Ethnography

One of the first anthropological concepts that I was introduced to was: Ethnography. It was a type of research done by anthropologists (also known as ethnographic research). My professor kept explaining it, giving examples, and breaking it down because it is actually so complex. It was fascinating yet so confusing to me at the time.

According to the American Anthropological Association (AAA), “Ethnography involves the researcher’s study of human behavior in the natural settings in which people live.” These researchers immersive themselves in a culture to understand, to experience, to live out what it is like to be a part of groups with certain traditions and rituals. Ethnographies can be on any one group: an indigenous tribe in the remote island of Madagascar during a time of grief; rural European sheep herders and their nomadic ways; medical students at Georgetown who have been placed in a clinical rotation for the first time. Ethnographic work not only looks at a group of people but also their culture at a certain point of time.

To break it down even more,

Ethnography involves qualitative research:

• Methods include: participant observation, interviews, research, material analysis
• Research questions & aims cannot be answered using scientific method or experimental science.
• No isolating factors like social and cultural influences. Anthropologists study people in their environment; They don’t take them out of their place and put them in a lab.
• Looks at the bigger “why?” and “how?” questions

Good ethnography involves:

• Long term, deep engagement with a community
• Immersive participant observation (you can’t just observe, you have to participate if you want to collect good qualitative data). It requires detailed field notes and continuous analysis.
• Experiences and interviews with cultural insiders or key informant (interview until saturation point: researchers keep interviewing until they can’t get anymore new information)
• Maximizing understanding of others.
• Microscopic description: not looking to describe an observation, but to contextualize it.
• Good analysis & ethnographic writing
• Data coding: combining your work with other project data types (epidemiological, biological, etc)
• Consideration of research ethics and using ethical ways to understanding people’s lives.
• Thick Description: conceptual structures rather than a factual account. What anthropologists are really looking for is the unseen; what makes things flow in the field.

If you read this and thought “what the heck?”. . . . . I know that feeling. It was difficult for me to grasp this type of study, especially since I had only known about experimental studies & the scientific method. It wasn’t until I had to do it myself and make mistakes to see what it took. Below is one of my very first notes for a class. To get use to the writing, note taking, and analysis, the assignment was just to be an observer not a participant. So note that it is more than descriptive, but it is also not making assumptions:

                My little baby ethnography (2019):
It was Friday, February 22, 3:30pm in the lobby of the UNC Women’s Hospital. I sat at one of the six rows of chairs of the waiting area looking out to the overwhelming and almost chaotic environment. There were the typical clinical items in the area: wheelchairs, sanitation stations, information desk, and sporadically placed plants, as if to liven up the room. The large windows bringing in natural light contrasted the harsh fluorescent lighting of the lobby and allowed people to see the outside world. Outside, the rainy weather and constant flow of cars was not that different from the bustling atmosphere inside. There was a constant stream of people walking up and down the lobby of the Women’s Hospital, as it was used as an avenue to get from one place to another. The flow fluctuated but there was always someone occupying the space. Some people seemed to know their place and where they were going, while others seemed anxious about being in a clinical setting. People chattering, babies laughing and crying, carts moving, walkie-talkies, beeping, and phones ringing added to the busyness of the atmosphere. Initially, I felt like an intruder since my only goal was to observe and not participate. I was not here as a patient but as an observer. The longer I sat there, the less of a foreigner I felt. Everyone had their own reasons for being there and no one questioned each other’s presence. It was a community of helping hands despite the hustle and bustle of the environment; this was the norm.