Ethnographic Method Essay

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Ethnographic research is the scientific description of specific human cultures, foreign to the ethnographer. Each ethnographer has his or her own way of conducting research and all of these different ideas can be transmitted and understood in a number of different ways. Because there is no one set idea of how an ethnographer should go about his or her research, conflicts arise. In Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco, Paul Rabinow uses a story like process to discuss his experiences during his research in Morocco. This makes it easier for the reader to understand his ideas then just having a technical book about the many different aspects of Moroccan life that he may have discovered. In Writing Culture: the Poetics and Politics of

Imagine a trip to one of the most beautiful mountain sceneries in the world. Now imagine that this scenic trip also includes sporting entertainment and historic landmarks. Welcome to the mountains of the Pyrenees. There is absolutely nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain by booking a summer vacation to this realm of marvelous and beautiful land. The Pyrenees is an exquisite range of mountains located in southwestern Europe. This intensely beautiful mountain range is the barrier dividing Spain and France. It is approximately 21,380 square miles and contains parts of twelve French and Spanish provinces. Discover the beautiful significance of the Pyrenees National Park. Witness the historical thrilling events of the Tour de France as it passes through the Pyrenees route.

Anthropology is defined, in the most basic terms, as the study of other cultures. This field can subsequently be divided into more specific sects, and contain more precise defining characteristics, but this definition is essentially all that is needed. Anthropology is a science that attempts to look at other cultures and draw conclusions to questions that are raised while studying. An anthropologist is someone who accepts what is presented before them and is driven by an urge to understand each presentation as thoroughly as possible. Once the concept of anthropology is accepted, one must identify the means of reaching the goal of this field. In the sect of social anthropology, this vehicle is known as

Beginning with the early stages of savagery to the complex civilizations in the 21st century, the need to compete remains an important aspect in the continual evolution of mankind. Competition took various forms throughout history from the bloody attempts to kill a mammoth in order to provide nourishment, to the violent battles between two opposing sides taking place on college football fields every Saturday afternoon. Another form of competition involving severe contact on a scale par with football is the sport of rugby. My personal history with the sport began in a medium sized island in Polynesia. I lived and worked in New Zealand during the summer of 1999, between my sophomore and junior year. This little

Working on the laptop. Reading navigating on the mobile phone. Listening to music. Watching video on the PC.

I took a trip to Greek town Casino in Detroit Michigan with my father, this trip was something of an unexpected trip but I figured it was a great place to observe the behaviors of many different cultures as Greek town casino is the home of a multicultural society. I wanted to observe the behaviors of those between African American’s and Caucasian persons. I wanted to see if one race over the other tended to gamble more or if one culture got more aggressive as the night went on.

Culture is an “operational code” shared by members of a particular society, a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that members of society use to cope with their world and with one another. Members of a society share their culture; there is no “culture of one”, it is learned through a process called enculturation, and changeable through social interactions between people and groups. Culture is patterned, meaning that people in a society live and think in ways forming definite, repeating patterns.

When I was a kid my parents always took me to Nathdwara to take the blessings of Lord Krishna every now and then because my parents are so religious. So by going there several times I am also attached to that place. Actually Nathdwara is situated in Rajasthan state and I live in the state called Gujarat and in the city called as Ahmedabad. It takes six hours drive from my city to Nathdwara and this is the only nearest place where I could get mental peace. This is very important place for me and my family because it is a tradition of our family that whoever goes there gives free food to the hungry and poor people. We do so because we think that if we do good work in our life we will be allowed by god to go to the heaven. [The two states on

Culture can be defined as a developing array of collective beliefs, values, and attitudes. The culture of each country has its own set of beliefs, values, and activities. It depicts the accepted values, norms, and traditional behavior of a group. However, the norms and values of a culture do not arise fully formed. They evolve over time in reaction to a number of factors. These factors include: political and economic philosophies, social structure of society, and primary religion, language, and education. All of these factors help shape the cultures from countries such as the United States, Australia, and Italy.

Reflexivity is a qualitative method of research that takes an ethnography one step further, displaying the personal thoughts and reflections of the anthropologist on his informants. Ethnographies generally take an outside or foreign perspective of a culture, like reading a text, and reflexivity introduces a new component of inside description. Here, the anthropologist may describe personal interactions and experiences with natives and use this inside information to make additional conclusions about the people being studied. The ethnographer may also reflect on his ethnic connections with his informants, or his acceptance into the society, explaining that it provides valuable, inside knowledge of the

In late April of my senior year of high school my Twin sister, Sherri, wanted to go do a photoshoot for her intro to photography class. Without knowing a thing about what she was doing both my best friend, Ashley, and I agreed to help her out with this. After school was over that afternoon, we began to walk off campus toward Sherri’s intended destination. Little did either of us know that she wanted to visit the old abandoned hospital less than a mile off campus. “Doesn’t this count as trespassing,” one of us said, but Sherri just waved off the concern. Her professor encouraged going to places like this, she had said. Walking down the street she just went right up to the front entrance and waltzed in like she wasn’t doing anything illegal at

What is culture, one might ask? According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, culture is the “customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group or the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life} shared by people in a place or time” (Culture). Five major characteristics that define a culture include culture is learned, culture is shared, culture is symbolic, culture is all-encompassing, and culture is integrated. Culture depends on the human capacity for cultural learning that encompasses shared rules for conduct and that are dependent upon symbols. Cultures can be integrated by using “social and economic forces, core values, and key symbols” (Mirror for Humanity,

People can search online for the definition of culture, they will find many definitions of the word culture. Accordingly to Culture (n.d.), culture is the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. Another definition is the over-all ways of living built up by a group of individual and learned from each generation to generation(culture, n.d.). It is easy to conclude that culture is, in fact, a very broad word, which may cover a wide range of definition. Also, culture embraces the world. It is such a unique experience that one can hardly mistake culture, may refer to culture, vaguely knowing what culture is and also, being right with this interpretation. Culture is something that will always be used to

Ethnography within its wider field of research is described as the study of people’s behaviour in terms of social contexts, with emphasis on interaction in everyday situations (Lindsay, 1997). It is further defined as research that constitutes the art and science of describing a group or culture (Fetterman, 1989). However, the specific definition that will be used throughout this work, is that of its role within qualitative research, which is summarised by Wainwright (1997) in his paper in The Qualitative Report, stating that ethnography can be distinguished as: