Techniques of Good Ethnography - from Wikipedia

Here are some forms you will find useful for your project. This info is also available for downloading on the Blackboard site: ETHNOGRAPHY WORKSHEETS
Includes: Interview checklist, Interview Report Form, and That's a Good Question.

Techniques

1. Direct, first-hand observation of daily behavior. This can include participant observation.
2. Conversation with different levels of formality. This can involve small talk to long interviews.
3. The genealogical method. This is a set of procedures by which ethnographers discover and record connections of kinship, descent and marriage using diagrams and symbols.
4. Detailed work with key consultants about particular areas of community life.
5. In-depth interviewing.
6. Discovery of local beliefs and perceptions.
7. Problem-oriented research.
8. Longitudinal research. This is continuous long-term study of an area or site.
9. Team research.
10. Case studies

Not all of these techniques are used by ethnographers, but interviews and participant observation are the most widely used

Photo of Bronisław Malinowski.

Malinowski articulated the practice of participant observation and ethnography with his book Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922). It was later revealed in his posthumous diaries that he himself had not followed his own innovative technique. He made up many of his reports and kept himself separated from the people he studied. His student E. E. Evans-Pritchard actually took his teacher's practice to heart in The Nuer (1940). This text became a model for ethnography to come.