How to Consider Ethnography in the Study of African History

Ethnography gives you the perspective of researchers who have traveled to Africa.

Ethnography is a method of research that studies human groups through field study, including interviews, questionnaires, and participant observations. Ethnography is the fundamental research method of cultural anthropology. The way you consider ethnography in the study of African history is to look at the data collected by those who traveled to Africa for interviews and observation. Your job in research is not just to believe everything that the ethnographer's research tells you, but to weigh it according to your other knowledge of African history.

Instructions

1. Understand the meaning of qualitative research. Ethnographers differ from the other types of data gatherers in that they are seeking the native's point of view. A quantitative researcher is concerned with statistical information and a journalist is trying to bring an objective outsiders' interpretation to the research. Ethnographers engage in "participant observation" to learn the perspective of the locals.

2. Look at the biases of the researcher. Many African ethnographers have been European researchers who automatically think in terms of Western standards, making unrelated comparisons between very different cultures. Since many early European and American ethnographies came out of the colonial period in African history, they tended to seek data that would reflect the extent to which Africans had adopted Western customs and standards.

3. Consider the motives of the researcher. Think about the market for the books or articles written by the ethnographer. The researcher might emphasize the scandalous and incredible at the expense of the mundane if his goal is to create an interesting and exciting adventure piece. A missionary, on the other hand, will focus on local beliefs that fit or do not fit within his religious framework. An academic may want to gain additional data for his department's favorite theory. A public policy researcher will look at the locals in terms of his government's current policies and its desired policies for the future.

4. Interpret all documents based on context. All documents you look at from African history must be placed in context and interpreted according to the circumstances under which they were produced. A static representation of the data will not tell the whole story, you should consider the background conditions surrounding the gathering of any data. For instance, look at how the questions are asked, who is asking them, and which particular people are answering them. Look at the extent to which the ethnographer actually became involved in the lives of the locals.

References

• Penn Arts and Sciences: What is Ethnography?
• Memory Against Culture: Arguments and Reminders; Johannes Fabian; 2007