Ethnography: How we learn what we know…

1. Ethnography: How we learn what we know… • Ethnographic inquiry • What is ethnography? • How is it done? • Is it testable? • Examples of ethnographic work • Indigenous peoples • Fieldwork

2. Ethnography • Ethno – refers to human culture • Graphy – means description of • A research process used in the scientific study of human interactions in social settings • Used extensively in anthropology • Has become increasing popular in many different fields over the past few years • Nursing, education, market research, business, etc

3. Ethnography • Ethnographers should take note of all impressions • including senses, • details about the physical setting including size, space, noise, colors, equipment and movement, • about people in the setting, such as number, gender and race, appearance, dress movement, comportment, feeling and tone.

4. Ethnography • Interactional Detail - observing events in an intimate microscopic manner to recount what happened in fine detail • Key Events - focusing on key events…such as weddings, funerals, etc…is a useful way to organize your fieldnotes; it involves selecting noteworthy incidents out of the flow of ongoing activity

5. Ethnography • Purpose – to describe and explain a facet or segment of group social life • Hypotheses and questions – begin as a broad statement about the purpose of the research, then are allowed to emerge more specifically as data are amassed.

6. Ethnography • Data - verbal descriptions of people, interactions, settings, objects and phenomena within the context being studies • Data Sources – the people, settings, and relevant objects being observed

7. Ethnography • Data Collection – done by the researcher through observation, often combined with formal and informal interviews • Data treatment and analysis – presentation of verbal descriptions and/or logical analysis of information to discover salient patterns and themes

8. The Process • A question or concern is identified for study • A group to study is identified • Typically small • Typically purposively selected

9. The Process • Permission to study the group is obtained • The researcher observes the group • Privileged observer: just observes • Participant observer: functions as part of the group

10. The Process • Researcher watches and listens attentively and records as much detail as possible (this is called naturalistic observation). • Large amounts of notes are typically generated (My example, 15 tapes = hundreds of pages of transcriptions). • This process may last a week or two or could be years. • The researcher analyzes the notes, identifies themes, looks for answers to research questions, and makes logical inferences.

11. The Process • The final step is to write the research paper describing the process, observations, findings, and conclusion. • Often rich descriptions are provided so the readers can make their own interpretations. • This is often described as reflective. • So, How do we get to the thick description?

12. Analyzing Data • Asking questions of your data… • What are people doing? What are they trying to accomplish? • How exactly do they do this? What specific means and/or strategies do they use? • How do members talk about, characterize, and understand what is going on? • What assumptions are they making? • What do I see going on here? What did I learn from these notes? • How to get from data to analysis?

13. Coding Data • Coding leads you well on your way to transforming your fieldnotes into writings that speak to wider audiences • You will sift through your notes and look for threads that can be woven together

14. Coding • Definition: gives line-by-line categorization of specific notes • Coding allows you to discover/create original theory in your data • Grounded theory and emergent theory • Read line-by-line through your fieldnotes, writing codes in the margins and re-read them until you have exhausted all possibilities of codes (themes, issues, ideas)

15. Strengths and Weaknesses • Strengths • Looks at the situation holistically • May arrive at greater understanding of the problem than other research processes • Concerns • Possible bias on the part of the observer (which leads to validity concerns) • Generalizability (how generalizable are the findings from a small, purposely selected group)

16. Criteria for Judging Qualitative Research • Credibility – would the group being observed say the findings were credible? Are the findings logical and reasonable? • Transferability – Would a reader be willing to transfer the results to another group or setting? • Dependability – the researcher accurately describes the context, setting and changes that may have occurred during the study. • Conformability – if there were additional observers, would they describe the situation the same and arrive at the same conclusions.

17. When to Conduct Ethnographic Research • To define a problem when the problem is not clear • To define a problem that is complex and embedded in multiple systems or sectors • To identify participants when the participants, sectors, or stakeholders are not yet known or identified • To clarify the range of settings where the problem or situation occurs at times when the settings are not fully identified, known, or understood • To explore the factors associated with the problem in order to understand it

18. Making a Living: Five Adaptive Strategies Foraging Horticulture Pastoralism Agriculture Industrialism

19. Ethnographic Examples • Foragers • Very few such groups remain • Eskimos/Inuit (Alaska/Canada) • !Kung (Africa) • Aboriginal Australians

20. Foragers • All humans were foragers until 10,000 B.P. • Out-populated by food producers (J. Diamond)??? • Bands • Social mobility • Egalitarianism • Gender-based division of labor • Age-based social distinctions

