Chapter

(i)
Introduction

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Importance of field work in Anthropology

Fieldwork is intense, long term Anthropological research, it is a tool used to help,

describe and understand a group of culture. It is guided by practical activity,
judgment, interpretation and description. The method involves working with
people in their own community for long period of time without disturbing the
settings of the community.
Stalwarts like Boas believed that every aspect of a culture should be recorded and
that the anthropologist studying a native culture should not only learn its language
but should attempt to think like its people. Boas emphasized the importance of
collecting information that described the individuals and their interrelationships in
a particular culture. Such information was gathered through the recording of life
histories and folklore, and then connecting these details with archaeological and
historical data. Boas also believed that similarities among different cultures were
the result of similar outside influences rather than to the similarity in thought
processes or to any universal laws of development. He stressed the importance of
analyzing a culture within its historical context Anthropologist usually conducts
detailed fieldwork because ‘being there’ expected to produce superior results.
Anthropological fieldwork differs from other (like sociology and archaeology)
because of its distinctive epistemology, history and socialization practice.

Field work is the part of training in the subject social cultural anthropology. Every
anthropologist should undergo this training in course of his preliminary study, It
enables a student to go beyond the horizons of his own society and perceive an
alien culture with subjectivity. Learning about two different societies gives a
student a comparative view i.e. he acquires competency to estimate the similarity
or dissimilarity between any two society or cultural. Since many factors in non-
literate societies are regarded as more or less constant, trainee anthropologists are
free to study a few variables in details with a hope for establishing connections
among the various part of the society. The students of anthropology thus not only
gain firsthand knowledge about a cultural, they also understand how different parts
of a culture remains interwoven within a which a whole the established theories
and techniques are usually applied in the training. Trainee anthropology learns a lot
through the field training just like a physician who gains practical experiments
through his internship. Field training provides the junior anthropologist with an
insight for which they proceed to study other people’s way of life and culture, it is
invaluable experience to junior anthropologist. A primitive society is therefore,
closest to the laboratory conditions for the students of social cultural anthropology.

Brief history of fieldwork in Anthropology

Anthropologists of the 19th century were totally involved in exploring the variety
of human cultures (the exotic other) but they were quite apart from the rigorous life
of the actual field. The value of fieldwork was realized at the beginning of 20th
century when the outlook of the anthropologist changed. It was understood that an
anthropologist should face the situation by him in order to gate accurate and
relevant data. So many anthropology of this time made them engaged with the
group of aborigines. E. B. Tylor was the first scholar who emphasized the need of
direct data collection in anthropology, but Boas were the pioneer to begin with this
practice. The earliest attempt of professional data gathering was made by Franz
boas in 1897. The second attempt of fieldwork was done in England under joint
leadership of Haddon, Rivers and Seligman during the period from 1898 to 1899.

The mast outstanding fieldwork tradition in anthropology was developed by

Malinowski. He believed that the various aspects in the life of a people were
interrelated, so he never studied a society in piece meal manner. Malinowski also
stressed on fieldwork as primary way of anthropology data gathering. In the book
‘The Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922), he wrote about the necessity for
inclusion of a statement of field procedure. Next to Malinowski, the name comes in
A.R. Radcliffe-Brown who did on extensive fieldwork in Andaman Islands.
Radcliffe Brown was the first pupil of W.H.R River in social anthropology. In
1906, Rivers had sent him among the Andaman islanders for reconstructing the
cultural history of these people. Instead of conjectural reconstruction, he studied
the myths, ceremonies festivals and customs of the people in depth and analyzed
these from structural functionalism point of view. Infect the proper anthropological
fieldwork was exhibited in succession by the effects of Boas, Haddon, Malinowski
and Radcliffe-Brown during the first quarter of the 20th century. They often
understood painstaking work to learn as well as to record the social cultural life of
the natives. In the content of fieldwork H.J. Herskovits (1942) has advised, “see as
much as you can, participate whenever you are permitted to do so, and compound
your experiences by discussing them formally with natives as widely as you are
able”. It is the rule of anthropologist has to qualify him according to the situation
and scope.

