An Ethnographic Written Critical Analysis

ETHNOGRAPHY

Defining Ethnography

Ethnographic research is difficult to define because it is used in different ways in different disciplines with different traditions . In coming up with a working definition , one has to explore first how ethnography is defined and described by other authors . After the working definition , the ethnographic films Nannok of the North (1922 ) by Robert J Flaherty and Jaguar (1967 ) by Jean Rouch are analyzed . The final part of this discusses the challenges that contemporary ethnography must face and should twenty-first century anthropologists conduct their ethnographic research p

Exemplifying the breadth of ethnography within the social sciences Taylor (2002 ) brings together a collection of ethnographic studies which range methodologically from a conventional ethnography , for which the ethnographer makes the enormous personal investment of moving into a community for an extended period to a team project drawing on several discrete methods of formal data collection . According to Taylor however , it essentially involves empirical work , especially observation with the aim of producing a full , nuanced , non-reductive text , in the ethnographic tradition , however that is defined or interpreted by each author

Hammersley and Atkinson (1995 ) resist drawing firm boundaries around ethnography because , to some extent , people all learn about the social world using these same techniques and thus the distinction between ethnography and other methods is not clear . Hammersley and Atkinson (1995 ) define the term loosely , without worrying too much about what does or does not count as instances of it , while suggesting that in its most characteristic form ethnography involves the ethnographer participating .in people 's daily lives for an extended period of time watching what happens , listening to what is said , asking questions-in fact , collecting whatever data are available to throw light on the issues that are the focus of the research (p . 1

Savage (2000 ) also stresses that there is no standard definition of ethnography , but argues that the defining feature is often participant observation entailing prolonged fieldwork , and that : Most ethnographers today would agree that the term ethnography can be applied to any small scale research that is carried out in everyday settings uses several methods evolves in design through the study and focuses on the meaning of individuals ' actions and explanations rather than their quantification (p . 1400

From the above definitions , we can say that ethnography is a methodology , a theory , or set of ideas about research that rests on a number of fundamental criteria , or critical minimum markers . Hopefully the reasons for each element of this minimal definition will become clear throughout this book . Displaying the key themes from the definitions above , ethnography at least is iterative-inductive research drawing on a family of methods , involving direct and sustained contact with human agents , within the context of their daily lives and cultures watching what happens , listening to what is said , asking questions , and producing a richly written account that respects the irreducibility of human experience , that acknowledges the role of theory , as well as the researcher 's own role , and that views humans as part object...