Are the ethnographic method and comparative method really the same ?

Question

i understand (of my textual readings) that they aren't, the latter is statistical analysis of the data collected of the former.

but certain other sources have.....confused me!!

please clarify, thanks

Answer 1

Sorry Lola P, those are techniques. The method comprises a set of ordered procedures. Techniques are auxiliary elements to methods.

Answer 2

there really isnt an "ethnographic method" because when doing an ethnography you can use many methods such as interviews, participant observation, etc.

Answer 3

The ethographic method is the more traditional approach to Anthropology and Social Science in general. It is a detailed descriptive study of a particular ethic, language, religious group and consists of a social scientist, or group of social scientists, embedding themselves in a particular community, and carefully documenting (by observing) their actions, values, rituals, traditions, ceremonies and the like. Famous ethnographic studies conducted by Ruth Benedict and Margeret Mead, (studies of Polynesian cultures of the Pacific) - and Claude Levi Strauss. the latter conducted the one of the first major ethnographic (if not the first) study of the Bororo Indians, and in the Mato Grasso and Amazon Basin. These are examples of detailed descriptions of the day-today lives of various remote tribes in South America. The comparative analysis methodology is useful in Ethnographic studies, when comparing the social structure of different human social groups - tribes, clans, communities and the like. However, Ethnographic Studies may also be a once-off phenomenon, not always culminating in a comparative analysis / study. the comparative method is also used in textual / content analysis - comparing data sets - figures, graphs, charts etc, and are not then necessarily Ethnographic. In such cases, the emphasis is more on explanation of available data, attempting to detect patterns, cycles, trends, etc, as indicated by the available data. Often, predictions, prognoses that do not really constitute Ethnography, come into play, again based upon the interpretation of different data sets / sources. the two cocepts therefore do overlap, but are also dependent concepts by the same token, with varations in goals, purpose, and function...