The Wereldmuseum Amsterdam (previously known as Tropenmuseum (English: Museum of the Tropics ) between 1950 and 2023) is an ethnographic museum with its headquarters in Amsterdam , Netherlands . It was originally founded in Haarlem , Netherlands in 1864 under the name Koloniaal Museum (English: Colonial Museum ) and later renamed Tropenmuseum (English: Museum of the Tropics ).
84-604: The Wereldmuseum is one of the largest museums in Amsterdam. It has a permanent exhibition of part of its collection and hosts temporary exhibitions, including contemporary, modern and traditional visual arts and photographic works. The museum is part of the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Museum of World Cultures), a combination of three ethnographic museums in the Netherlands. Frederick van Eeden, father of
168-467: A "natural" setting, ethnology yields insights into the practical applications of a product or service. It is one of the best ways to identify areas of friction and improve overall user experience. Companies make increasing use of ethnographic methods to understand consumers and consumption, or for new product development (such as video ethnography ). The Ethnographic Praxis in Industry (EPIC) conference
252-523: A code of ethics, stating: Anthropologists have "moral obligations as members of other groups, such as the family, religion, and community, as well as the profession". The code of ethics notes that anthropologists are part of a wider scholarly and political network, as well as human and natural environment, which needs to be reported on respectfully. The code of ethics recognizes that sometimes very close and personal relationship can sometimes develop from doing ethnographic work. The Association acknowledges that
336-407: A leading social scientist, data collection methods are meant to capture the "social meanings and ordinary activities" of people (informants) in "naturally occurring settings" that are commonly referred to as "the field". The goal is to collect data in such a way that the researcher imposes a minimal amount of personal bias in the data. Multiple methods of data collection may be employed to facilitate
420-521: A mainstay of ancient historiography . Tacitus has ethnographies in the Agricola , Histories , and Germania . Tacitus' Germania "stands as the sole surviving full-scale monograph by a classical author on an alien people." Ethnography formed a relatively coherent subgenre in Byzantine literature. While ethnography ("ethnographic writing") was widely practiced in antiquity, ethnography as
504-410: A majority of which are from Indonesia. Tropenmuseum Junior is a sub-museum. It features interactive exhibits, and draws 30,000 children a year. Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen The Dutch : Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (NMVW) ( transl. National Museum of World Cultures ) is an overarching museum organisation for the management of several ethnographic museums in
588-501: A particular religious group they are interested in studying; or they may even inhabit a familial role in a community they are staying with. Robert M. Emerson, Rachel Fretz, and Linda Shaw summarize this idea in their book Writing Ethnographic Field Notes using a common metaphor: “the fieldworker cannot and should not attempt to be a fly on the wall.” Ybema et al. (2010) examine the ontological and epistemological presuppositions underlying ethnography. Ethnographic research can range from
672-597: A professor of history and geography. Whilst involved in the expedition, he differentiated Völker-Beschreibung as a distinct area of study. This became known as "ethnography", following the introduction of the Greek neologism ethnographia by Johann Friedrich Schöpperlin and the German variant by A. F. Thilo in 1767. August Ludwig von Schlözer and Christoph Wilhelm Jacob Gatterer of the University of Göttingen introduced
756-399: A realist perspective, in which behavior is observed, to a constructivist perspective where understanding is socially constructed by the researcher and subjects. Research can range from an objectivist account of fixed, observable behaviors to an interpretive narrative describing "the interplay of individual agency and social structure." Critical theory researchers address "issues of power within
840-550: A refined output for various purposes. A modern example of this technology in application, is the use of captured audio in smart devices, transcribed to issue targeted adverts (often reconciled vs other metadata, or product development data for designers. Digital ethnography comes with its own set of ethical questions, and the Association of Internet Researchers ' ethical guidelines are frequently used. Gabriele de Seta's paper "Three Lies of Digital Ethnography" explores some of
924-446: A region, winks remained meaningful in the same way. In this way, cultural boundaries of communication could be explored, as opposed to using linguistic boundaries or notions about the residence. Geertz, while still following something of a traditional ethnographic outline, moved outside that outline to talk about "webs" instead of "outlines" of culture. Within cultural anthropology, there are several subgenres of ethnography. Beginning in
