Beverly J Moss in Ethnography and Composition: Studying Language at Home explicates a fantastic way of doing research/fieldwork. According to her, every ethnographer must have a goal (s) and these goals are; to study, explore, and describe a group culture (389). I am very fascinated with her earliest story of unfamiliarity with what she initially intended to research on. She showed some form of discomfort because that topic could not pave way into a researchable field for her. And so she decided to identify her root and relate with it. What I think she is trying to say here is that, researchers are more comfortable conducting their research with and among their own people than subjecting themselves to a strange people/culture. But on the contrary, that does not mean that people don’t research outside their own culture and community, I think doing that among her own people is what worked for her.
However, generally speaking, Moss states that Ethnography is concerned with describing, and analyzing a culture. In other words, a total way of life of a specific group of people as Moss rightly did; like what they do, what they know, what they say, and what their physical artifacts are (390). I would like to add to what Moss has enumerated here for example; what the community do and how they do them, what they say and how they are said, what they know and how they know them, or the effects of what they know on them both physically, socially, economically, and maybe emotionally if you like. And finally, what their physically artifacts are, and how those artifacts add values to their cultural life/tradition if they have one.
In asking all of these questions which I am very sure will metamorphose into other questions thereby making the familiar strange and making the strange familiar, will lead to getting more information and deriving more meanings just as post-structuralists argue that, there is no end to the meaning of anything. So also is the ethnographic research. It is a continuum. But one of the good points that Moss pointed out is that, no ethnographer should wait until every data is collected before he starts his analysis. Instead, it has to be what I call “Analyze As You Go”.
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I like your idea of ethnographic research being a continuum. Information that may be of interest to our research not only stretches without limit across time and space, it is as deep as the thoughts and motivations of the individuals we study, and as complex as the many social interactions of these individuals. As you point out, the researcher may derive from this information an endless number of meanings. Our job is to define flexible parameters that allow us to follow up on unexpected leads. Moss' description of the "analyze as you go" method makes the task of data interpretation feel much more manageable and allows collected data to continually shed light on the subject.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you and Moss that the job of the insider ethnographer is handy. However, as I explained in my blog, sometimes the culture tricks the insider as he or she takes things for granted and never questions them. Besides, sometimes people within the community refuse to cooperate with the insider comparing with the outsider. This is what I noticed :(
ReplyDeleteThanks Allyson. I really like that method of "analyze as you go" to avoid the overwhelming part of the job as Moss rightly pointed out.As for the issue of meanings, of course there is no end to the meaning of meanings. There is always that metamorphosis of meanings especially when it comes to research.
ReplyDeleteOkay Mmoud, this is for you. Yes I think I quite agree with you on the issue of the insider not getting all the cooperation the researcher might need from his community, but also, the insider is at a more advantageous level to manourver his people to earn their trust than an outsider. But again, it all depends on the pattern of approach on the sides of both an Insider and the outsider.