Two difficulties ethnographers face when doing fieldwork?

Question

I can think of one that is locals wont accept them and trust them because they are outsiders..can anyone give me a more elaborate answer? I need TWO reasons...thank you so much!

Answer 1

Well, one is ethnocentrism, i.e. the ethnographer being attached to their own culture and placing judgment on the culture they are studying.

An other could be the deception of the people being interviewed. It happens that anthropologists have been toyed with by those they wish to understand, but if they are persistent, there is the possibility of getting past this.

Answer 2

My 2 guesses:

Personal ethnic bias

The dichotomy of What We Say We Do vs What We Do

Answer 3

go to this link and you'll find plenty to find on their techniques and what entails what is such a complex job...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnography

Answer 4

Another problem that is not as common has to do with being part of the culture they are studying.  A complete outsider sees things that individuals within a culture don't.  Once you are submersed in it, you start to overlook things that start to be normal you.  "Just the way things are" kinds of things.  When I had to write a short ethnography on a subculture for my ethnography class, we were told to be wary of this problem and try to find a subculture that was as foreign to us as possible.

Answer 5

1. Seeing all those naked women and not being able to tap it.

2. Seeing all those naked men and hoping you don't go blind.

Answer 6

Ethnographers usually are first Anthropologists, as they need a foundation to build their study upon other than just ethnography and going to locations to study people. To make their work effective they'll need ethnology and like I said Anthropology.

What you have about locals not trusting their ethnographer is a part of becomming associated with the location but not a definate occurance as officials may make the study better known and friendly by the locals.

One major difficulty with being an ethnographer is the length of their study being able to provide the research that they need, or a portion of it.

Usually an ethnographer will make several regular trips to the location of study to experience their research in different seasons, at different yearly events, or when the participating informants have grown older.

The thing that makes some study's less accurate is when only one anthropologist conducts research and no others do further independent study there making the gained infromation and research more difficult to do ethnology with. Further a good ethnographer will generally do their study on a topic they choose to make a career out of, and then study a few single locations for several years even decades. This definately is a gaureentee that quality and more accurate work will result.

Another difficulty is in being an outsider. The ethnographer has the ability to train to see things in the locals' perspectives and customary way, but sometimes they remain unable to experience the culture completely, ie through initiation to the studied peoples tribe or nationality, baptism into their religious sector (if church), true belief in their ways (almost ethnocentric), or in being born there, living their life there, and marrying a local. This latter certainly would be unprofessional, however describes how even being an anthropologist even concludes that ethnograpgy or anthropology cannot completely experience a culture, except for a good portion of it.