Ethnographic Research: Its
History, Methods, and
Theories
Part I
History of Ethnographic Research
and Its Uses:

Anthropology began in the last quarter of
the nineteenth century as a comparative
science; although its first practitioners
were not fieldworkers, fieldwork and
ethnography soon became its defining
characteristics.

Fieldwork: the term anthropologist use for
on-location research.
Colonialism

At the height of
colonialism (1870s1950s) anthropologists
from any given area
would, typically, study
cultures their government
occupied.

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


French: North and West
Africa, and Southeast
Asia
British: Southern and
East Africa
Dutch: Indonesia,
Western New Guinea, and
Suriname
Belgian: Congo (Africa)
Canada/US: Eskimos and
American Indian
Urgent Anthropology:

Ethnographic research that documents
endangered cultures; also known as
salvage ethnography

Disease, poverty, and forced culture
changes were the leading factors in much
of the demise of American Indian cultures.
Anthropologists collected oral histories,
traditions, myths, legends etc.
Acculturation Studies:


Acculturation: massive
culture change that
occurs in a society when
it experiences intensive
firsthand contact with a
more powerful society

Carlisle Indian Industrial
School (1879-1918)

Richard Pratt’s “Noble
Experiment”
Government-sponsored
programs were developed
and designed to force
indigenous groups to
abandon their ways and
accept those of the
imposing government

By the time the “noble
experiment” at Carlisle
ended, over 10,000
children had been
through the school. Less
than 8% graduated while
well over twice that many
ran away.