Anthropological fieldwork took several paradigm shifts after the Second World
War as the Neo evolutionists like Leslie White, Julian Steward, Sahlins, Service
created typologies based on technological complexity (Band, Tribe, Chiefdom,
State) to explain change in the social system over time and tried to clear the cloud
of ethno centricism over the notion of evolutionism. Levi-Strauss focused on the
structure of human through processes which he claimed as the same in all cultures
as people tend to think in binary oppositions which are reflected in various cultural
institutions. Thus the 50acalled primitive cultures are equipped with the same
mental faculties as those from the so-called advanced cultures. Cognitive
anthropologists, having a root in Sapir-Whorftaneth no science, believe that
language not just a means of communication but also shaped people’s perceptions
of the world and thus try to delineate native conceptual categories or domains a
focus that shifted by 1970 to how human mind functioned and by 19805 to general
mental prototmes of human conceptualization called schemas, or schemata.
Present-day cognime anthropologists developed a notion of connectionism-
suggesting that knowledge is linked, networked, and widely distributed by
“processing units” that work like neurons and we access and analyze information
through these processing units which is faster than computer. Symbolic and
Interpretive Anthropologists, on the other hand, focus on how people understand
and interpret their surroundings as well as the actions and utterances of the other
members of their society forming a shared cultural system of meaning. While the
Interpretive approach to Symbolic Anthropology led by Geertz espouse that man is
in need of symbolic “sources of illumination” to orient himself with respect to the
system of meaning that is any particular culture, the Symbolic Approach to
Symbolic Anthropology led by Victor Turner views symbols as instigator of social
action and are “determinable influences inclining persons and groups of action.
Feminist anthropologists like Douglas, Ortner, Rosaldo, Lamphere Abu-Lughod
stress on the male centred nature of anthropological tieldwork leading to the
neglect of women and gender, Feminist ethnographers changed the paradigm of
anthropological fieldwork by focusing on women, building data about women by
women and reworking and redefming anthropological theory. Post modern trends
of our discipline since 1980s (Taussig, Crapanzano, Shstak, Rabinow, Abu-Lughod
Rosaldo) reinvigorated the issues of ‘othemess’ and reassessed the dominant ideas
across the human sciences. This trend emphasized contextualization and reflexivity
to show the banality of metanarra the and grand theory, put ‘experimental
emphasis on polyvocality which lead to continued aftiliation with peoples and
traditions outside ‘Western’ nexus with postmodern sensibility. Auto ethnography,
i.e. ethnography on one‘s own culture with reflexivity and critical consciousness, is
also a dominant trend in today‘s anthr0pological fieldwork which represents
personal application of evocative approach. Anthropological held work
experienced another paradigm shift in the recent years with the advent of
globalization as Appadurai study global structure of various scrapes (ethnoscapes,
mediascapes, technoscapes, tinancescapes and ideoscapes) and the relationships
between them, Philip Bourgois study hegemony and counters hegemony as he
work on the crack dealers of El Barrio and Aihwa Ong study the business and
political elite in Asia molding public perception of both the nation and economy.

Ernie and Etic are terms used by anthropologists like Kenneth Pike and by others
in the social and behavioural sciences to refer to two kinds of data concerning
human behaviour. In particular, they are used in cultural anthropology to refer to
kinds of fieldwork done and viewpoints obtained.

● An "emic" account is a description of behaviour or a belief in terms

meaningful (consciously or unconsciously) to the actor; that is, an emic
account comes from a person within the culture. Almost anything from
within a culture can provide an emic account.

● An "etic" account is a description of a behaviour or belief by an observer, in

terms that can be applied to other cultures; that is, an epic account attempts
to be 'culturally neutral'.

Chapter
 (ii)
METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF
THE FIELDWORK

CHAPTER II

Methodological Aspects of this Field Work

Importance of methodology in anthropology

The various ways anthropologists conduct research in naturalistic setting, or in the

field, are called field methods. They include participation in social life and various
forms of observation. Anthropology relies on field methods as its ultimate source
of information. Research in the field, known as fieldwork, involves collecting
primary data on humans. The fieldwork is always conducted with a definite
objective. It is needed for research or training. Fieldworkers generally gather data
either to test a hypothesis or to generate a hypothesis. Socio-cultural anthropology
studies contemporary human groups in the field in order to understand the range of
social relationship and organizations that human group exhibit, as well as the learnt
beliefs and values that guide behavior. Most Fieldworks in this subfield are
directed towards producing ethnographic or writing description of ethnic groups.
Thus ethnological field techniques are also termed as ethnographic method.

Observation is the central contribution to social sciences; it is the oldest method of

scientific investigation. In fact, observation means the exam in action of
phenomenon or things without altering it. Observation offers no scope of error as
arising misunderstanding and misinterpretation of words or from the bios verbal
report submitted by a person. There are two basic sub disciplines of observation,
such as participant observation and non participant observation. Anthropologist
depends more on participant observation, for participant observation, an observer
has to participate activity in the group under his study. As it is said earlier method
of socio-cultural anthropology is chiefly observation, supported by interview. An
anthropologist wishes to study something about which he knows practically
nothing. Sometimes he selects such an area where different misconceptions
prevail. His nature of approach, various forms of interviewing is purely
exploratory.

• Data and documentation-

Documents:

It is a form of text particularly from various records and reports. Record is

primarily concerned with a translation that takes place in the very moment,
whereas report is written after the event has taken place report and research in a
textual form and known as documents intended to convey instructions regarding
transactions or to aid the memory of the person involved in transaction. They are
often collected from the books and manuscripts, letters, newspapers, diaries, public
documents etc.

Primary Data:

It means original data that has been collected especially for a purpose in mind.
Researcher is the one who gather this kind of data in the field. The researchers who
collected primary data are mainly the participant observer. They mainly collected
primary data to immerse themselves, taking large amount of different kinds of
data. This range and abundance of ‘raw’ experience and observation puts the more
formally acquired information, gathered through structured interviews, for
instance, into context. In other words primary data are those which

are collected afresh for the first time and thus happen to be original in character.
Eyewitness events are taken into account.

Primary data include transcriptions of interviews; participant observation field

notes; photographs of field situations taken by the researcher as records of specific
activities, rituals, and persons (with associated location and descriptive data); and
maps and diagrams drawn by the researcher or by field assistance or participant in
a study (with accompanying explanation).

Secondary Data:

Secondary data are collected through variety of sources like reports, records,
newspaper, magazine: , books, tiles, diaries etc, secondary data are mainly
prepared some modification is done on primary data then that data will became a
secondary data Some studies also involve the collection of secondary data along
with the main survey. Prior appoints needs to be taken down from the designated
officials.

The research team should collect all necessary secondary information from the
record, registers and documents available from the respective officials and
individuals. The secondary information needs to be collected using a standard
information sheet prepared in line with the objective of the study and the
researcher should also visit the field to oversee the progress of secondary data
collective and the quality and completeness of the information collected.
Secondary data (SDs) are materials that are important in describing the historical
background and current situation in a community or country where the research is
being conducted. They include maps, demographic data, measures of disparity in
health or educational status (records of differences in types of surgery, disease
distribution, graduation rates, etc.), and identified quantitative databases that
include variables of interest to the researcher. Some forms of research, such as
studies based on spatial data, rely primarily on SDs or secondary databases, which
must then be integrated and overlaid in geographic information system (GIS)
software to display hypothesized differences in the distribution of variables in
space. Historical research also depends heavily or entirely on SDs other types of
qualitative studies, however, do not depend solely on SDs.

Raw data:

Raw data is a term used for data collected a source which has not been subjected to
processing or any other manipulation. It is also known as primary data. Or else,
Data that are collected in presence of field work, which later become summarized
writing as document, is called raw data.