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#17327834283231008-475: A relationship that allows for a more personal and in-depth portrait of the informants and their community. These can include participant observation, field notes, interviews and surveys, as well as various visual methods. Interviews are often taped and later transcribed, allowing the interview to proceed unimpaired of note-taking, but with all information available later for full analysis. Secondary research and document analysis are also used to provide insight into
1092-486: A science ( cf. ethnology ) did not exist in the ancient world. There is no ancient term or concept applicable to ethnography, and those writers probably did not consider the study of other cultures as a distinct mode of inquiry from history. Gerhard Friedrich Müller developed the concept of ethnography as a separate discipline whilst participating in the Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733–43) as
1176-549: A sizable collection of photographs. Following the independence of Indonesia in 1945, the scope of the museum changed from just the colonial possessions of the Netherlands, to that of many undeveloped colonial states in South America , Africa , and Asia . In the 1960s and 1970s the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs encouraged the museum to expand its scope to more social issues such as poverty and hunger . In
1260-529: A €4.5m project in June 2021 in order to develop practical guidance for Dutch museums on colonial collections. "We will examine the diverse routes that objects took to enter museums—were they sold under duress or looted in times of war, traded or exchanged or given as gifts, and if so, was this in a colonial context? - We will also look at how to jointly decide on the future of an object and whether there are various modes of return that are possible. And, finally, this
1344-492: Is Jaber F. Gubrium's pioneering ethnography on the experiences of a nursing home, Living and Dying at Murray Manor . Major influences on this development were anthropologist Lloyd Warner , on the Chicago sociology faculty, and to Robert Park 's experience as a journalist. Symbolic interactionism developed from the same tradition and yielded such sociological ethnographies as Shared Fantasy by Gary Alan Fine , which documents
1428-463: Is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures . Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining the behavior of the participants in a given social situation and understanding the group members' own interpretation of such behavior. As a form of inquiry, ethnography relies heavily on participant observation —on
1512-422: Is a document written about a particular people, almost always based at least in part on emic views of where the culture begins and ends. Using language or community boundaries to bound the ethnography is common. Ethnographies are also sometimes called "case studies". Ethnographers study and interpret culture, its universalities, and its variations through the ethnographic study based on fieldwork . An ethnography
1596-423: Is a fundamental methodology in cultural ecology, development studies, and feminist geography. In addition, it has gained importance in social, political, cultural, and nature-society geography. Ethnography is an effective methodology in qualitative geographic research that focuses on people's perceptions and experiences and their traditionally place-based immersion within a social group. According to John Brewer ,
1680-528: Is a specific kind of written observational science which provides an account of a particular culture, society, or community. The fieldwork usually involves spending a year or more in another society, living with the local people and learning about their ways of life. Ruth Fulton Benedict uses examples of Enthrotyhy in her serious of field work that began in 1922 of Serrano, of the Zuni in 1924, the Cochiti in 1925 and
1764-455: Is about reconciliation—how do modes of return or restitution help us to reconcile with the past?” [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO ( license statement/permission ). Text taken from The Netherlands: Museums confront the country’s colonial past , Hickley, Catherine, UNESCO. UNESCO Courier , no 3, 2020. Ethnography Ethnography
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#17327834283231848-508: Is another field which prominently features ethnographies. Urban sociology , Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University), and the Chicago School , in particular, are associated with ethnographic research, with some well-known early examples being The Philadelphia Negro (1899) by W. E. B. Du Bois, Street Corner Society by William Foote Whyte and Black Metropolis by St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton, Jr. Well-known
