Paper Reading #8: Ethnographies

The idea of ethnography can be extremely useful towards expanding upon and describing a foreign culture. The precise manner in which an ethnography occurs must abide by many formal and informal rules to ensure that as little biases are incorporated into the final product. First, it should be noted that ethnography can be described as a product and a process through write-up and participant observation. This implies that as one observes another culture, their goal is to remain a third party spectator as much as possible while gathering all relevant data in order to publish an adequate report.

For the most part, ethnographies consist of qualitative research in attempts to explore or describe a cultural phenomena. The goal is to jump into the point of view of the subject and provide casual explanations for any kind of behavior through mediums of interviews, questionnaires, observations, and technical reports. In specific, ethnography has an accompanying eight page code of ethics in which participants must abide by to ensure that no unintentional boundaries are crossed. In ethnography "the field" is a term used to describe the environment in which all research and documentation occurs. Some potential interactions from the ethnographers include participation rather than just observation by using field notes and conducting surveys and interviews.

Subsequently, Richardson notes the following methodologies to evaluate ethnography:

1. Substantive Contribution: "Does the piece contribute to our understanding of social-life?" 
2.  Aesthetic Merit: "Does this piece succeed aesthetically?" 
3. Reflexivity: "How did the author come to write this text…Is there adequate self-awareness and self-exposure for the reader to make judgments about the point of view?"[34]
4. Impact: "Does this affect me? Emotionally? Intellectually?" Does it move me?
5. Expresses a Reality: "Does it seem 'true'—a credible account of a cultural, social, individual, or communal sense of the 'real'? 

Any ethnography work must contribute to understanding by appealing to the senses of the reader. Thus, not only must it be accurate, but it also must be interesting, which can be an extremely difficult feat for talented writers, let alone ethnographers. This encompasses the accuracy of the report as well as the impact that it will consist of for people that want to learn more about a culture or a style of living. Lastly, evaluation of ethnography integrates a notice of the author of including bias writing behavior. No writing is bias-free, and includes self-deceptions as well as illusions. Ethnography reports tend to have relatively more bias description due to people's varying backgrounds and beliefs.

Ethnography is decomposed into classic virtues, technical skills, and the ethnographic self. Under classic virtues, there exists the kindly ethnographer (too much sympathy), the friendly ethnographer (show no dislike), and the honest ethnographer (conceal info to receive acceptance). Technical ethnography breaks down into the precise ethnographer (consider data too closely instead of approximation to reality), the observant ethnographer (falsely assume their report was all encompassing), and the unobtrusive ethnographer (incorrectly believe that they had no effect in the community). Lastly, the ethnographic self divides into the candid ethnographer (everything reported actually happened), the chaste ethnographer (fail to consider their relationship in the field), the fair ethnographer (unethical to report fairness), and the literary ethnographer (determining what to report and how to tell it). These explain the fallacies that one may fall under when writing a report on an ethnographic expedition.

Finally, the eight principles of ethnography should be noted to better understand the traits of a successful report. However, the source (Wikipedia) only listed seven principles in their documentation.

1. The groups should combine symbolic meanings with patterns of interaction. 
2. Observe the world from the point of view of the subject, while maintaining the distinction between everyday and scientific perceptions of reality. 
3. Link the group's symbols and their meanings with the social relationships. 
4. Record all behaviour. 
5. Methodology should highlight phases of process, change and stability. 
6. The act should be a type of symbolic interactionism. 
7. Use concepts that would avoid casual explanations. 

Next, Margaret Mead published a book titled "Coming of Age in Samoa" which was an original ethnographic work. The book is about the differences of puberty in adolescent girls in western culture compared to that of girls on a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific. She attempts to discuss and analyze the fine line of nature and nurturing and how they impact girls transitioning to women. By studying girls between the ages of nine and twenty, she was able to discuss many topics that were considered taboo in the late 1920s.

Mead published about certain controversial topics such as casual sex before marriage, among others. Thus, her work received massive amounts of criticism. However, Freeman published an attack on Mead after she had passed away. This report stirred up before debate with many modern prolific ethnographers choosing sides between Freeman and Mead. All in all, the point of this article was to not only provide an example of an ethnographic work, but also establish the idea that ethnography can be extremely controversial in a positive light. Thus, the implications for ethnographic reports are pervasive in the manner that they create debate to open the perspective of many different types of people and cultures.

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