• Field data in anthropology

The term data means group of information that represents the qualitative or
quantitative attributes of a variable. Data is typically the results of measurements
and can be the basic of groups, images or observations of asset of variables. In
other words quantitative data are in the form of numerical from like statistical
representation of a data and qualitative data could be much more than just word or
text. Photographic video, second recordings and so on, can be considered
qualitative data. The term data refers to a collection of information. A more
detailed definition includes type of data that combine to be the collected
information such as numbers, words, pictures, video, audio and concepts. Many
definitions include the word fact, or facts, but this implies an inference about the
data and not the data themselves. This occurs more often in the physical science
one may also see the word raw as a descriptor of the data. This descriptor is used to
separate data. Once data’s are gathered, they are typically put into a format that can
be analyzed by machine or human. In the generic split of quantitative verses
qualitative research, quantitative research gather data that is in numerical forms.
The original data can be non-numerical form such as statements that are record on
some specific numerical scale. Quantitative data separate into categories based on
their measurement type or rely on numerical data. Qualitative data is generally
non-numerical data but have a greater variety of sources. These data source are
generally categorized as verbal and non-verbal. Data is verbal if the majority of
what is being analyzed into words. Verbal data source include items such as a
personal diaries, letters, media report, survey/interviews and field notes within the
group of interviews the data can come from in depth/unstructured interviews, semi-
structured interviews, structured interviews, question notices containing substantial
open ended comments, fours groups and so on non-verbal data source include
items such as student concept maps, kinship diagrams, picture, videos, film, art and
print advertisement. Each type of data and how it was collected has different
strengths and weakness in relation to the research questions and analysis technique.

There is fundamental distinction between two types of data: qualitative data and
quantitative data.

(1) Qualitative data is a categorical measurement expressed not in terms of

numbers but rather by means of a natural language description. It could be
much more than just words or texts. Photographs, videos, sound recordings
and so on, can be considered as qualitative data It is mainly contextual types
of data.

(2) Quantitative data is a numerical measurement expressed not by means of a

natural language description but rather in terms of numbers. These are
always associated with a scale measurement. Quantitative researchers argue
that their data is hand, rigorous and scientific. But the fact is that, the
qualitative and quantitative data both are intimately related to each other. All
quantitative data is based upon qualitative judgments, and all qualitative data
can be described and manipulated numerically.

• Field notes in Anthropology

Field notes are literally those notes written by a researcher while in the field.
However, while psychologists and sociologists write field notes, it is
anthropologists who have invested them with the most meaning (Jean
Jackson, 1990).These notes consist primarily of data from interviews and
daily observation. They form an early stage of analysis during data
collection and contain the raw data necessary for letter, more elaborate
analysis. Field notes can be crucial to any qualitative story, regardless of
data collection tool or method used. Field notes are a type of personal
journal written, in Thomas Schwedt‘s (l997) words, “for an audience of
One“. Thus, they are unique to each researcher, written in the first person
and in a free-Bowing, spontaneous manner. Field work inundates the
ethnographer with information ideas or events it is crucial that field notes be
written as soon as possible alter each field activity and in as much rich
details as possible. These notes should be done prior to discussing the
experience with anyone else, for such discussion may dilute memory. As
memory fades quickly and unrecorded information will soon be ever stud-
awed by subsequent events. Ethnographers use numerous techniques to
conduct their work in recording events in the field. For e.g., they learn a
highly persualized short hand for recording interviews. Short phrases or key
innards an event, an image, or parts of a conversation. These techniques
enable the ethnographer to take extensive notes during the day. Ideally, the
translation of these notes takes place immediately alter the men/m or
observation. Field notes should be kept well organized so that it can
faciliatate mural stages of memorization, coding and analysis from
preliminary hypothesis testing in the field to the final writing. Field notes m
be «gained by topic in a louse leaf folder to identify each section. The mat
section comet! of I running index, which can be used to help find specific
meme m. The mood section consists of the proposal. The third m holds the
not: end budget records necessary to administer the effort properly the fourth
rectum holds all the correspondence, and the Fifth rectum of pre in addition,
this organizational aid plunder a convenient. He serves three functions they
provide an outlet for a researcher and a way to cope with stress, they are a
source of data about personal reaction, and they give him/her a way to
evaluate direct observation or inference notes when the notes are later
reread. Reference throughout the study for recommended future courses of
action. There are four kinds of field notes in field Work jottings a diary,
along and field notes proper. Most field data are in the form of field notes.
Full field notes can contain maps, diagram, photographs, interviews, tape
recordings, Video tapes, memes artefacts or objects from field, notes jotted
in the field, and detailed notes written away from the field, a field researcher
expect to fill many notebooks or the equivalent in computer memories. The
notes contain extensive descriptions/descriptive details drawn from memory.
 A researcher makes it a daily habit or compulsion to write notes immediately
after leaving the field. The notes must be neat and organized because the
researcher will returns to them ever and over again. Once written, the notes
are private and valuable; a researcher always treats these notes with care.
Field researcher take notes is many ways, there are several type levels of
iield notes developed by the researchers some of them are discussed below.