21. Forager Subsistence • Anthropologists have identified three major variations of the foraging subsistence pattern: • Pedestrian: diversified hunting and gathering on foot • Equestrian: concentrating on hunting large mammals from horseback • Aquatic: concentrating on fish and/or marine mammal hunting usually from boats

22. Population Levels • Foraging population densities are very low.  • In harsh, relatively unproductive environments, densities of foragers have been as low as one person per 10-50 square miles.  • In rich environments, the densities have been as high as 10-30 people per square mile.  • The optimal community size usually is about 25-30 people, depending on the availability of food and water • Thus high degree of stability • Most of human history as Foragers

23. TODAY almost completely exterminated

24. Ethnographic Examples • Horiculturalists • Tribal peoples living a ethnohistorical lifeway in the present? • Few such groups remain • Yanomami • Ashaninka • Kuikuru

25. Horticulturalists - Agriculturalists Horticulture: an agricultural technology distinguished by the use of hand tools to grow domesticated plants. Does not use draft animals, irrigation, or specially prepared fertilizers. How are the subsistence practices, social organization, and political organization structured?

27. The oasis theory • A type of environmental determinism. • Southwest Asia became dryer 12 to 15,000 years ago. • People congregated around oases. • People collected the seeds of wild grasses • This led to plant cultivation. • Cultivation of plants attracted wild cattle and sheep and goats. • This led to animal domestication. • Problem: Domestication did not occur first at oases

28. Population growth theory • Hunting, fishing and gathering were very productive • So productive that population grew. • More people needed more food • People in marginal areas decided to domesticate animals and plants to provide new food • Problems. • Domestication is gradual and would not provide people with more food in the short term. • Assumes domestication was intentional. However, people cannot predict which plants or animals could be domesticated.

29. Seasonal stress theory of plant domestication • The earliest plant domestication took place around the margins of evaporating lakes. For example, the Jordan River Valley. • Beginning in the Mesolithic, the climate became warmer with seasonal droughts (these are seasonal stresses.) • Annuals are best adapted to this environment, • wild cereal and grains produce abundant seeds and survive for long periods of drought. • People collected wild plants, for example, wheat, barley, and rye. • They used sickles, which meant that plants with tough stems and seeds that did not readily scatter were the most likely to be carried back to settlements. • Some lost seeds germinated at disturbed sites such as latrines, garbage pits, and burned over areas. • People began to promote growth of these annuals.

30. The Ashaninka and Yanomami as Examples Incredible knowledge of the forest. Technology such as hoe, plow, steel. Women cultivate. Men slash and burn. Same plot for 1-3 years. Fallow 25 years.

31. Remaining indigenous horticulturalists…

36. Social Organization No division of labor beyond age & gender NO SPECIALISTS; Unranked kinship Bilateral kindred Little property, storage Matrilocality Patrilocality SIBLING EXCHANGE

37. Political organization Informal, flexible authority. Headman resolves disputes Fission? When individual villages get to big… Ego/Enviro counterbalanced by shamans “Keeper-of-Game”

38. Political Organization What are the potential social cleavages? Gender, remember the Yanomami? Privacy Feuding Jealousy Often balanced by religion

39. Pastoralists – Africa • Domesticated Ungulates • Diet of 88% Milk • Blood Cake, drink, ritual • Meat, all types • Dung • Urine, medicine and curing of hides • Skin, bones, horns

41. Pastoralists: The Maasi How does herding work on the savanna? Grazers of grass: cattle (wet season MILK) and sheep (dry MILK) Browsers (leaves) Camels (annual milk), goats (dry milk)

48. Animal Husbandry • How did we get from Hunting to Herding? • Animal Husbandry • Transition: ~ 10,000 BP • This was also period of agriculture development • First sheep and goats • Later cattle, pigs, camels, horses

49. The hilly flanks theory of animal domestication • Wild sheep and goats were domesticated in the hilly flanks or the foothills of the Zargos Mountains in present day Iraq and Iran • Wild sheep and goats migrated up and down mountains due to the seasonal availability of grasses. • Sheep and goats grazed in the lowlands during the winter and in the high past years. In the summer. • People follow these animals, and became very familiar with their behavior and habits • By 11,000 years ago, the percentage of immature sheep remains increased. • This indicates the presence of herd management • Females were spared for breeding and people were feasting on ram lambs. • By 8000 years ago, domesticated sheep and goats were being kept at villages like Jericho.

50. Pastoral Nomadism • All members of the pastoral societyfollow the herd throughout the year. • Transhumance (seasonal movement of group with herd) or Agro pastoralism • Part of group follows herd; other part maintains a home village (usually associated with some cultivation) • Move to cool highland valleys in the summer and warmer lowland valleys in the winter.