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Ethnography

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Ethnographic fieldwork; Ethnographic literature

Definition

Ethnography is a field method used to generate firsthand knowledge of a particular human group or a behavior of interest. This term also refers to the finished written product resulting from field research (i.e., an ethnography).

Introduction

Ethnography has been a hallmark of anthropological inquiry for over a century, and its use has grown across disciplines as a means to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. This method of systematic data collection includes the use of participant observation, where a researcher lives with a host community for an extended period in order to experience and record as many aspects of daily life as possible. The goal of ethnography for many anthropologists has been to facilitate holistic cross-cultural comparisons that ultimately generate emic (insider) and/or etic (outsider) interpretations of human culture and society.

Overview

Ethnographers typically study a cohesive group...

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References

  • Benedict, R. (1934). Patterns of culture. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.

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  • Clifford, J. (1986). Introduction: Partial truths. In Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography (pp. 1–26). Berkeley: University of California Press.

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  • Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic.

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  • Malinowski, B. (1922). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London: Routledge.

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  • Marcus, G., & Fischer, M. (1986). A crisis of representation in the human sciences. In Anthropology as cultural critique (pp. 7–16). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

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  • Mead, M. (1928). Coming of age in Samoa: A psychological study of primitive youth for Western civilization. New York: Morrow.

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  • Turner, V. (1967). The forest of symbols: Aspects of Ndembu ritual. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work and Criminal Justice, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Jon W. Carroll

Authors
  1. Jon W. Carroll
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jon W. Carroll .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Lisa L M Welling

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Carroll, J.W. (2016). Ethnography. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_521-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_521-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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