Jotted Notes

Field jottings are those which one gets through the day. A researcher keeps a note
pad always with him and makes field jottings on the spot. This applies to both
formal and informal interviews.

This type of note is written in the field they are short, temporary memory triggers
such as words, phrases.

Jottings will provide a lot of details to the researcher when he doesn’t have time at
the time of observing an event or listening to an informant. The anthropologist
Roger Sanjek described it as ‘scratch notes’ which means quickly written during an
event.

Direct Observation notes

The basic source of field data are notes, a researchers write immediately after
leaving the field, which he or she can add to later. The notes should be ordered
chronologically with the date, time and space on each entry. They sowed as a
detailed description of what the researcher heard and saw in concrete, specific
terms.

Researcher Inference Notes:

A field researcher listens to member in order to “climb into their skim” or “walk in
their shoes”. This involves a three step process. The researcher listens without
applying analytical categories, he or she compares what is heard to what was heard
at other times and to what other says, then the researcher applies his or her own
interpretation to infer or figure out what it means. In ordinary interactions, we do
all three steps simultaneously and jump quickly to our own inference. A field
researcher learns to took and listen without inferring or imposing and
interpretation. His or her observation without inferences goes into direct
observation notes. A researcher keeps inferred meaning separate from direct
observation.

Analytic Notes:

Researcher makes much decision about how to proceed while in the field. Field
researchers keep methodological ideas in analytic notes to record their plans,
tactics, ethical and procedural decisions, and self-critiques of tactics. Theory used
to the field research during data collection and is clarified when a researcher
reviews field notes. Analytic notes have a running account of a researchers attempt
to give meaning to field event.

Personal notes:

Personal notes are the notes which is basically maintained by the field researcher
everyday where he/she share or cope with stress in their own way which is a source
of data about personal reactions, personal feelings and emotional reactions became
part of the data and colour what the researcher sees or hears in the field. A
researcher keeps a section of notes that is like a personal diary. He/she share is
records personal life events and feelings in it.

Personal notes serve three functions such as

1. They provide an outlet for a researcher and a way to scope with stress.

2. They are the source of data about the personal reactions.

3. They give him/her a way to evaluate direct observation or inference notes when
the notes are later recorded.

Notes are based on observations that will form the basis of your field report. A
diary, on the other hand, is personal. It’s a place where you can run and hide when
things get tough. You absolutely need a diary in the field. It will help the
researcher to deal with loneliness, fear and other emotions that makes field work
difficult.
A diary chronicles how a researcher feels; perceive relations with other around his
surroundings. It he is really angry at someone, he should right about it in diary. Jot
down emotions, what happening in the whole day at the end of the day. Later on,
during data analysis, this diary will become an important professional document. It
will give information that will help to interpret field notes and will make aware
about the personal biases.

• Pilot study
A pilot study is a small scale implementation of a larger study or of part of a larger
study. Pilot studies last for shorter amounts of time and usually involve a smaller
number of participants, sites, or organizations. Pilot studies are not simply
exploratory in nature. They are designed with a clear purpose of developing some
conclusion and pushing and area of research or foreshadowed problem where
reformulation or the generation of other researchable question can occur. But as we
are undergraduate student, we cannot do the pilot study. Our teacher Prokash
kumar Palit has done the pilot study for us and confirmed that it is appropriate to
do fieldwork in that place.

• Data Collection in Anthropology -

Appropriate and required sample of respondent categories should be selected from
survey areas using the sampling technique as commonly agreed. The care team
members and the project associates need to be responsible for this exercise. There
are three main methods.

1. Interactive interviewing People asked to verbally describe their experiences

of phenomenon.
2. Written descriptions by participants. People asked to write descriptions of
their experiences of phenomenon.
3. Observation -Descriptive observation of verbal and non-verbal behavior.