1932-528: Is both a process and an outcome of the research. Studies such as Gerry Philipsen 's analysis of cultural communication strategies in a blue-collar , working-class neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Speaking 'Like a Man' in Teamsterville , paved the way for the expansion of ethnographic research in the study of communication. Scholars of communication studies use ethnographic research methods to analyze communicative behaviors and phenomena. This
2016-461: Is evidence of this. Ethnographers' systematic and holistic approach to real-life experience is valued by product developers, who use the method to understand unstated desires or cultural practices that surround products. Where focus groups fail to inform marketers about what people really do, ethnography links what people say to what they do—avoiding the pitfalls that come from relying only on self-reported, focus-group data. The ethnographic methodology
2100-446: Is how an individual views a novel after completing it. The physical entity that is the novel contains a specific image in the perspective of the interpreting individual and can only be expressed by the individual in the terms of "I can tell you what an image is by telling you what it feels like." The idea of an image relies on the imagination and has been seen to be utilized by children in a very spontaneous and natural manner. Effectively,
2184-772: Is not necessarily casting blame at ethnographic researchers but tries to show that researchers often make idealized ethical claims and standards which are inherently based on partial truths and self-deceptions. Fine also acknowledges that many of these partial truths and self-deceptions are unavoidable. He maintains that "illusions" are essential to maintain an occupational reputation and avoid potentially more caustic consequences. He claims, "Ethnographers cannot help but lie, but in lying, we reveal truths that escape those who are not so bold". Based on these assertions, Fine establishes three conceptual clusters in which ethnographic ethical dilemmas can be situated: "Classic Virtues", "Technical Skills", and "Ethnographic Self". Much debate surrounding
2268-416: Is not the sine qua non of the discipline, as it is in cultural anthropology. Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, ethnographic research methods began to be widely used by communication scholars. As the purpose of ethnography is to describe and interpret the shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language of a culture-sharing group, Harris, (1968), also Agar (1980) note that ethnography
2352-514: Is not usually evaluated in terms of philosophical standpoint (such as positivism and emotionalism ). Ethnographic studies need to be evaluated in some manner. No consensus has been developed on evaluation standards, but Richardson (2000, p. 254) provides five criteria that ethnographers might find helpful. Jaber F. Gubrium and James A. Holstein's (1997) monograph, The New Language of Qualitative Method, discusses forms of ethnography in terms of their "methods talk". Gary Alan Fine argues that
2436-402: Is often characterized in the writing as attempts to understand taken-for-granted routines by which working definitions are socially produced. Ethnography as a method is a storied, careful, and systematic examination of the reality-generating mechanisms of everyday life (Coulon, 1995). Ethnographic work in communication studies seeks to explain "how" ordinary methods/practices/performances construct
2520-404: Is one of the keys to this process. Ethnography is very useful in social research. An inevitability during ethnographic participation is that the researcher experiences at least some resocialization. In other words, the ethnographer to some extent “becomes” what they are studying. For instance, an ethnographer may become skilled at a work activity that they are studying; they may become members of
2604-597: Is organized in a geriatric hospital. Another approach to ethnography in sociology comes in the form of institutional ethnography , developed by Dorothy E. Smith for studying the social relations which structure people's everyday lives. Other notable ethnographies include Paul Willis 's Learning to Labour, on working class youth; the work of Elijah Anderson , Mitchell Duneier , and Loïc Wacquant on black America, and Lai Olurode's Glimpses of Madrasa From Africa . But even though many sub-fields and theoretical perspectives within sociology use ethnographic methods, ethnography
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2688-686: The Ethnographisch Museum Artis . These objects are split up into many collections. The museum houses collections for many geographical areas such as Southeast Asia , South Asia , West Asia , North Africa , Sub-Saharan Africa , Latin America and the Caribbean . They also have several collections in storage that fall outside of their scope. These include collections for China , Japan , Korea , and Europe . The photography collection consists mainly of historical photographs of
