The Methodology of Ethnicity Research

Abstract

The reader may be perplexed and confused by the introductory material presented hitherto in chapters 1 and 2 both as to the divergent and conflicting claims and counterclaims about Macedonia; and, importantly, on the Macedonian ethnic identity and the question of appropriate methodology by which some of these perplexities can be addressed. The subject of methodology is focused on in the present chapter in order to provide an overall framework of approach to the general issue of ethnic identity. The specific problem addressed is the circumscription of evidence, that is, the question of what counts as evidence for an ethnic identity. The approach taken in the present work is to look into methods beyond historiographic ones, into methods belonging to the behavioral sciences. This has already been done in part by anthropologists in their studies of the Macedonian identity (Danforth, 1995; Karakasidou, 1997).