)
* Zalpa Bersanova
Zalpa Khozh-Akhmedovna Bersanova ( ce, Залпа Хож-Ахмедовна Берсанова) is a Chechen people, Chechen Ethnography, ethnographer and author who has written extensively on the Chechen people and the First Chechen War, First an ...
* Napoleon Chagnon
Napoleon Alphonseau Chagnon (27 August 1938 – 21 September 2019) was an American cultural anthropologist, professor of sociocultural anthropology at the University of Missouri in Columbia and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Chagn ...
(1938–2019)
* Veena Das (born 1945)
* Mitchell Duneier
Mitchell Duneier is an American sociologist and ethnographer. He is currently Maurice P. During Professor and department chair of Sociology at Princeton University and has also served as a regular Visiting Distinguished Professor of Sociology at ...
* Kristen R. Ghodsee
Kristen Rogheh Ghodsee (born April 26, 1970) is an American ethnographer and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is primarily known for her ethnographic work on post-Communist Bulgaria as well as ...
(born 1970)
* Alice Goffman
Alice Goffman (born 1982) is an American sociologist, urban ethnographer, and author. She was Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin and Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology at Pomona College.
Goffman wrote ''On th ...
(born 1982)
* Jaber F. Gubrium
Jaber Fandy "Jay" Gubrium is an American sociologist. He has been a professor in the University of Missouri Department of Sociology since 2002.
Career
He chaired the Missouri Department of Sociology from 2002 to 2016. He now is emeritus profess ...
* Katrina Karkazis
Katrina Alicia Karkazis (born 1970) is an anthropologist and bioethicist. She is a professor of Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College. She was previously the Carol Zicklin Endowed Chair in the Honors Academy at Brooklyn College ...
* Jovan Cvijic Jovan may refer to:
*Jovan (given name), a list of people with this given name
*Jovan, Mawal, a village on the western coastal region of Maharashtra, India
*Jōvan Musk, a cologne
*Deli Jovan, a mountain in eastern Serbia
*Róbert Jován (born 1967 ...
* Richard Price (born 1941)
* Marilyn Strathern
Dame Ann Marilyn Strathern, Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, DBE, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (née Evans; born 6 March 1941) is a Great Britain, British anthropology, anthropologist, who has worked lar ...
(born 1941)
* Barrie Thorne
Barrie Thorne (born 1942) is a professor of sociology and of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her work focuses on the sociology of gender, feminist theory, the sociology of age relations, childhood, and familie ...
* Sudhir Venkatesh
* Susan Visvanathan
Susan Visvanathan (born 1957) is an Indian sociologist, social anthropologist and a fiction writer. She is well known for her writings on religious dialogue and sociology of religion. Her first book ''Christians of Kerala: History, Belief and Rit ...
* Paul Willis
Paul Willis (born 1945) is a British social scientist known for his work in sociology and cultural studies. Paul Willis' work is widely read in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and education, his work emphasizing consumer culture, sociali ...
* Mikhail Nikolaevich Smirnov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Smirnov (''Smirnov-Caucasian''; May 30, 1847 in Kaluga – 1892, in Odessa) was a Russian botanist and ethnographer.
Biography
Born into the family of Senator Nikolai Mikhailovich Smirnov (1807-1870) from his marriage to Lad ...
* James H McAlexander (Consumer Culture Ethnography) (1958 to 2022)
See also
* Area studies
* Critical ethnography Critical ethnography applies a critical theory based approach to ethnography. It focuses on the implicit values expressed within ethnographic studies and, therefore, on the unacknowledged biases that may result from such implicit values.Soyini Madi ...
* Ethnoarchaeology Ethnoarchaeology is the ethnographic study of peoples for archaeological reasons, usually through the study of the material remains of a society (see David & Kramer 2001). Ethnoarchaeology aids archaeologists in reconstructing ancient lifeways by s ...
* Ethnography of communication
The ethnography of communication (EOC), originally called the ethnography of speaking, is the analysis of communication within the wider context of the social and cultural practices and beliefs of the members of a particular culture or speech commu ...
* Ethnographic Museum Ethnographic museums conserve, display and contextualize items relevant to the field of ethnography, the systematic study of people and cultures. Such museums include:
List by country/region Albania
* Ethnographic Museum of Kavajë,
* Gjirokast ...
* Ethnology
* Ethnosemiotics
Ethnosemiotics is a disciplinary perspective which links semiotics concepts to ethnographic methods.
Overview
Algirdas Julien Greimas and Joseph Courtés defined for the first time ethnosemiotics in ''Semiotics and language: an analytical dicti ...
* Folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
* Immersion journalism
* Living lab Living labs are open innovation ecosystems in real-life environments using iterative feedback processes throughout a lifecycle approach of an innovation to create sustainable impact. They focus on co-creation, rapid prototyping & testing and scaling ...
* Online ethnography
* Ontology
In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality.
Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...
* Participant observation
Participant observation is one type of data collection method by practitioner-scholars typically used in qualitative research and ethnography. This type of methodology is employed in many disciplines, particularly anthropology (incl. cultural an ...
* Qualitative research
Qualitative research is a type of research that aims to gather and analyse non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation. This ...
* Realist ethnography
Within the field of anthropology and other social science
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to r ...
* Video ethnography
Video ethnography is the video recording of the stream of activity of subjects in their natural setting, in order to experience, interpret, and represent culture and society. Ethnographic video, in contrast to ethnographic film, cannot be used ind ...
References
Further reading
* Agar, Michael (1996) ''The Professional Stranger: An Informal Introduction to Ethnography''. Academic Press.
* Burns, Janet M.C. (1992) ''Caught in the Riptide: Female Researcher in a Patricentric Setting''. pp. 171–182 in Fragile Truths: 25 Years of Sociology and Anthropology in Canada. D. Harrison, W.K. Carroll, L. Christiansen-Ruffman and Raymond Currie (eds.). Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Carleton University Press.
*Clifford Clifford may refer to:
People
*Clifford (name), an English given name and surname, includes a list of people with that name
*William Kingdon Clifford
*Baron Clifford
*Baron Clifford of Chudleigh
*Baron de Clifford
*Clifford baronets
*Clifford fami ...
, James & George E. Marcus
George Emanuel Marcus is an American professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine who focuses on the anthropology of elites.
Education and life
Marcus received a B.A. from Yale University in 1968 and a Ph.D. from Harvard in ...
(Eds.). Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. (1986). Berkeley: University of California Press.
*Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
*Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
*Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil W ...
, Mary and Baron Isherwood (1996) ''The World of Goods: Toward and Anthropology of Consumption''. Routledge, London.
*Dubinsky, Itamar (2017). Global and local methodological and ethical questions in researching football academies in Ghana. ''Children's Geographies'', 15(4), 385-398. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2016.1249823.
* Erickson, Ken C. and Donald D. Stull (1997) ''Doing Team Ethnography : Warnings and Advice''. Sage, Beverly Hills.
* Fetterman, D. (2009) ''Ethnography: Step by Step'', Third edition, Thousand Oaks CA, Sage.
*
*Geertz
Clifford James Geertz (; August 23, 1926 – October 30, 2006) was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology and who was considered "for three decades ...
, Clifford. ''The Interpretation of Cultures'', New York, Basic Books.
* Ghodsee, Kristen (2013
''Anthropology News''.
*
* Groh, Arnold A. (2018). ''Research Methods in Indigenous Contexts.'' New York: Springer.
* Gubrium, Jaber F. (1988). "Analyzing Field Reality." Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
* Gubrium, Jaber F. and James A. Holstein. (1997) "The New Language of Qualitative Method." New York: Oxford University Press.
* Gubrium, Jaber F. and James A. Holstein. (2009). "Analyzing Narrative Reality." Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
* Martyn Hammersley, Hammersley, Martyn (2018) ''What's Wrong With Ethnography?'', London, Routledge.
* Martyn Hammersley, Hammersley, Martyn and Atkinson, Paul (2019) ''Ethnography: Principles in Practice'', Fourth edition, London, Routledge.
* Heath, Shirley Brice & Brian Street, with Molly Mills. On Ethnography.
* Hymes, Dell. (1974). ''Foundations in sociolinguistics: An ethnographic approach''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
* Kottak, Conrad Phillip (2005) ''Window on Humanity : A Concise Introduction to General Anthropology'', (pages 2–3, 16–17, 34-44). McGraw Hill, New York.
* Mannik, L., & McGarry, K. (2017). Practicing Ethnography: A Student Guide to Method and Methodology. University of Toronto Press.
* Marcus, George E. & Michael Fischer. Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences. (1986). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
*
* Miller, Daniel (1987) ''Material Culture and Mass Consumption''. Blackwell, London.
* Spradley, James P. (1979) ''The Ethnographic Interview''. Wadsworth Group/Thomson Learning.
* Salvador, Tony; Genevieve Bell; and Ken Anderson (1999) ''Design Ethnography.'' Design Management Journal.
* Van Maanen, John. 1988. ''Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
* Westbrook, David A. Navigators of the Contemporary: Why Ethnography Matters. (2008). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
{{Authority control
Anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Social anthropology
Ethnology
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Ethnic studies