2772-1079: The Netherlands , founded in 2014. It consists of the Tropenmuseum ( transl. Tropical Museum ) in Amsterdam , the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal , and the Museum Volkenkunde ( transl. Ethnology Museum ) in Leiden . The National Museum of World Cultures works in close cooperation with the Wereldmuseum ( transl. World Museum ) in Rotterdam . It is also part of nation-wide Dutch organisations for research into provenance studies and projects of restitution of cultural heritage to countries of origin, like
2856-451: The "ethos" of the culture. In his fieldwork, Geertz used elements of a phenomenological approach, tracing not just the doings of people, but the cultural elements themselves. For example, if within a group of people, winking was a communicative gesture, he sought to first determine what kinds of things a wink might mean (it might mean several things). Then, he sought to determine in what contexts winks were used, and whether, as one moved about
2940-518: The 1950s and early 1960s, anthropologists began writing "bio-confessional" ethnographies that intentionally exposed the nature of ethnographic research. Famous examples include Tristes Tropiques (1955) by Lévi-Strauss, The High Valley by Kenneth Read, and The Savage and the Innocent by David Maybury-Lewis , as well as the mildly fictionalized Return to Laughter by Elenore Smith Bowen ( Laura Bohannan ). Later " reflexive " ethnographies refined
3024-455: The 1970s. In January 2021, the Dutch government approved a central mechanism for the repatriation of colonial heritage. Upon the recommendations of an advisory commission, it announced to return any objects in the national collections found to have been illegally taken from former Dutch colonies. To this end, a research group of nine museums and Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit are said to launch
3108-539: The Dutch culture minister returned a gold-inlaid kris – a large dagger – to the Indonesian ambassador in The Hague, on the basis of provenance research conducted by the museum. It belonged to Prince Diponegoro, a Javanese rebel leader and Indonesian hero who waged a five-year war against Dutch colonial rule from 1825 to 1830. Some of his belongings, including a saddle and a spear, were repatriated to Indonesia in
3192-562: The NMVW, said about this discussion: “It led us to question our colonial history, and we saw that we had the potential to ask a lot of questions about identity, control, power, inequality and decolonization .” According to an article about the NMVW, published in the UNESCO Courier of October/December 2020, the museum began work on its guidance for repatriation in 2017. Already before this, repatriations are said to have "occurred over
3276-651: The Pina in 1926. All being people she wished to study for her anthropological data. Benedict's experiences with the Southwest Zuni pueblo is to be considered the basis of her formative fieldwork. The experience set the idea for her to produce her theory of "culture is personality writ large" (modell, 1988). By studying the culture between the different Pueblo and Plain Indians, She discovered the culture isomorphism that would be considered her personalized unique approach to
3360-668: The Western Pacific (1922) by Bronisław Malinowski , Ethnologische Excursion in Johore (1875) by Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay , Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) by Margaret Mead , The Nuer (1940) by E. E. Evans-Pritchard , Naven (1936, 1958) by Gregory Bateson , or " The Lele of the Kasai " (1963) by Mary Douglas . Cultural and social anthropologists today place a high value on doing ethnographic research. The typical ethnography
3444-404: The book of British ethnographer W. H. R. Rivers titled "Kinship and Social Organisation" in 1911. Genealogy or kinship commonly plays a crucial role in the structure of non-industrial societies, determining both social relations and group relationship to the past. Marriage, for example, is frequently pivotal in determining military alliances between villages , clans or ethnic groups . In
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3528-499: The code is limited in scope; ethnographic work can sometimes be multidisciplinary, and anthropologists need to be familiar with ethics and perspectives of other disciplines as well. The eight-page code of ethics outlines ethical considerations for those conducting Research, Teaching, Application and Dissemination of Results, which are briefly outlined below. The following are commonly misconceived conceptions of ethnographers: According to Norman K. Denzin, ethnographers should consider
3612-501: The course of that century. Ethnographers mainly use qualitative methods, though they may also employ quantitative data. The typical ethnography is a holistic study and so includes a brief history, and an analysis of the terrain , the climate , and the habitat . A wide range of groups and organisations have been studied by this method, including traditional communities, youth gangs , religious cults , and organisations of various kinds. While, traditionally, ethnography has relied on
3696-404: The decades, but claims had previously been handled on an ad hoc basis." In March 2019, a document called Return of Cultural Objects: Principles and Process was published, to express “the overall mission of the museum to address the long, complex and entangled histories that have resulted in the collections the museum holds.” It includes a “commitment to transparently address and evaluate claims for
3780-424: The development of experimental forms such as 'dialogic anthropology,' 'narrative ethnography,' and 'literary ethnography', Writing Culture helped to encourage the development of 'collaborative ethnography.' This exploration of the relationship between writer, audience, and subject has become a central tenet of contemporary anthropological and ethnographic practice. In certain instances, active collaboration between
3864-633: The discipline, under the general influence of literary theory and post-colonial / post-structuralist thought. "Experimental" ethnographies that reveal the ferment of the discipline include Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man by Michael Taussig , Debating Muslims by Michael F. J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, A Space on the Side of the Road by Kathleen Stewart, and Advocacy after Bhopal by Kim Fortun. This critical turn in sociocultural anthropology during
3948-467: The earliest well-known studies was Lewis Henry Morgan 's The American Beaver and His Works (1868). His study closely observed a group of beavers in Northern Michigan. Morgan's main objective was to highlight that the daily individual tasks that the beavers performed were complex communicative acts that had been passed down for generations. In the early 2000s multi-species ethnography took on
4032-517: The early 1970s a new wing for children was added. This wing is now called Tropenmuseum Junior. Until March 2014 the museum was owned and operated by the Royal Tropical Institute , a foundation that sponsored the study of tropical cultures around the world. The museum had 317.572 visitors in 2022. The original building, officially opened in 1926, was designed by Johannes Jacobus van Nieukerken and Marie Adrianus van Nieukerken. It
4116-581: The early history of fantasy role-playing games . Other important ethnographies in sociology include Pierre Bourdieu 's work in Algeria and France. Jaber F. Gubrium's series of organizational ethnographies focused on the everyday practices of illness, care, and recovery are notable. They include Living and Dying at Murray Manor, which describes the social worlds of a nursing home; Describing Care: Image and Practice in Rehabilitation, which documents
4200-498: The entire process of conducting ethnographies, including the design, implementation, and reporting of an ethnographic study. Essentially, Fine maintains that researchers are typically not as ethical as they claim or assume to be — and that "each job includes ways of doing things that would be inappropriate for others to know". Also see Jaber F. Gubrium concept of "site-specificity" discussed his book co-edited with Amir Marvasti titled CRAFTING ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDWORK. Routledge, 2023. Fine
4284-528: The ethnographer cannot escape the personal viewpoint in creating an ethnographic account, thus making any claims of objective neutrality highly problematic, if not altogether impossible. In regards to this last point, Writing Culture became a focal point for looking at how ethnographers could describe different cultures and societies without denying the subjectivity of those individuals and groups being studied while simultaneously doing so without laying claim to absolute knowledge and objective authority. Along with
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#17327834283234368-488: The ethnographer focuses attention on a community, selecting knowledgeable informants who know the activities of the community well. These informants are typically asked to identify other informants who represent the community, often using snowball or chain sampling. This process is often effective in revealing common cultural denominators connected to the topic being studied. Ethnography relies greatly on up-close, personal experience. Participation, rather than just observation,
4452-882: The field of epistemology the term is used to characterize the philosophical method employed by such writers as Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault . Digital ethnography is also seen as virtual ethnography. This type of ethnography is not so typical as ethnography recorded by pen and pencil. Digital ethnography allows for a lot more opportunities to look at different cultures and societies. Traditional ethnography may use videos or images, but digital ethnography goes more in-depth. For example, digital ethnographers would use social media platforms such as Twitter or blogs so that people's interactions and behaviors can be studied. Modern developments in computing power and AI have enabled higher efficiencies in ethnographic data collection via multimedia and computational analysis using machine learning to corroborate many data sources together to produce