• Interviewing
An interview may be defined as face to face meeting of persons on some particular
points, as a research tool or a method of data collection, interview is different from
general interview with regards to its preparation, construction and execution. A set
question is asked and answers are recorded in a standardized form. In social
cultural anthropology, an fieldworker is mostly a stranger in the native situation, so
he has to ask various things which he does not know. However, the person starts
with a working hypothesis. It is the preliminary plan of work based mainly on
textual information. It has to be tested in the field and modifications may be made
as per the objective of fieldwork In the words of Lindsey Gardner (1968) has
defined interview as “a too personal conversation, initiated by the interviewer for
the specific purpose of obtaining research relevant information and focused by him
on the content specified by the research objectives of description and explanation.

Structured interview:

It is based on structured interview guide which is little different from the

questionnaire. In reality it is a set of specific points and definite question prepared
by the interviewer. It allows little freedom to make adjustment to any of its
elements, such as content, wording or ordering of the questions.

Semi structured Interview:

Between the structured and the unstructured interview, there exists semi-structured
interview. It has characteristics of both types of interview. This method is used for
both quantization and qualitative researches.

We have also used semi-structured form of interview. For this method we have
used the interview guides which are given by our teachers. But then also we format
it and add some new points also during the time of conducting interview.

Unstructured interview:

In the unstructured interview, there are no specifications in the wording of the

questions or the order of the questions. The interviewer forms questions as and
when require. The structure of these interviews is flexible, being presented in the
form of guide. In simple words, in this interview, the interviewer has only the
general nature of question in mind has no time limit.

Key informant interview:

Key informant is a very vital part in a fieldwork selection of key informant is also
very important because everybody in the field cannot be good informant. An
informant should be intelligent as well as prompt in answering question. A set of
question is made on a particular topic where every query should cover, every
details of answer should note down. Later data an each topic is verified by the
panel informants of a respective group.

Focused interview:

Focused interview is one which is focused on a specific topic. In this all

respondents are subjects to the some experience. All persons who were present in
the riot are asked particular questions relating to their common experience in the
situation. The interview is thus focused on the actual effects of the experience as
viewed by the participants.

Individual interview:

Individual interview is one is which the interviewer interviews only one respondent
at a time.

Group interview:

Group interview is the one in which the interviewer interviews more than one
respondents are interviewed simultaneously. The group can be small, say, of too
individuals.

Focused group interview:

Focused interview is one which is focused on a specific topic. In this, all

respondents are subjected to same experience. The interview is thus focused on the
actual effects of the experience as viewed by the participants. Studying prisoners in
the jail about the restrictions on their freedom, work, recreation, interaction etc. is
an example of focused interview. In a way, focused interview is similar to the
semi-structured interview, except that it is more open and offers more freedom to
the interviewer. Other examples are asking questions from the respondents on a
particular book particular personality, particular program and so forth.

It is an unstructured/semi-structured group interview technique where eight to

twelve people are brought together under the guidance of a trained interviewer, to
focus on a specific concept, product or subject. The focused group interview read a
great deal of experience, who will introduce the subject and encourage the group to
discard it.

For taking information on some aspects of their life like marriage, childhood, death
or the conflict they faced we have used focused interview. In these occasions we
have taken the interviews from 5-6 persons with a focus on one topic, which is
termed as focused group interview.

Interview guide

✔ Selecting and approaching the respondent is very important while

interview.
✔ Pre-arranging date, time, direction and condition of the interview.
✔ Persuading respondents for high response rate.
✔ Controlling the interview situation by eliminating resistance,
suspicion etc.
✔ Avoiding bias and recording information accurately as given by the
respondents.
Interview guides can be of two types:

Question guide:

Frame the questions and we ask those in exact phrase that we formed.

Topic guide:

In the topic guide the guide consists of the topics that the interviewee actually
wants information on. We have prepared some of the interview guides in this
manner with the help of our teacher. Those interview guides are attached in the
appendix of this field report.

