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Ethnographic Methods in Practice
TEACHER AND GUARANTOR Alessandro Testa
GUEST TEACHERS Katherine Swancutt, Jan Karlach, Lukáš Dirga
DESCRIPTION
The aim of this course is to enhance the students’ capability of identifying, describing, and interpreting current social issues through an integrated and well-elaborated ethnographic methodology. The course will focus on empirical case studies, issues of ethnographic experimentation, and theory, but will also apply the theory through a variety of exercises in the field. Several key concepts and theories of ethnography will be presented and discussed, in order to practice them in the field. Attention will be devoted to current or recent debates about ethnographic experimental writing, and about ethnographic methods in new media (netnography, for example). The pressing issues of privacy, data gathering and protection, anonymity, and overt/covert techniques will also be addressed throughout the course. A number of exercises aimed at enhancing the student’s capability at practicing the acquired theories will take place during the course. The entire course will focus on the interaction between method and theory, theory and practice, but especially on the practical aspect. Students will be encouraged to develop their own skills and enhance them in the exercises and directly in the field.
COURSE STRUCTURE The course is divided into two blocks plus a final recapitulative lecture and an ethnographic excursion
FIRST BLOCK, October - Lesson 1 (Testa): Introduction to the course; presentation of the main topics; ethnography: theory of practice, practice of theory; case studies from the teacher’s research experience - Lesson 2 (Dirga): Problematic ethnography and moral dilemmas: Prison research (step by step). This lecture will focus on the methodology of prison research, with an emphasis on the practical aspects of conducting (primarily) qualitative research and ethnography with inmates in correctional facilities. Dr. Dirga will share his own experiences gained during previous research projects in both the Czech Republic and abroad.
SECOND BLOCK, October and November (entirely led by Katherine Swancuttand Jan Karlach) - Lesson 3: Out of the study and into the field: part 1 - Lesson 4: Out of the study and into the field: part 2 - Lesson 5: Ethnography online, netnography, new media
Lesson 3. Out of the Study and Into the Field: Part 1 Anthropology, which is the study of humankind, has never had a standardised method. Early anthropologists wrote comparative studies of cultures based on the accounts of traders, missionaries, and adventurers who travelled to far off places. Their works are often called ‘armchair anthropology’ because they did not require the anthropologist to travel and were written from the comfort of the anthropologist’s home. Soon, though, anthropologists found this method limiting and started sending lists of questions for travellers to ask on their behalf. They also joined brief expeditions to colonial outposts to take part in interviewing the peoples of study. However, it was not until Bronislaw Malinowski was stranded in Australia and the Trobriand Islands for almost two years during World War I that he pioneered the classic anthropological method of long-term ethnographic fieldwork. Malinowski’s call to go ‘off the veranda’ of colonial outposts and live with the peoples of study, master their languages, conduct ‘participant observation’ among them, and produce a written account of their society has provided a loose template for anthropologists to follow ever since. Yet while Malinowski introduced the method of producing ‘ethnography’––which is a ‘written account of the people, folk, ethnos, or nation’––he has been famously criticised, including by his student E.E. Evans-Pritchard, for not having taken enough of a humanistic approach. Today anthropologists observe, participate in, write about, and record people’s lives in a variety of ways. They work to show the similarities and differences between their own ‘self’ and the ‘Other’. Unlike early anthropologists, they try to avoid exoticizing the people of study. They pay attention to ethical issues and seek to protect the people they study by maintaining ‘ethnographic anonymity’ in their written work.
First exercise: Watch short film clips on Malinowski and/or Evans-Pritchard. Form two groups and discuss how anthropological fieldwork can help us to understand other cultures. Select one person from each group to present their group’s findings to the other group.
Compulsory Reading: Stocking, George W. 1992. ‘The Ethnographer’s Magic: Fieldwork in British Anthropology from Tylor to Malinowski’ in The Ethnographer’s Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press. Pp. 12–59.
Lesson 4. Out of the Study and into the Field: Part 2 Ethnographic techniques tend to revolve around three key aspects of anthropological study: interviews, informants, and conversations. But ethnographic methods vary in terms of where an interview takes place, who the informant is, and how the conversation unfolds. More than half a century ago, the distance between the anthropologist’s ‘field’ and ‘home’ started to shrink with the development of new kinds of transport (travel by air rather than boat) and new forms of communication (speaking by telephone rather than written letters). We will focus in this lecture on the equally dramatic changes to ethnographic practice that came from within anthropology itself. As anthropologists travelled to new field sites (particularly in Asia), they encountered rich traditions of history, timekeeping, and texts that encouraged them to rethink their interviewing methods, the term ‘informant’, and how they might analyse conversations ethnographically. This rethinking sparked the ‘Writing Culture’ debates on how anthropology is produced through ethnographic texts written at ‘home’, which, however, are meant to bring the ‘field’ to life for their readers. New ethnographic techniques have emerged in the wake of these debates that blur the boundaries between field/home, experience/text, and anthropologist/research participant. Two good examples of these blended ethnographic techniques are activist anthropology and collaborative anthropology. Experimental ethnography is now increasingly the norm, as we will see by looking at some recent studies on ‘reverse anthropology’, ‘para-ethnography’, and ‘hyper-reflexivity’.
