ANT 101: INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Lecture 6: Ethnography: Anthropology’s distinctive strategy

Dr. Bulbul Ashraf Siddiqi

Assistant Professor
Dept. of Political Science and Sociology
ETHNOGRAPHY: ANTHROPOLOGY’S
DISTINCTIVE STRATEGY
 Ethnography is the distinctive strategy of Anthropology:
 What is Ethnography?
 Writing about another culture following participant observation.
 Ethnography is the written description and analysis of the culture
of a group of people based on fieldwork (Nanda, 2007).

 Fieldwork is the firsthand, intensive, systematic exploration of a

culture. It involves living with a group of people and
participating in and observing their behaviour (Nanda, 2007).

 Observation, participation, and interviewing are all necessary

elements of good fieldwork.
 The process of becoming an Anthropologist requires field
experience in another society.

 Early ethnographers lived in small-scale, relatively isolated

societies with simple technologies and economies.

 Ethnographers tries to understand the whole of a culture (as

much as they can)

 Free-ranging strategy to gather/ collect information.

HOW DOES ANTHROPOLOGIST COLLECT
INFORMATION: ETHNOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES?

 Participant Observation
 Rapport building through daily chitchat and to gain trust of a
community for interviews.
 In-depth interviews and life history

 Comparison of native beliefs and perception with ethnographer’s

own observation
 Key informants

 The genealogical method.

 Problem-oriented research of many sorts.

 Longitudinal research—the continuous long-term study of an area

or site.
 Team research—coordinated research by multiple ethnographers.
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
 Participant-observation is the technique of gathering data on
human cultures by living among the people, observing their
social interaction on an ongoing daily basis, and participating
as much as possible in their lives.

 This gives an intensive field experience that is the

methodological hall mark of cultural Anthropology.

 The anthropologist observes, listens, asks questions, and

attempts to find a way in which to participate in the life of the
society over an extended period of time.
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
 Ethnographers must pay attention to
 Every details of daily life
 Seasonal events
 Unusual happenings

 Ethnographers should record what they see as they see it.

 They have to be accurate observers, recorders, and reporters of what
they see in the field.

 Taking part in community life as we study it.

STEPS OF PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
 Rapport: A good, friendly working relationship based on
personal contact, with their host.
 Developing rapport with the community.

 Getting used to with the community.

 Understanding the language (both symbolic and verbal).

May need to learn the language.

 Participant Observation can be divided into three phases

(Stocking, 1983):
 Participation
 Observation
 Interrogation
CULTURE SHOCK
 A creepy and profound feeling of alienation - or arrival
at a new field site.

 Even Anthropologist Get ‘Culture Shock’.

 Even native Anthropologist get ‘Culture Shock’.

PERSONAL DIARY
 Recording impressions in a personal diary, which is kept
separate from more formal field note.

 The case of Malinowski.

 Lets discuss.
WHY PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION?
 In order to get the inner meaning of any event, activity, ritual
practiced in a particular community or culture.

 Very effective process of discovering the hidden truth.

 Every aspect of other culture is very difficult to understand,

this is like reading from very old manuscript, therefore, need
specialised process of getting data from field.

 It provides the researcher with a better understanding on what

is going on in a culture or in a community.
CONTRIBUTION OF MALINOWSKI ON
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
 “supply principles of systematic, intensive collection and
interpretation of field data to a degree of sophistication
not known before (Firth 1985 cited in Dewalt, 2014)

 He emphasised on observing day-to-day activities,

everyday interactions, and to record those observation in
a chronological way following systematic/ organised
notes.