● Observation-
Observation is the oldest scientific method of investigation infect, observation
means the examination of phenomenon or a thing without altering it. It is the
method that employs vision on its means of data collection. It implies the use of
eye rather than the ears and the voice. It is accurate watching and nothing of
phenomenon as they occur with regard to the cause and effect or mutual relation. It
is also defined as a planned methodical watching that involves constrains to
improve accuracy. In the field researching involved paying attention. Watch and
listen carefully. They use all the senses, noticing what is seen, heard, smelled,
tested or touched. The researcher becomes an instrument that absorbs all source of
information. Observation in field research is often detailed, tedious work. Instead
of the quick flash, motivation arises out of a deep curiosity about the details. A
field researcher observes people and their actions, nothing each person’s
observable physical characteristics, age, sex for the field.

Participant observation:

Participant observation is a method of data collected when the observer took part in
the process, he want to work is known on participant observation. A participant
observer generally acquires more popularity in a community and gets ample of
scope of mixing with the people in the community. According to the nature of
participation, participant observation may be two types. In this method, an
observer has to participate actively in the group under his study. It is a method in
which the fieldworker becomes a part of the situation he is studying (Hoult, 1969).
He involves himself in the setting and group life of the research subjects. He shares
the activities of the community observing what is going on around him,
supplementing this by conversation and interview. It is more used in
anthropological research. But a fieldworker cannot participate fully in the life of an
unknown community for some practical reasons. Another fundamental difficult is
that it lacks standardization. The generally acquires more popularity in a
community because he gets an ample scope of mixing with the people. Participant
observation may be of two types according to the nature of participation. It has
become conventional to classify participant observation as a qualitative as its data
cannot be quantified, even of the circumstances may often make the collection of
standardized material difficult. It has mainly been used for studies of groups in
Work setting or of formal groupings in small communities or the social life of
groups; the method is not well suited to the study of long populations or' to the
collection of representative data about causal relations among predefined variables.
Bronislaw Malinowski was invented the form that it came to take in social
anthropological field work in the trope and is lands during World War 1, although
the anthropological and sociological traditions were largely independent. It was
only after World War ll that the methodological literature developed, led by
Chicago and authors there such as hoard S. Becker, which focused on participant
as one of the major alternation modes of data collection. During our fieldwork we
have also tried to actively participate in their life and helped them in various
domestic and agricultural drudgeries.

Participant observer:

When the observer is external of a group to start with and afterwards involves
himself in the group that is called participant observer.

Observer participant:

When observer is internal to the group and observes the member of his own group
then it is offered to observer participant.

Non participant observation:

When the observer remains detached and does not participate or intervene in the
activities of these who are being observed is termed as non-participant observation.
He merely observes their behaviour. This type of observation is more useful as a
tool of data collection because the observer can choose the situation to be observed
and can record the data freely. We also have done non-participant observation
when we took data on many areas of social organisation.

Standardized observation:

It is an organized and planned observation which employs formal procedure has set
of well defined observation categories and is subjected to high level of controlled
and differentiation.

Non-Standardized observation:

This observation is loosely organized and the process is largely left to the observer
to define.

● Sample and sampling

Sample:
A sample is the set of actual data source that are drawn from a larger population of
positional data source. Within the board process of sampling, choosing the actual
sample is the second step in a two step process, which begins with defining the
population that is eligible for inclusion in the sample. Approaches to selecting
samples are typically divided between probability sampling and non probability
sampling, when the former uses a group’s size in the population as the sole
influence on how many of its member will be included in the sample while the
later concentrates on selecting sample members according to their ability to meet
specific criteria.

Sampling:

Sampling is the process of choosing actual data source from a larger set of
possibilities. This over all process actually consists of two related elements: i)
defining the full set of possible data source which is generally termed the
population, ii) selecting a specific sample of data source from that population. Note
that this definition is stated in general terms that apply to both qualitative and
quantitative research, because it is nearly always necessary to work with a sample
of data source rather than attempting to collect data from the entire population.
Beyond that similarity, however the very different goals of qualitative and
quantitative research lead to equally different procedures for selecting data source
from a larger population. It is thus important to understand the different between
the logic of purposively selecting a small number of sources for intense analysis in
qualitative research as opposed to the emphasis on randomly selecting large
samples for statistical analysis in quantitative research.

