Introduction

Ethnography is a qualitative research method which involves a detailed study of a particular cultural
group. The word ethnography comes from Greek words Ethnos meaning people and Graphein
meaning writing. That is why Ethnography is also known as “culture writing”. The method is also
known as “ethnomethodology' or ‘methodology of people’. This type of research method basically
intends to study culture through close observation and active participation. It focuses on studying
socio cultural phenomena of a community. The ethnographer/ researcher collect information
regarding the socio cultural phenomena from a lot of people belonging to the community under
study. On behalf of their community, the participants also identify and provide the researcher some
more respondents as a representative of their community (also known as chaining process). The
data is therefore collected using a chain sampling in all empirical areas of investigation. The selected
samples are re- interviewed in order to elicit deeper and ambiguous responses. The ethnographer
stays within the community for months in order to gain more information through chaining process
and collect data in form of observational transcripts and interview recordings. The analysis of data
leads to development of theories for the socio cultural phenomena under study, only on basis of the
views and perspectives of its respondents.

The main aim of the ethnographer is to describe the culture or way of life such as values, beliefs and
practices of a particular group from within. This is done by understanding and communicating what
the events are or what is going on, and how the members of the group ‘interpret’ and ‘understand’
that event or what is going on. In order to do this, the researcher needs to understand not only his
or her own culture but also the culture of the group s/he is studying The purpose of ethnography is
not to test what we know or think we know about a culture. Its main purpose is to explore cultural
knowledge. Exploring here would mean first ‘understanding’ and ‘discovering’ the culture, then
‘describing’ it and then finally ‘interpreting’ it. Secondly, ethnography describes a culture from the
point of view of its participants.

CHARACTERISTICS

Ethnography is a unique research method in several ways. There are three fundamental and
interrelated presuppositions in ethnography:

 Data is not just gathered but created by human effort, thus how information is collected will
eventually affect the content of data;

 Researchers are complex creatures and their perception is shaped not just by the context in
which they find themselves but also the level of comfort and discomfort they experience in that
context; and

 The researcher and research participants both affect the quality and content of data.

Interpretation is an important feature of ethnography and the above presuppositions are based on
the premise that human life is about interpretation. Secondly, ethnography is implicitly
‘comparative’ as while studying another culture the ethnographer needs a reference point to
understand the values, beliefs and practices and that reference point most of the time is their own
culture. The ethnographer interacts with other cultures and tries to know about their ways of life.
This makes them value their own culture. Thus, eventually the ethnographer ends up comparing the
culture they are studying with their own culture. Thirdly, this comparison may sometimes make the
ethnographer reach the conclusion that their culture is superior. This attitude of superiority about
one’s own culture is referred to as ‘ethnocentrism’. Field researchers however consciously reject the
attitude of ethnocentrism. Next, ethnographic studies do not have a hypothesis, which makes it
different from most other social science research methodologies that are based on hypothesis. The
aim of ethnography is not to test a hypothesis as having one would mean that the researcher has
preconceived notions, biases and stereotypes about the culture s/he is studying.

TYPES OF ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

1.Macro ethnography: It is the study of broadly defined cultural groupings such as — “the Indians”,
“the Turkish”.

2. Micro ethnography: It is the study of more specific cultural groupings such as the “local
government”, the “terrorists”.

3.Emic perspectives: It is the ethnographic approach under which the viewpoints and responses of
the 'ingroup' or the members of the culture under study are noted down.

4. Etic perspective: It is the ethnographic approach under which the viewpoints and responses of
the ‘out groups' or the members who do not belong to the culture under study are noted down.
Their viewpoints highlight the phenomena being followed under a particular culture.

STEPS OF ETHNOGRAPHIC METHOD

1)Selection: The ethnographic method begins with selection of a culture. The researcher selects the
culture/ community or population according to his or her interest.

2) Review of Literature: Then the researcher reviews the literature of the culture to get a brief idea
and historical sketch of the culture selected for study.

3) Identification of variables: The researcher then identifies variables which interests him or her as
well as the members of the culture and needs to be explored.

4) Entry: The ethnographer then tries to enter the culture and gain the acceptance of the members
of the culture.

5) Cultural Immersion: Ethnographers live in the culture for months or even years which they have
chosen to study. The middle stages of the ethnographic method involve gaining informants, using
them to gain yet more informants in a chaining process.

6) Data Collection: After gaining the confidence of the respondents, the researcher collects
information in form of observational transcripts and interview recordings and tapings.

7) Development of theory: After analysing the data, the researcher formulates theory on the basis
of interpretation of the results and reports achieved.

WHEN TO USE ETHNOGRAPHY ?

 in-depth understanding

 rich narratives (if using qualitative interviews),

 empathy and experience

 Social phenomena being studied over a period of time.

 An understanding of the social meanings constructed by individuals’ themselves and the

 Topics not easily accessible through simple face-to-face interviews

 involve ambiguity or ambivalence on the part of the actor,

 ‘topics which involve examining processes of change, examining negotiated lived experiences,
topics which see culture as constructed and reconstructed through actors’ participation’ are
especially suited to participant observation and ethnography.

PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
The primary technique used in ethnographic research is ‘participant observation’, which usually
involves living and spending extended periods with the people and group one is

studying. However, the researcher can also engage in non-participant observation techniques in
order to generate more structured observations. Research that requires some extent of social
participation by the researcher to document or record the course of ongoing events is known as
participant observation. Here the researcher observes things by participating in the events.
Participant observation essentially involves three simultaneous processes: participating in as many
activities as possible in a particular cultural setting, observing what is going on, and interpreting what
the researcher has participated in and observed. Participation is the key aspect here as the field
researcher learns from the act of participation – the researcher gradually becomes a familiar fixture
in people’s lives and the people start accepting and giving access to him/ her in their lives. On the
other hand, the participants are likely to slowly abandon impression management (showing their
best behaviour, which may not be their normal and natural behaviour, in front of outsiders) and
start behaving in normal and natural ways. This facilitates more and more learning for the field
researcher especially about the gray areas between ideals, beliefs and practices.

DISADVANTAGES
• Completely reliant on the individual researcher (or a small team)

• Difficult to gain full access

• Difficult to achieve objective distance and the danger of ‘going native’

• Reporting findings and the role of interpretation

• Ethical dilemmas of participation