Ethnography 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
Ethnography 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
Ethnography Works Cited Missing 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
Ethnography Works Cited Missing 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
Furthermore, Hedican is describing the difficulties that reflexive understanding has brought to him and how it is a long process when conducting fieldwork. “Participant observation” is another key concept described in both Henry’s ethnography, as well as Hedican’s ethnography. My personal understanding is that participant observation means living in a culture that is not your own while also keeping a detailed record of your observations and interviews. Also, it is described as a research method to gain
Anthropology, which originated as the study of none industrial peoples, is a comparative science that now extends to all societies, ancient modern, simple, and complex. To become a cultural anthropologist, one must do ethnography which is the firsthand, personal study of local settings. Ethnographer is based on fieldwork requires spending a year or more in another society, living, with the local people and learning about their way of life or local behavior. The ethnographer wanted to create a holistic
or something to be apprehensive of. Ethnography helps society learn about culture by fully immersing yourself in the culture. By observing, learning and participating in various cultures it can eliminate a lot of apprehension as well as broaden your ability to accept others. Throughout this essay, I will answer a few questions associated with ethnography and how studying a culture can help our own society progress as well. It is important to know what ethnography is, as well as methods that can be
Ethnography Ethnography is rooted firmly in the inductive approach. It emanates from the field of anthropology. The purpose is to describe and explain the social world the research subjects inhabit in the way in which they would describe and explain it. This is obviously a research strategy that is very time consuming and takes place over an extended time period as the researcher needs to immerse herself or himself in the social world being researched as completely as possible. The research process
observation assignment, I chose to study the social interactions and behaviors at one of my rugby matches. The main idea of this ethnography is to understand and compare the norms of the players, coaches, and onlookers at a college women’s rugby match. How does the conduct of the teams change before, during, and after a game is played? The main focus of this ethnography is on the players, sportsmanship and respect have important roles in the culture of the game. For the purpose of this assignment
Ethnography: Ainu Worldview The Ainu, Japan’s native aboriginal people, are very much an isolated people, living now only in the northern island of Japan, Hokkaido. They number, as of a 1984 survey, 24,381, continuing a rise from a low point in the mid nineteenth century due to forced labor and disease, and have largely left their old ways and integrated into standard Japanese society, though even the majority of those still reside in Hokkaido. The animistic religion of the Ainu is firmly enmeshed
The Role of Reflexivity in Ethnography Reflexivity, as I understand it, is very well named.It is the practice of reflecting upon oneself and one’s work, of being self-aware and self-critical. In anthropology, it is well exemplified by the work of Renato Rosaldo, Ruth Behar, and Dorinne Kondo, among others. In its most obvious form (or at least the form most obvious to me), reflexivity is manifest in the practice of an ethnographer including herself in her own ethnographic research---seeing herself
Views in the Ethnographies of McClusky and Bourgois In the traditional sense, an ethnography was just merely an explanation of culture; how the interact, survive, and continue as a culture. However, in the contemporary sense, ethnographies are not only used to explain how cultures work, but to expose a problem within it and propose a solution for the problem that would work within the context of the culture. This sense of contextual problem solving is prevalent in the last two ethnographies we read as
Alex's Restaurant, an ethnography The Wiseguys (scene one): *These four old guys (definitely into their late sixties, early seventies) sell cars at one of the dealerships on the boulevard. I would bet fifty dollars that they all work for Cadillac. They come in once a week, on Friday afternoons. They love me. They like to give me a hard time, ask why I don’t love them anymore, when I’m going to run away with them, etc, etc. They are caricatures of car salesmen but are obviously unaware of this
Is Ethnography a Suitable method for Research on Residential Satisfaction and Community Participation. Ethnography within its wider field of research is described as the study of people’s behaviour in terms of social contexts, with emphasis on interaction in everyday situations (Lindsay, 1997). It is further defined as research that constitutes the art and science of describing a group or culture (Fetterman, 1989). However, the specific definition that will be used throughout this work, is
An Ethnography of Modern Witches The growing practice of Neo-Paganism in America has caused many to turn their heads. The misunderstanding of the religion has caused many to equate the practitioners with the popular conception of typical "witches," that perform black magic rituals, satanic sacrifices, and engage in devil-inspired orgies. After many years, the Neo-Pagan community has cleared up many misconceptions through the showing that many of them do not engage in activities, and are rather
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
The many ethnographies produced from the fieldwork of anthropologist, account for much of our knowledge of cultures we may consider foreign of our own. Ethnographies are often written to provide an understanding of the practices of the studied culture, thus bridging the gap between separate ways of life. Majorie Shostak is one of the well known anthropologist who attempts to do just this in her writings. During her stay in the Dobe regions of Botswana, she studied the life of !Kung women to find
Ethnography - Inter-team Conflict with the Coach Recently, two strong sophomore players quit the varsity women’s water polo team. They said that they were no longer having fun, one saying that the time commitment “just was not worth it anymore,” while the other said that playing polo at Oxy was making her more and more unhappy.” Earlier in the season, one of the players who was named first team All American and MVP of the National Tournament, also almost quit the team for good. Again, her
“Man, Fragged by the LPB Sniper again!!!” That may sound like nonsense to the average person but to the seasoned Counterstrike veteran it speaks volumes. Today, millions of people of all ages are coming together on the Internet to compete against each other in a variety of online games. The most popular of which is an online modification of the game Half-life entitled Counterstrike. Counterstrike itself is comprised of players broken up in to two teams, terrorists and counter terrorists, who then
Charles Marius Barbeau’s Ethnography and the Canadian Folklore Born on 5 March 1883, in Sainte-Marie-de-Bauce, Charles Marius Barbeau is widely seen as the first Canadian educated anthropologist. He graduated from Université Laval in Québec, from his studies of law, in 1907; he never practised law. Upon graduating, Marius was awarded – as the first French-Canadian recipient – the Cecil Rhodes scholarship which allowed him to study at Oxford University where he was introduced to the emerging