An ethnographer spends a year or more in the field trying to understand, describe and interpret the regularities of the social behaviour in a social situation considered as a whole. The ethnograoher uses many reserch instruments and procedures. One of the instruments used is questioning and this includes explicit questioning processes such as narratives and interviews, and implicit questionning process such as conversations. The answers provided by the setting, shape and influence the questions that are yet to be asked.
Also, in ethnography, the unit of analysis may not be just be a society in the sense of a nation, community or tribe. Ethnographic enquiry also includes "any social network forming a corporate entity in which social relations are regulated by custom" (Ericson, 1984). For example an interesting places for an ethnographer may well be an organization, a school, a classroom or even a single family. Hence, a study is ethnographic when it fullfils these two conditions.
1) It treats a social unit of any size as a whole; and
2) it portrays events, at least in part, from the points of view of the actors involved in the events.
An ethnographer can also describe and interpret ethnographically their own experience within a cultural and social unit. This act is referred to as autoethnography.
Autoethnography is defined by Mienezakowski (2009:470) as the "critical analysis of self through autobiographical reflection,to explore and articulate personal responses". In autoethnography, the researcher writes about his or her life incorporating into the narrative, from a social sciences perspective, social concerns and problems of people. Autoethnography is also known as sociological inspection, narratives of self, mystories and ethnographic biography.
Also, in ethnography, the unit of analysis may not be just be a society in the sense of a nation, community or tribe. Ethnographic enquiry also includes "any social network forming a corporate entity in which social relations are regulated by custom" (Ericson, 1984). For example an interesting places for an ethnographer may well be an organization, a school, a classroom or even a single family. Hence, a study is ethnographic when it fullfils these two conditions.
1) It treats a social unit of any size as a whole; and
2) it portrays events, at least in part, from the points of view of the actors involved in the events.
An ethnographer can also describe and interpret ethnographically their own experience within a cultural and social unit. This act is referred to as autoethnography.
Autoethnography is defined by Mienezakowski (2009:470) as the "critical analysis of self through autobiographical reflection,to explore and articulate personal responses". In autoethnography, the researcher writes about his or her life incorporating into the narrative, from a social sciences perspective, social concerns and problems of people. Autoethnography is also known as sociological inspection, narratives of self, mystories and ethnographic biography.
Fact#1 Did you know that Herodotus (484 BC – 425 BC), the ancient Greek historian, who is also known as the father of history, is considered to be the first ethnographer for his investigation and reporting of the Greco-Persian wars!