Second exercise: Watch short film clip on rituals and calendars in Asia. Form two groups for a class debate. One side argues for the idea that experimental ethnography has reshaped our understanding of anthropology. The other side argues against this idea.
Compulsory Reading: Vitebsky, Piers. 2012. ‘Repeated Returns and Special Friends: From Mythic Encounter to Shared History’ in S. Howell and A Talle (eds.). Returns to the Field: Multitemporal Research and Contemporary Anthropology. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Pp. 180–202.
Lesson 5. Ethnography Online, Netnography, New Media Online ethnography is often credited with having collapsed the classic anthropological distinction between field and home. But has this collapse really occurred? Many online sites are specific to, and increasingly regulated by, nation-states. Hardware and software are not uniform across the globe. Anthropologists therefore face new possibilities and problems when seeking to delve into the imaginative and practical lives of people through online cultures, subcultures, applications, and social media platforms. In this lecture, we will explore some of the ethical issues of anthropological data gathering, the need to protect this data, and the new complexities surrounding this that have been brought about by the entanglement of new media and ethnography. Given the increasing ethical issues that new technologies bring, anthropologists must continue to hone their own practice of protecting the peoples of study and themselves from the risks that come with doing fieldwork in unfamiliar places. We therefore will also focus in this lecture on the interface between offline and online spaces, including through a recent case study on netnography in Southwest China.
Third exercise: Watch a short documentary ‘The Zuckerberg Tribe’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL8YmYcbWWE) along with short film clips on the digital life of ritual practices in Southwest China. Discuss in the round how the online-offline interface complicates ethnographic techniques.
Compulsory Reading: Kozinets, Robert V. (2015) 2010. Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. (Introduction). Sage. Pp. 1–22. Online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267922181_Netnography_Doing_Ethnographic_Research_Online
First Evaluation Exercise: Write a short essay (of about two pages) discussing the value of an experimental ethnographic technique of your choosing. Build your discussion around at least one reading from the course and include an ‘ethnographic snapshot’ in your discussion.
- Lesson 6, December (Testa): Final recapitulative lecture
- Methodological excursion on a day between December 11th and December 20th; location and/or theme to be chosen during the last lesson, on December the 10th
- Submission of the second and final evaluation exercise by the 23rd of December
ATTENDANCE Attendance is mandatory and participation in the classroom and in the field will also be taken into consideration in the evaluation process. Only one not justified absence will be tolerated. More absences will entail the need to discuss make-up assignments with the teachers.
ASSESSMENT Assessment will be undertaken through the evaluation of the student’s participation and involvement in the learning process and of the student’s main evaluation exercises. No plagiarism will be tolerated. The use of generative AI in this course is not permitted.
EVALUATION - Attendance: 10% - First Evaluation Exercise 45% - Second Evaluation Exercise: 45%
100 - 91: A 81 - 90: B 71 - 80: C 61 - 70: D 51 - 60: E 50 - 0: F
Compulsory readings (all students willing to take the exam will have to read the following texts)
- Chosen pages from Fetterman D. M. 2010: Ethnography: Step-by-Step, Sage, Los Angeles-London (3rd ed.), pp. 1-14, 19-26, 33-52, 103-105, 113-118
- Chosen pages from Wolcott H. F. 2008: Ethnography: A Way of Seeing, Altamira, New York-Toronto, pp. 43-54, 72-75, 95-101, 177-181, 239-253
- Kozinets, Robert V. (2015) 2010. Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. (Introduction). Sage. Pp. 1–22. Online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267922181_Netnography_Doing_Ethnographic_Research_Online
- Stocking, George W. 1992. ‘The Ethnographer’s Magic: Fieldwork in British Anthropology from Tylor to Malinowski’ in The Ethnographer’s Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press. Pp. 12–59.
- Vitebsky, Piers. 2012. ‘Repeated Returns and Special Friends: From Mythic Encounter to Shared History’ in S. Howell and A Talle (eds.). Returns to the Field: Multitemporal Research and Contemporary Anthropology. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Pp. 180–202.
Additional readings
· Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam. 2011. ‘Sacred Trust: Ethnography as Renewed Relationships’ in Shamans, Spirituality, and Cultural Revitalization: Explorations in Siberia and Beyond. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Pp. 15–34.