4536-471: The following seven principles when observing, recording, and sampling data: Autoethnography is a form of ethnographic research in which a researcher connects personal experiences to wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings. According to Adams et al., autoethnography Bochner and Ellis have also defined autoethnography as "an autobiographical genre of writing and research that displays multiple layers of consciousness, connecting
4620-966: The formal sciences. Material culture, technology, and means of subsistence are usually treated next, as they are typically bound up in physical geography and include descriptions of infrastructure. Kinship and social structure (including age grading, peer groups, gender, voluntary associations, clans, moieties, and so forth, if they exist) are typically included. Languages spoken, dialects, and the history of language change are another group of standard topics. Practices of child rearing, acculturation, and emic views on personality and values usually follow after sections on social structure. Rites, rituals, and other evidence of religion have long been an interest and are sometimes central to ethnographies, especially when conducted in public where visiting anthropologists can see them. As ethnography developed, anthropologists grew more interested in less tangible aspects of culture, such as values, worldview and what Clifford Geertz termed
4704-573: The former Dutch colony in today's Indonesia . The Dutch National Museum of World Cultures (NMVW) was founded in 2014 by a merger of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam , the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden and the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal . It also oversees the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam , whose collection belongs to that city. According to the museum's webpage, these collections contain "nearly 450,000 objects and 260,000 photographic images that are part of national or municipal collections, and another 350.000 images of documentary value." The NMVW
4788-616: The former Dutch Colonies from 1855 to 1940. In the period 2009-2015 the Tropemmuseum released 50,000 photographs under a Creative Commons licence to the Wikimedia Commons . A theatric collection is housed at the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam as well. The collection houses 5,500 musical instruments as well as various other theatrical objects such as masks and puppets. It also features 21,000 textile artifacts,
4872-1097: The idea of the image is a primary tool for ethnographers to collect data. The image presents the perspective, experiences, and influences of an individual as a single entity and in consequence, the individual will always contain this image in the group under study. The ethnographic method is used across a range of different disciplines, primarily by anthropologists/ethnologists but also occasionally by sociologists. Cultural studies , occupational therapy , economics , social work , education , design , psychology , computer science , human factors and ergonomics , ethnomusicology , folkloristics , religious studies , geography , history , linguistics , communication studies , performance studies , advertising , accounting research , nursing , urban planning , usability , political science , social movement , and criminology are other fields which have made use of ethnography. Cultural anthropology and social anthropology were developed around ethnographic research and their canonical texts, which are mostly ethnographies: e.g. Argonauts of
4956-477: The institute began research to increase profits made off the colonies. This included attempting to develop improved means of producing coffee beans, rotan and paraffin. The museum came under the influence of ethnologists , who added information on the economy, manners, and customs of the inhabitants. In 1926, they inaugurated the current building in East Amsterdam. At the time, they had 30,000 objects, and
5040-610: The issue of ethics arose following revelations about how the ethnographer Napoleon Chagnon conducted his ethnographic fieldwork with the Yanomani people of South America. While there is no international standard on Ethnographic Ethics, many western anthropologists look to the American Anthropological Association for guidance when conducting ethnographic work. In 2009, the Association adopted
5124-602: The methodological questions more central to a specifically ethnographical approach to internet studies, drawing upon Fine's classic text. Multispecies ethnography in particular focuses on both nonhuman and human participants within a group or culture, as opposed to just human participants in traditional ethnography. A multispecies ethnography, in comparison to other forms of ethnography, studies species that are connected to people and our social lives. Species affect and are affected by culture, economics, and politics. The study's roots go back to general anthropology of animals. One of
