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Participant Observation

Article  in  Anthropological Quarterly · October 1980

DOI: 10.2307/3318111

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Review
Reviewed Work(s): Participant Observation by James P. Spradley
Review by: Nicola Tannenbaum
Source: Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Oct., 1980), pp. 260-261
Published by: The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3318111
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 260 BOOK RE VIEWS

Participant Observation. JAME

Winston, 1980; xi, 195 pp., bibl

Reviewed by NIC
University

This book is dangerously mislead

people engaged in them. One curious over.
is a methodologysight disguised as aat c
is Spradley's lack of emphasis,
guide to doing anthropology. toThe
least in this volume, on talking people
lies in that it fills a felt need of all novice as a way to discover those meanings. This
anthropologists: how do you actually volume on participant observation is
do anthropology. Spradley provides a step- relatively short. The combination of inter-
by-step guide in his developmental research viewing and participant observation into
sequence. If a student anthropologist read one integrated volume would constitute
and religiously followed this guide, he or a more balanced guide to doing fieldwork.
she might come to believe that this is anth- One cannot discover cultural meanings
ropology. Spradley disguises a methodo- without talking to, as well as observing
logy-ethnoscience-as a theory of anthro- people.
pology and in the process trivializes anthro- The ethnoscience approach assumes the
pological research. inherent diversity of all cultures and directs
The book is written in two sections. The research on all topics equally. Spradley
first is a brief discussion of ethnography, carries this to an extreme. If people work-
anthropological ethics, and the difference ing in a bar have a different culture from
between anthropological research and other those working in a restaurant and different
sorts of social science research. The major- from patients in a hospital then all of these
ity of the book is devoted to an explicationare equally valid research topics. However,
of the "developmental research sequence," this does not allow for any underlying
a series of steps beginning with selecting cultural unities that guide and inform
a project, and finishing with the ethno- peoples' behavior. By following this sort of
graphic report. The middle steps deal with research strategy one only increases the
the basic ethnoscience tasks of domain, vocabulary of particular jobs and job re-
taxonomic, and componential analyses. lated tasks but does not come to any
These are clearly explained, each with its greater understanding of why people do the
objectives stated at the beginning of the things they do. It does not provide much
chapter and specific tasks to be done at insight into the reasons why it makes sense
the end, either by fieldwork or by analysis. for the people to do what they do, or how
Spradley's one deviation from ethnosciencethis cultural knowledge is used to inform
is the addition of a thematic analysis in an their behavior.
attempt to join the isolated domains into a Spradley's discussion of ethics is marred
more meaningful whole. With the excep- by the "any topic is fine" approach. He
tion of the theme analysis, all the steps are suggests that it is the anthropologist's duty
straightforward and mechanical. One goes to do research on topics of interest to his
out and collects the kinds of data suggest- informants. There is certainly a place for
ed, follows the-steps in analysis, and then, this sort of research but it would be more
presumably, one is doing anthropology. meaningful if it were carried out within a
Ethnoscience claims to discover the theoretical framework which allows for its
meaning cultural activities have to theunderstanding rather than its mere descrip-

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 ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERLY 261

tion. Spradley allows for no theory in anth-The danger is that

best neutral.
will be used as
ropology, but this follows naturally a self-contained "Bible" for
from
his confusion of methodology fieldwork;
with theory. students will either come to
Other adequate discussions believe
of ethno-
in it, or worse, be bored and quit
science techniques exist, notably Tyler's
doing anthropology entirely. Research
Cognitive Anthropology (1969). guidedAs a dis-
by this book does not lead to any
cussion of ethnoscience techniques,
greater Partici-
understanding of the human condi-
pant Observation fills no gaps tion
in the litera-
or what it is to be a human being.
ture; as a guide to doing fieldwork it is at

REFERENCES CITED

TYLER, STEPHEN, ed.

1969 - Cognitive anthropology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Industrial Ethnology
Special Issue Vol. 50:1 January 1977 Price: $4.00

Contents

An integrating view of the underlying

premises of an industrial ethnology in the United
States and Canada ..................... FREDERICK C. GAMST
Don't call my boat a ship! ..................... M. ESTELLIE SMITH
Industrial ethnology and changing conditions
in the work environment ....................... PATRICIA TWAY
Another view of time and the railroader ............ L. S. KEMNITZER
Some effects of social and economic changes
onGyppo loggers ..................... DAVID H.WILLIAMSON
The use of cultural ecology in an urban occupational
group ................................CHARLES A.CLINTON

ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERLY
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