Stepping in and Stepping Out:
Understanding Cultures
• Fieldworking requires curiosity and attentionto-detail
– Over the course of your ethnographic project, you
will look, listen, collect, question, and interpret
• Ethnography: the study of people in cultures
– Famous fieldworkers:
• Jane Goodall, Clifford Geertz, Oliver Sacks, Margaret
Mead,
Culture? Subculture?
• Culture
• Subculture
“…an invisible web of
behaviors, patterns,
rules, and rituals of a
group of people who
have contact with one
another and share
common languages” (3)
“…any self-identified group
of people who share
language, stories, rituals,
behaviors, and values”
(6)
What is the difference? And why it significant?
We must be aware of:
• Colonization: the domination (not necessarily
physically) of one culture by the values of
another; similar to ethnocentrism
• Our assumptions, preconceptions, and biases:
our untested attitudes/theories about
unfamiliar people, places, or ideas (often
based upon the experiences from your own
life, or from a limited or second-hand idea
about people, places, or ideas.)
Perspectives: Outsider and Insider
Outsider (etic)
– Your initial perspective
as a beginning
fieldworker
– Also, the ability to “step
out” of our own groups
and identities and to
attempt to see things
objectively.
– In our field notes, what
we record.
Insider (emic)
– The perspective of the
members of the cultural
group you will be
studying
– Also, the developing
ability to “step in” to
unfamiliar groups and to
examine them closely,
subjectively.
– In our field notes, how
we respond.
Looking Forward: The Research
Portfolio
• You should have a sturdy notebook, and you
should back up you data often, either by
photocopying it, scanning it, or typing it into a
computer.
– If you do type your field notes, make certain that you
back up you data with a flash/jump drive, external
hard drive, etc.!
• You might also consider having an actual research
portfolio – a place where you can keep fliers,
notes, photographs, and other artifacts from your
fieldworking
Four Main Activities of
Fieldworking
(And how having a good
research portfolio can help
you)
1. Collecting
You will collect observations (recorded as your
field notes), and interviews – but you may also
collect maps (existing or ones that you sketch),
transcripts, photographs, poems (your or
others), newsletters, newspaper clippings,
advertisements, programs, etc.
2. Selecting
• You can’t select until you collect!
• But…once you have begun to assemble a
thorough collection of field notes and a
research portfolio, you will have many
different parts from while to construct a
whole ethnographic essay
3. Reflecting
• “the act of considering thoughtfully.”
• When you reflect upon your project and look
through your notes/portfolio, you need time.
• Make certain you set aside intervals to reflect
upon field notes, interviews, etc. and to
analyze and synthesize the data
Projecting
• Oftentimes, projecting is a by-product of reflecting:
through reflection you can identify areas where you
want to concentrate your focus, questions you want to
ask, informants you want to interview, and areas of the
study that might need to be further developed.
• Projecting allows you to analyze your progress, look
forward, conceptualize your project (as it shapes up),
and to realize what you need to do.
• In short, projecting is about looking at where you’ve
been, analyzing where you are, and identifying where
you want to be.