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#17327834283235208-412: The mid-1980s can be traced to the influence of the now classic (and often contested) text, Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography , (1986) edited by James Clifford and George Marcus . Writing Culture helped bring changes to both anthropology and ethnography often described in terms of being 'postmodern,' 'reflexive,' 'literary,' 'deconstructive,' or 'poststructural' in nature, in that
5292-443: The nature of ethnographic inquiry demands that researchers deviate from formal and idealistic rules or ethics that have come to be widely accepted in qualitative and quantitative approaches in research. Many of these ethical assumptions are rooted in positivist and post-positivist epistemologies that have adapted over time but are apparent and must be accounted for in all research paradigms. These ethical dilemmas are evident throughout
5376-519: The ordinary actions used by ordinary people in the accomplishments of their identities. This often gives the perception of trying to answer the "why" and "how come" questions of human communication. Often this type of research results in a case study or field study such as an analysis of speech patterns at a protest rally, or the way firemen communicate during "down time" at a fire station. Like anthropology scholars, communication scholars often immerse themselves, and participate in and/or directly observe
5460-443: The particular social group being studied. The American anthropologist George Spindler was a pioneer in applying the ethnographic methodology to the classroom. Anthropologists such as Daniel Miller and Mary Douglas have used ethnographic data to answer academic questions about consumers and consumption. In this sense, Tony Salvador, Genevieve Bell , and Ken Anderson describe design ethnography as being "a way of understanding
5544-648: The particulars of daily life in such a way as to increase the success probability of a new product or service or, more appropriately, to reduce the probability of failure specifically due to a lack of understanding of the basic behaviors and frameworks of consumers." Sociologist Sam Ladner argues in her book, that understanding consumers and their desires requires a shift in "standpoint", one that only ethnography provides. The results are products and services that respond to consumers' unmet needs. Businesses, too, have found ethnographers helpful for understanding how people use products and services. By assessing user experience in
5628-442: The personal to the cultural." They further indicate that autoethnography is typically written in first-person and can "appear in a variety of forms," such as "short stories, poetry, fiction, novels, photographic essays, personal essays, journals, fragmented and layered writing, and social science prose." The genealogical method investigates links of kinship determined by marriage and descent . The method owes its origin from
5712-544: The physical presence of the researcher in a setting, there is research using the label that has relied on interviews or documents, sometimes to investigate events in the past such as the NASA Challenger disaster . There is also a considerable amount of 'virtual' or online ethnography, sometimes labelled netnography or cyber-ethnography . The term ethnography is from Greek ( ἔθνος éthnos "folk, people, nation" and γράφω gráphō "I write") and encompasses
5796-444: The research topic. In the past, kinship charts were commonly used to "discover logical patterns and social structure in non-Western societies". In the 21st century, anthropology focuses more on the study of people in urban settings and the use of kinship charts is seldom employed. In order to make the data collection and interpretation transparent, researchers creating ethnographies often attempt to be "reflexive". Reflexivity refers to
5880-423: The researcher participating in the setting or with the people being studied, at least in some marginal role, and seeking to document, in detail, patterns of social interaction and the perspectives of participants, and to understand these in their local contexts. It had its origin in social and cultural anthropology in the early twentieth century, but spread to other social science disciplines, notably sociology, during
5964-432: The researcher's aim "to explore the ways in which [the] researcher's involvement with a particular study influences, acts upon and informs such research". [Marvasti, Amir & Gubrium, Jaber. 2023. Crafting Ethnographic Fieldwork: Sites, Selves & Social Worlds. Routledge. Despite these attempts of reflexivity, no researcher can be totally unbiased. This factor has provided a basis to criticize ethnography. Traditionally,
6048-455: The researcher(s) and subject(s) has helped blend the practice of collaboration in ethnographic fieldwork with the process of creating the ethnographic product resulting from the research. 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias Sociology