Probability sampling

For probability sample, each number of the population has a known chance of
being included in the sample, and random sampling is the best known means for
accomplishing this. Probability samples are required for statements about either the
accuracy of sample estimated or the statistical significance of results.

Non-probability sampling

In practice, almost all qualitative research does rely on non-probability samples,

but this has little connection to the use of purposive sampling. Instead, this reliance
non-probability samples is often due to the difficulty of even locating data source
that meet eligibility criteria, let alone counting the total size of the population from
which that sample is drawn. In addition, the need to collect detailed, in-depth data
typically leads to small sample sizes where there would be no point to doing
statistical analysis. Thus, the common use of non-probability samples in qualitative
research matches an approach to data collection and analysis strategy that typically
relies on the careful interpretation of a small number of very rich data sources.

Convenience sampling

It accepts any eligible case that can be found, quote sampling, which specifies
categories within the sample and states how many people should be included in
each category, and snowball sampling, which uses an initial set of data source as
the basis for locating additional data sources, it is important to note that this list
does not include purposive sampling because, as stated above, that is properly part
of the process of defining the population rather that the process of selecting a
sample from that population.

Purposive sampling

In qualitative research, issue related to defining the overall populations are

generally treated part of purposive sampling, which inherently requires an explicit
definition of the kinds of data sources that are of interest. In essence, determining
which data source met the goal of purposive sampling for a qualitative study is
equivalent to defining a set of eligibility requirements for the population (i.e.
creating a sampling frame). Hence, the concept of purposive sampling falls within
the broad process of defining the population of potential data sources.

Qualitative researchers have also developed a number of more specific techniques

for defining eligible populations through purposive sampling. Among these are
theoretical samplings, which select cases according to their ability to advance
research goals such as theory development, maximum variation sampling, which
examines a wide range of different cases within the population of interest, and
stratified sampling, which divides the overall sample into specified subsets for
comparative purposes. Each of these techniques amounts to a strategy for
implementing the goal of purposive sampling, in order to meet a specific set of
research purposes. Taken together, these strategies facilitate the in-depth
interpretation of a systematically selected set of data sources, which is one of the
hallmarks of qualitative research.

Snowball sampling

Snowball sampling uses a small pool of initial informants to nominate other

participants who meet the eligibility criteria for a study. The name reflects an
analogy to a snowball increasing in size as it rolls downhill.

This approach to locating research participants is almost always used as a form of

non-probability sampling (although some epidemiological research applies
techniques from social network analysis to variations on snowball sampling as a
way to estimate the total size of populations). Snowball sampling is a useful way to
pursue the goals of purposive sampling in many situations where three are no lists
or other obvious sources for locating members of the population of interest, but it
does require that the participants are likely to know others who share the
characteristics that make them eligible for inclusion in the study. This method is
particularly useful for locating hidden populations, where there is no way to know
the total size of the overall population, such as samples of the homeless or users of
elegant drugs. The typical process for a snowball sample begins with interviewing
an initial set of research participants who serve as informants about not only the
research topic but also about other potential participants. In some cases, the
process of snowballing that follows the initial interviews is indirect in the sense
that these original sources mostly supply information about to locate others like
themselves, that is, where such people are likely to congregate, how to recognize
them, and so on. In classic snowball sampling, however, the initial informant often
assists in recruitment additional participants into the study. Depending on the
number of people sought, this process of using earlier informants to locate new
informants may go through several rounds. For example, a single initial informant
might put the researcher in touch with three other sources that might assist in
locating seven more new source, and so on.

In practice, snowball sampling poses a distinct risk of capturing a biased subset of

the total population of potential participants because any eligible participants who
are not linked to the.
Original set of informants will not be accessible for inclusion in the study. The best
defense against this problem is to begin with a set of initial informants that are as
diverse as possible.

This variation on maximum diversity sampling increase the likelihood that the
subsequent links in the snowballing process, will reach different segments of the
total set of eligible participants.

In our case, first our supervisors contacted some important villagers like Singo
Mardi and Dhani Murmu who provided the initial contacts with the villagers of
Lalbandh. This was our form of Snowball sampling.