ANT 101: INTRODUCTION TO

ANTHROPOLOGY

Lecture: 21 & 22
Ethnography and Methods

Nur Newaz Khan

Lecturer
Dept. of Political Science and Sociology
Research
Systematic Study of facts

A process that (Re)-Search

Thinking ‘Out of the Box’ means Critical

thinking
Looking at the wider/broader/whole picture
linking a specific/individual/singe/small issue
Application of sociological imagination
Purpose of research
In order to generate knowledge on a particular topic/
area by applying scientific method.

To provide a solution by understanding the root cause

of a problem

To provide a wider understanding on a particular topic

Defining the problem

The first step in any research project is to state as

clearly as possible what you hope to investigate—that
is, define the problem.

Early on, any social science researcher must develop an

operational definition of each concept being studied.
An operational definition is an explanation of an
abstract concept that is specific enough to allow a
researcher to assess the concept.
Designing a research
 Step 1: Identify a Research topic
 Step 2: Define a Research Problem
 Step 3: Review of Existing Literature
 Step 4: Collect and Analyse Data
 Identify method of data collection and justify
 Selection of research population and site
 Finalise the steps of data collection
 Go through the ethics of research and discuss with the team
members
 Quality assurance and triangulation
 Analysing data
 Step 5: Writing up a report
Part 1: Ethnography and Participant
Observation
Ethnography
Anthropology’s distinctive strategy
 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 Culture.

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.

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.
Malinowski and 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.
Malinowski and Participant observation
Personal diary: recording impressions in a personal
diary, which is kept separate from more formal field
note.

Lets watch the video from Malinowski’s ethnography

and discuss
Part 2: Ethnography as research
method and relevant important
issues
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.
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.
Crucial things in research
Developing a research question
Choosing respondents and informants
Ethical issues :
 Consent and right to share information
 Confidentiality of information
 Rapport building with informant
 Trust relationship
Important concepts
 Ethnocentrism : A tendency to judge all cultures in terms of one’s own;
a belief that one’s own culture is morally, intellectually, and/or
aesthetically superior to all others.
 Cultural Relativism: The position that there are no universal cultural
values or ideas. A culture can only be understood on its own terms, not
from the perspectives of other cultures.
 Cultural Universals: Elements common to all cultures or societies,
though they may take different forms in different societies. Examples:
funeral rites, cooperative work.
Enculturation: The process by which culture is learned and transmitted
across the generations.
Acculturation : acculturation is the learning of appropriate behavior or
cultural elements from other culture
 Emic and Etic point of view
 Emic and Etic point of view
 Emic (like an insider or within) and Etic (outsider)

 The terms ‘emic’ and ‘etic’ were first employed by Kenneth L. Pike in
his monumental topic, Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the
Structure of Human Behavior.The terms ‘emic’ and ‘etic’ were widely
used in the American anthropology of the 1960s and 1970s, and the
distinction between ‘emic’ and ‘etic’ levels of analysis was a
commonplace in the areas of linguistic anthropology known variously
as componential analysis or ethnoscience.

 ‘Emic’ and ‘etic’ (derived respectively from ‘phonemic’ and ‘phonetic’)

designate two contrasting levels of data or methods of analysis. An emic
model is one which explains the ideology or behaviour of members of a
culture according to indigenous definitions. An etic model is one which
is based on criteria from outside a particular culture. Etic models are
held to be universal; emic models are culture-specific.
 Emic and Etic point of view
 we can now understand what he meant when Pike specified that while the
"etic viewpoint studies behavior as from outside of a particular system,"
the "emic viewpoint results from studying behavior as from inside the
system“.
 Roughly, then, emic is to the inside as etic is to the outside. An important
clarification, however, is that the emic perspective is not simply to be
equated with the insider's own viewpoint; for, in the case of language,
language users are extremely proficient at speaking their language, at
making this or that sound distinct from other sounds, but they are often
hardly interested in studying it.
 By even attempting to reproduce, rather than simply produce, a sound
faithfully, the linguist has already acknowledged that she or he is a student
of the language under study and is not to be confused with a speaker of
the language. Even if the linguist is a native speaker of the language, there
is a difference between simply using a language, on the one hand, and
discussing, systematizing, and comparing those uses, on the other. It
would seem, then, that even insiders can become outsiders.
 Ethics of Research
Sociologists must abide by certain specific standards in
conducting research, called a code of ethics . The
professional society of the discipline, the American
Sociological Association (ASA), first published the society’s
Code of Ethics in 1971 and revised it most recently in 1997. It
puts forth the following basic principles:
 1. Maintain objectivity and integrity in research.
 2. Respect the subject’s right to privacy and dignity.
 3. Protect subjects from personal harm.
 4. Preserve confidentiality.
 5. Seek informed consent when data are collected from
research
 participants or when behavior occurs in a private context.
 6. Acknowledge research collaboration and assistance.
 7. Disclose all sources of financial support (American
Sociological Association 1999).
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’.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkZyvDZFC8Q
Culture shock
Useful links and readings
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OvHPKmDwPI
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV0jY5VgymI
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_TpGK39H8A
 Participant observation
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVHoUkQSIkU
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HthraLhb5Y
Digital Story by Wynne Maggi
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekJtwt6ynKw
 Handbook referred pages ; the entry of Ethnography,
relativism, Emic-Etic and Ethnography and participant
observation by Paul Atkinson and Martyn Hamersley