Roderick Nixon
English 3090
Professor Pullman
April 25, 2003
Ethnography
David M. Fetterman defines in his book Ethnography step by step, ethnography as
“the art and science of describing a group or culture”. Ethnographers write about people
daily. The ethnographer attains a detailed understanding of circumstances from the few
subjects being studied. Ethnographic accounts are descriptive and interpretive; the
ethnographer must analyze what they observe without gathering broad, statistical
information. Ethnography is a research process- a methodology- most closely associated
with the academics disciplines of anthropology and sociology. Conducting ethnographic
research, the ethnographers immersed in the culture, making observations taking field
notes, considering the meanings, and then putting in writing the results. Ethnography a
qualitative research method that understands human behavior embedded in cultural.
Ethnography gleaned from researchers prolonged examination by observing learning
patterns through behavior, language, customs, interactions and life from sharing group.
(Gillis and Jackson, 2002) The aim is to understand how people live and how they derive
meaning from experience. The purpose is to make explicit what is implicit within a
culture by studying various cultural characteristics.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary list ethnography as ethno; from Greek ethno-,
ethn-, from ethnos; race: people: cultural group <ethnocentric>. The word graphy
functions as a noun combining form. Etymology derives from Latin –graphia, from
Greek, from graphein: writing or representation in a specified manner or by a specified
means or a specified object <stenography>, <photography>, and writing on a specified
subject or in a specified field <hagiography>. Ethnography functions as a noun.
Etymology derives from the French word ethnographic, from ethno- + -graphie – graphy.
Its origin date is 1834 defined as “the study and systematic recording of human cultures”;
also: “a descriptive work produced from such research”.
Travelogues are forms of writing that compares to ethnographies. Travelogues
functions as a noun and dates back to 1903. Travelogues are talk or lectures on travel
accompanied by a film or slides. Travelogues are narrated motion pictures about travel.
Travelogues are written diaries by people traveling to various countries. Travelogues
have assumptions made in them from the viewer’s perspectives.
Ethnographic research starts selecting a problem or topic like a cultural group
with a relation to each other. Ethnographers use theoretical models indirectly linked to
grand theories to guide their work. Theory is a guide to practice. A few examples of
theories in Ethnography step by step are theoretical theory, materialist theory, and
innovation theory. Selecting a theory depends on appropriateness, ease and explanatory
power.
David M. Fetterman writes in Ethnography step by step “fieldwork is the most
characteristic element of any ethnography research design”. The ethnography begins with
a survey period to learn the basics. The native language, kinship ties, census information,
historical data, and basic structure and function are under study for the months. Most
important in fieldwork is being there to observe. Field-notes are derived from
observations when conducting fieldwork. Following long-time through fieldwork, formal
analysis and report writing. The ethnographer must then reconfigure all notes to how the
system works.
The book Ethnography Principles in Practice by Martyn Hammersley and Paul
Atkinson defines ethnography as “a research method drawing from a wide range of
sources of information”. The ethnographer participates in people’s daily lives for an
extended period of time, watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking
questions; collecting whatever data available on issue he or she is concerned about. There
are contrasting reconstructions logics, social research and their implication on
ethnography positivism and naturalism, which provides an adequate framework for social
research. All social research is founded on the human capacity for participant observation
and we can develop test theory without either framework applied.
Ethnography is enjoyed when the group you chose to study is humorous. Learning
about people and there environment interesting. Ethnography explores the world and
records first hand experience. Ethnography dangerous if newcomers enter an
environment that’s very suspicious, regardless of the intentions behind what
Ethnographers does. Only cultural groups who approve to be studied; tape recording,
taking pictures or even writing notes on the group’s environment are allowed to bring
back to the world how a selected group of people live their lives.
Work Sited
1. Ethnography Principles in Practice by Martyn Hammersley and Paul Atkinson
2. http://www.wsu.edu:
8001/vewsu/commons/topics/culture/glossary/ethnography.html
3. http://acweb.colum.edu/user/hawkins/definition.htm
4. Gillis and Jackson, 2002, 202
5. Ethnography step by step by David M. Fetterman