6132-402: The researcher-researched relationships and the links between knowledge and power." Another form of data collection is that of the "image". The image is the projection that an individual puts on an object or abstract idea. An image can be contained within the physical world through a particular individual's perspective, primarily based on that individual's past experiences. One example of an image
6216-409: The resultant data to test and explain the empirical assumptions. In ethnography, the researcher gathers what is available, what is normal, what it is that people do, what they say, and how they work. Ethnography can also be used in other methodological frameworks, for instance, an action research program of study where one of the goals is to change and improve the situation. Ethnographic research
6300-796: The return of cultural objects according to standards of respect, cooperation and timeliness.” In a collaboration with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Expertise Centre for the Restitution of Cultural Goods and the Second World War at the National Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD), the NMVW is focused on Indonesia – with projects to consolidate research into colonial-era military expeditions and trading-house networks. In March 2020,
6384-465: The social organization of patient subjectivity in a physical rehabilitation hospital; Caretakers: Treating Emotionally Disturbed Children, which features the social construction of behavioral disorders in children; and Oldtimers and Alzheimer's: The Descriptive Organization of Senility, which describes how the Alzheimer's disease movement constructed a new subjectivity of senile dementia and how that
6468-480: The study of anthropology using ethnographic techniques. A typical ethnography attempts to be holistic and typically follows an outline to include a brief history of the culture in question, an analysis of the physical geography or terrain inhabited by the people under study, including climate , and often including what biological anthropologists call habitat . Folk notions of botany and zoology are presented as ethnobotany and ethnozoology alongside references from
6552-459: The technique to translate cultural differences by representing their effects on the ethnographer. Famous examples include Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight by Clifford Geertz , Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco by Paul Rabinow , The Headman and I by Jean-Paul Dumont, and Tuhami by Vincent Crapanzano. In the 1980s, the rhetoric of ethnography was subjected to intense scrutiny within
6636-430: The term into the academic discourse in an attempt to reform the contemporary understanding of world history. According to Dewan (2018), the researcher is not looking for generalizing the findings; rather, they are considering it in reference to the context of the situation. In this regard, the best way to integrate ethnography in a quantitative research would be to use it to discover and uncover relationships and then use
6720-428: The text helped to highlight the various epistemic and political predicaments that many practitioners saw as plaguing ethnographic representations and practices. Where Geertz's and Turner's interpretive anthropology recognized subjects as creative actors who constructed their sociocultural worlds out of symbols, postmodernists attempted to draw attention to the privileged status of the ethnographers themselves. That is,
6804-452: The ways in which ancient authors described and analyzed foreign cultures. Anthony Kaldellis loosely suggests the Odyssey as a starting point for ancient ethnography, while noting that Herodotus ' Histories is the usual starting point; while Edith Hall has argued that Homeric poetry lacks "the coherence and vigour of ethnological science". From Herodotus forward, ethnography was
6888-663: The writer Frederik van Eeden , and secretary of the Maatschappij ter bevordering van Nijverheid (English: Society for the Promotion of Industry ) established the Koloniaal Museum (English: Colonial Museum ) in Haarlem in 1864, and opened the museum to the public in 1871. The museum was founded in order to show Dutch overseas possessions, and the inhabitants of these foreign countries, such as Indonesia . In 1871
6972-414: Was created in the context of public discussions in the Netherlands, as well as in other European countries, about the colonial history of ethnographic collections and calls for the restitution of African cultural heritage to different countries of origin. About forty per cent of the collection in the museum is estimated to have been acquired in colonial contexts. As Stijn Schoonderwoerd, then director of
7056-460: Was richly decorated for the time, and took 11 years to build due to World War I and various labor strikes . All of the artwork in the building was created in the first half of the 20th century. In 2003, the museum was listed as a historical building in Amsterdam. Until the merger in 2014, the museum collection contained 175,000 objects, 155,000 photographs and 10,000 miscellaneous drawings, paintings, and documents. It inherited 15,000 of these from
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