Content Curator
Ethnography is a type of research method to understand human behaviour, culture and its effects. Bernardino de Sahagun of Spain was the first modern Ethnographer. The different types of Ethnography are:
- Medical Ethnographic Research
- Educational Ethnographic Research
- Business Ethnographic Research
By means of ethnography, people can understand a community or an organization in a better way. An example of ethnographic research is when an anthropologist travels to an island, living in the society and researching its people and culture via a process of sustained observation and participation.
Read Also: Evolution
| Table of Content |
Key terms: Ethnography, Study, Human Behaviour, Research, Research Method, Observations, Conclusions.
What is Ethnography?
[Click Here for Sample Questions]
Ethnography is a research method in which researchers involve and engage themselves with their research areas. Researchers who conduct ethnography are known as Ethnographers.
- Ethnographers stay in the community in which they have to conduct their study and then conduct their research by becoming a part of that particular community.
- They can conduct research in the same community, and society that they are living in.
- Ethnography is a part of anthropology.
- Anthropology is mainly known as the study of human behaviour.
Suppose you are an Ethnographer and you are willing to conduct ethnographic research on a particular community or tribe.
So, you will visit that community and stay with them as an 'insider' (meaning becoming a part of their community) to observe that tribe and conduct that particular ethnography. Herein, you act as a participant in your study.
This type of observation is known as Participatory observation, which is especially used to conduct ethnography and anthropology.
Read More:
| Concept-Related Topics | ||
|---|---|---|
| Difference Between Species, Population, And Community | Genetic Variation | Human Body |
| Human Population | Overview of Homo Erectus | Heredity and Evolution |
Examples of Ethnography
[Click Here for Sample Questions]
Ethnography is a part of anthropology.
- Unlike ethnography, Anthropology requires you to stay away from your own community for a longer period of time in order to conduct your research.
- Since ethnographers can conduct a study in the same society that they are already a member of, the only focus is on studying human behaviour and interactions taking place in society.
- An instance of the same is that Ethnography is essential in the study conducted for gang investigation, police officers, call centre employees, and many more.
Ethnography
Difference between Ethnography and Ethnology
Ethnography and Ethnology are often confused with each other. But, there is a remarkable difference between both of them.
While Ethnology is mainly a comparative and analytical study of cultures, Ethnography is the study of a particular society.
Read More: Modern Synthetic Theory of Evolution
Advantages of Ethnography
[Click Here for Sample Questions]
Ethnography is one of the most preferred research methods by researchers due to its never-ending advantages. The advantages of Ethnography are:
- Ethnography enables researchers to study human behaviour and understand the cause behind a particular practice.
- Secondary sources provide second-hand knowledge. Ethnographers can get first-hand knowledge without worrying about the reliability and validity of data while conducting Ethnography.
Disadvantages of Ethnography
[Click Here for Sample Questions]
Ethnographic research has several disadvantages:
- Ethnography can be time-consuming because it needs a well-trained researcher.
- Building trust with informants for obtaining full and honest discourse is difficult in case of Ethnography.
- Short-term studies can be a huge disadvantage.
Types of Ethnography
[Click Here for Sample Questions]
Ethnography provides a vast area of research along with many advantages. It is performed in many fields nowadays. There are three broad sectors to understand types of Ethnography.
- Business
- Education
- Medical
Business Ethnographic Research
Business Ethnographic Research is conducted to understand customer behaviour and make future decisions accordingly. Most of the software applications use some tools of Ethnographic research to observe user behaviour and then provide output accordingly. For example, feed of social media apps and ads on Google.
Educational Ethnographic Research
Educational Ethnographic Research is primarily conducted to improve pedagogy and learning. The main focus of these kinds of studies are teaching methods and methodology; students' responses, needs, practices, interactions; classroom management; infrastructure etc.
Medical Ethnographic Research
Medical Ethnographic Research is conducted to understand the cause and effect of specific medicines, diseases, viruses, bacteria and medical practices. It is the result of Ethnography Study only that the medical line is able to present the best medicines, diagnoses and treatments. Both complex and simple behaviour patterns are observed in this study.
Things to Remember
- Ethnography is the study of human behaviour, interactions and patterns.
- Researchers who conduct ethnography are known as Ethnographers
- Business, Education and Medical are three broad sectors to understand types of Ethnography.
- Ethnography is a branch of anthropology.
Read More:
Sample Questions
Ques. What among the following is a type of research study ? (2 marks)
(a) Observation
(b) Interview
(c) Ethnography
(d) Physiology
Ans. Option c) Ethnography is the correct answer.
Explanation: The study of human behaviour, interactions, practices and culture is known as Ethnography which is a research method. Physiology is a branch of education. Interviews and observations are tools to conduct study. Therefore, option c is correct.
Ques. Ethnography is the study of (2 marks)
(a) Human behaviour, interactions and practices
(b) Children's learning practices
(c) Flowers and their types
(d) None of these
Ans. Option a) Human behaviour, interactions and practices is the correct answer.
Explanation: Ethnography is the study of human behaviour, interactions and practices etc. Children's learning practices will be a part of it. On the other hand, the study of flowers is known as anthology. Therefore, option a is the best correct answer.
Ques. Which among these is an advantage of Ethnography? (2 marks)
(a) Second-hand knowledge
(b) First-hand knowledge
(c) Distance Learning
(d) Non-human interaction
Ans. Option b) First-hand knowledge is the correct answer.
Explanation: Ethnography is a research method to collect primary and first hand data from the samples. Hence, first hand knowledge is the advantage of Ethnography.
Ques. Pick the odd one out (2 marks)
(a) Anthropology
(b) Ethnography
(c) Anthology
(d) Participatory Observation
Ans. Option c) Anthology is the correct answer.
Explanation: Anthology is the study of flowers which is not much related to the other 3 options. Hence, it is the odd one out in this case.
Ques. What is the other name of Biological Ethnography? (1 mark)
Ans. Physical Ethnography is another name for Biological Ethnography.
Ques. Define ethnography. (2 marks)
Ans. Ethnography is a branch of anthropology. It is a study of human society regarding their behaviour, practices and interactions in a particular society or group. It mainly involves the researchers as well as participants in which researchers observe humans in a social situation. Bernardino de Sahagun of Spain was the first modern Ethnographer in the branch of ethnography.
Ques. What are the types of Ethnography? Name each of them. (2 marks)
Ans. There are three types of Ethnography. Name of them are given as follow:
- Medical Ethnography
- Educational Ethnography
- Business Ethnography
Ques. Ethnography is a branch of anthropology. Research studies are mainly descriptive and concerned with society making them a subject more related to social sciences. How biological Ethnography is part of science then? (2 marks)
Ans. Biological Ethnography is considered to be a science because it studies the behaviours and biology of human beings by applying logic and a heuristic approach to knowing the unknown. Along with that, biological ethnographers work to understand one of the major aspects of biology which is human evolution.
Ques. What is Enthropology in Cultural Enthropology? (5 marks)
Ans. In cultural anthropology:
- Ethnography can be considered both a method of research and the written product the research has produced.
- Ethnography can be defined as a detailed study of a culture group, usually via a prolonged interaction and participant observation.
- This means that an anthropologist tries to live like the people they are researching, thus also trying to engage in their lives and daily activities.
- It is usually a very new experience as the anthropologist might not have any experience in that culture due to completely different requirements and practices in daily life.
- Once the period of field research comes to end, the anthropologist produces a detailed report, usually as long as a book, in order to give a detailed representation of the culture to help others learn about them.
- The book or report produced after the experience is also called an ethnography.
Check-Out:
Comments