· Janis Bailey and Di McAtee, “Another way of telling': The use of visual methods in research”, pp. 45-60 (but read only 45-50)
· Caplan, Pat. (ed). 2003. The Ethics of Anthropology: Debates and Dilemmas. London and New York: Routledge. (Chapter 1 by Pat Caplan ‘Introduction: Anthropology and Ethics’, Chapter 2 by David Mills ‘Like a Horse in Blinkers’: A Political History of Anthropology’s Research Ethics, and Chapter 9 by Veronica Strang ‘An Appropriate Question? The Propriety of Anthropological Analysis in the Australian Political Arena’) Pp. 1–33, 37–54, and 172-194.
· Clifford, James. and George E. Marcus. (eds). 1986. Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press. (Chapter 1 by James Clifford ‘Introduction: Partial Truths’, Chapter 4 by Renato Rosaldo ‘From the Door of His Tent: The Fieldworker and the Inquisitor’, Chapter 8 by George E. Marcus ‘Contemporary Problems of Ethnography in the Modern World System’). Pp. 1–26, 77–97, and 165–193.
· G. Coleman, “Ethnographic Approaches to Digital Media”, in Annual Review of Anthropology, n. 39, 2010, pp. 487-505
· Leesa Costello, Marie-Louise McDermott, and Ruth Wallace, “Netnography: Range of Practices, Misperceptions, and Missed Opportunities”, in International Journal of Qualitative Methods, n. 16 (1), 2017, pp. 1–12
· Cohn, Bernard S. 1980. ‘History and Anthropology: The State of Play’ in Comparative Studies in Society and History. 22(2):198–221. Online: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0010417500009294
· Cook, Samuel R. 2008. ‘“You Can’t Put a Price on It”: Activist Anthropology in the Mountaintop Removal Debate’ in Collaborative Anthropologies. 1:138–162.
· Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1976. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande. Abridged version. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Chapters 1 ‘Witchcraft is an Organic and Hereditary Phenomenon’, Chapter 2 ‘The Notion of Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events’, and Chapter 3 ‘Sufferers from Misfortune Seek for Witches among their Enemies’). Pp. 1–55.
· Fiskesjö, Magnus. 2010. ‘Participant Intoxication and Self-Other Dynamics in the Wa Context’ in The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology. 11(2):111–127. Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/14442211003720588
· Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books. (Chapter 1 ‘Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture’, Chapter 14 ‘Person, Time, and Conduct in Bali’, and Chapter 15 ‘Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight’). Pp. 3–30 and 360–453.
· Martyn Hammersley, “Ethnography: problems and prospects”, in Ethnography and Education, n. 1 (1), 2006, pp. 3-14
· Herold, David K. 2018. ‘Xi Jinping’s Internet: Faster, Truer, More Positive and More Chinese?’ in China: An International Journal. 16:52–73.
· Højer, Lars. and Andreas Bandak. 2015. ‘Introduction: The Power of Example’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 21(S1):1–17. Online: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12173
· Holmes, Douglas R. and George E. Marcus. 2008. ‘Collaboration Today and the Reimagination of the Classic Scene of Fieldwork Encounter’ in Collaborative Anthropologies. 1:81–101.
· Howell, Signe. (2018) 2023. ‘Ethnography’ in The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Felix Stein. Facsimile of the first edition in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Online: http://doi.org/10.29164/18ethno
· Xanthe Glaw, Kerry Inder, Ashley Kable, and Michael Hazelton, “Visual Methodologies in Qualitative Research: Autophotography and Photo Elicitation”, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, Volume 16: 1–8 (but read only 1-3)
· Ji Xiaojing. 2017. ‘Red Packets in the Real and Virtual Worlds: How Multi-Function WeChat Influences Chinese Virtual Relationships’ in U. U. Frömming, S. Köhn, S. Fox, & M. Terry (eds.) Digital Environments: Ethnographic Perspectives Across Global Online and Offline Spaces. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. Pp. 67–76. Online: https://publish.fid-media.de/server/api/core/bitstreams/f27d65d4-0c84-4c5e-bf6a-3ce9efc20a2e/content
· Kapferer, Bruce. 2013. ‘How Anthropologists Think: Configurations of the Exotic’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 19(4):813–836. Online: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12066
· Karlach, Jan. 2023. ‘Smartphone as Ritual Fan: Poaching in Weixin-mediated (Cyber)space with Nuosu-Yi Ritualists of Liangshan, Southwest China’ in Journal of Digital Social Research. 5(4): 144-168. Online: https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v5i4.142
· Laidlaw, James. (2017) 2023. ‘Ethics / morality’ in The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Felix Stein. Facsimile of the first edition in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Online: http://doi.org/10.29164/17ethics
· Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (Introduction and Chapter 6 on ‘launching of a canoe and ceremonial visiting’). Pp. 1–26 and 124–145.
· Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1944. A Scientific Theory of Culture and Other Essays. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. (chapters 1–5). Pp 1–51.
· Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1989 [1967]. A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term. London: Athlone Press.
· Marcus, George E. and Michael M. J. Fischer. 1999 [1986]. Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
· Mattingly, Cheryl. and Jason Throop. 2018. ‘The Anthropology of Ethics and Morality’ in Annual Review of Anthropology. 47:475–92. Online: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102317-050129
· Miller, Daniel. (2018) 2023. ‘Digital anthropology’ in The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Felix Stein. Facsimile of the first edition in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Online: http://doi.org/10.29164/18digital
· Mittermaier, Amira. 2015. ‘How to Do Things with Examples: Sufis, Dreams, and Anthropology’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 21(S1):129–143. Online: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12170
· Mostowlansky, Till. and Andrea Rota. (2020) 2023. ‘Emic and etic’ in The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Felix Stein. Facsimile of the first edition in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Online: http://doi.org/10.29164/20emicetic
· Carole McGranahan, “Ethnography Beyond Method: The Importance of Ethnographic Sensibility”, in Sites: new series, n. 15 (1), 2018, pp. 1-10
· Morais, G. M., Santos, V. F., & Gonçalves, C. A. (2020). Netnography: Origins, foundations, evolution and axiological and methodological development and trends. The Qualitative Report, 25(2), 441-455. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol25/iss2/10
· Ntarangwi, Mwenda. 2010. ‘Tripping on Race, Training Anthropologists’ in Reversed Gaze: An African Ethnography of American Anthropology. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press. Pp. 24–51.
· Parkin, David. 2000. ‘Templates, Evocations and the Long-Term Fieldworker’ in Paul Dresch, Wendy James & David Parkin (eds). Anthropologists in a Wider World: Essays on Field Research. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 91–107.
· Rappaport, Joanne. 2008. ‘Beyond Participant Observation: Collaborative Ethnography as Theoretical Innovation’ in Collaborative Anthropologies. 1:1–31.
· Stocking, George W. 1983. ‘History of Anthropology: Whence/Whither’ in G. W. Stocking (ed.). Observers Observed: Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press. Pp. 3–12.
· Stocking, George W. 1995. ‘From Fieldwork to Functionalism: Malinowski and the Emergence of British Social Anthropology’ in After Tylor: British Social Anthropology, 1888–1951. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press. Pp. 233–297.
· Stocking, George W. 1999 [1995]. ‘The Frazerian moment: Evolutionary Anthropology in Disarray’ in After Tylor: British Social Anthropology 1888–1951. London: Athlone. Pp. 124–178.
· Swancutt, Katherine. 2016. ‘The Art of Capture: Hidden Jokes and the Reinvention of Animistic Ontologies in Southwest China’ in Social Analysis. 60(1):74–91. Online: https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2016.600106
· Swancutt, Katherine. 2021. ‘“It’s Scientific!” Play, Parody, and the Para-Ethnographic in Southwest China’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 27(3):559–578. Online: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13549
· Swancutt, Katherine and Mireille Mazard. 2016. ‘Introduction: Anthropological Knowledge Making, the Reflexive Feedback Loop, and Conceptualizations of the Soul’ in Social Analysis. 60(1):1–17. Online: https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2016.600102
· Trautmann, Thomas. 1992. ‘The Revolution in Ethnological Time’ in Man. 27(2):379–397. Online: https://doi.org/10.2307/2804059
· Turin, Mark. and Robert Hanks. (2021) 2023. ‘Literacy’ in The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Felix Stein. Facsimile of the first edition in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Online: http://doi.org/10.29164/21literacy
· Vala, Carsten. and Jianbo Huang. 2019. ‘Online and Offline Religion in China: A Protestant WeChat “Alter-Public” through the Bible Handcopying Movement’ in Religions 10(561): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10100561
· Vitebsky, Piers. 2008. ‘Loving and Forgetting: Moments of Inarticulacy in Tribal India’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.). 14(2):243–61. Online: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2008.00500.x
· Christopher Wright, “Photo-Ethnography”, in The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Edited by Hilary Callan
· H. Wulff, “Yo-Yo Fieldwork: Mobility and Time in a Multi-Local Study of Dance in Ireland”, in Anthropological Journal on European Cultures n. 11, 2002, pp. 117-136
· Selected pages from the teachers’ publications based on ethnographic research Last update: Testa Alessandro, doc., Ph.D. (07.09.2026)
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