Ethnographers - those of us who use ethnographic research - rely on observations in order to gain a more complex understanding of people and places. Observations allow us to take into account not only what people tell us about themselves, their cultures, and the places they inhabit; they help us to better understand many details or even overarching tendencies of which people within a culture may not be aware. For example, if you ask a person to tell you when they normally eat, they might be inclined to tell you the times of day that they sit down at a table and eat something off of a plate. What they might forget to tell you is that they also ate something small while driving in their car or walking down the hall at school. So when we use our observation skills, we are able to capture additional layers of information that could prove important later.
Participant Observation is the most common research method anthropologists use to conduct ethnographic research. "Participant observation" means much like it sounds: observing as a participant. Because one of the goals of ethnographic research is to try to understand the perspectives of those the research is about, anthropologists try to experience life in ways similar to the people they are studying. This is why anthropologists will often spend more than a year living within a culture to conduct ethnographic research. Doing so allows them to take on the dual role of a local and an observer. Regardless of the size of project, if it is possible to safely and ethically participate in the research, in addition to conducting observations, it is usually recommended as it allows the research to gain greater insight into the culture being studied by way of personal experience. Some examples of participant observation are:
- Walking on a track at a park while observing the people and the landscape in and around the park
- Taking dance classes and observing the interactions between the students and the teachers
- Attending and participating in a religious service to observe how gender factors into participation.
In the beginning especially, like wondering, observing is not about arriving at hard and fast conclusions. For example, let's say for your observation assignment you decide you will focus on people in the food court at the mall. Lately, you've been thinking and hearing lots about the importance of racial and ethnic diversity and questions of equity and inclusion. When you arrive at the food court and begin observing, your eyes immediately become focused on the variety of skin tones, hair textures, accents, and styles of dress of the people. You may be tempted to conclude, "The mall food court was very diverse. People of all different races and ethnicities were present." However, such a conclusion is questionable and appears to have been influenced by bias. Let me explain. It is very likely that the people in the food court had different skin tones, hair textures, accents, and styles of dress from one another. However, without speaking to each of them, we do not know which races and ethnicities each of them identifies with in order to conclude even which specific races and ethnicities were present let alone specific data to conclude that "all different races and ethnicities were present." Instead, we could say, that given the variety of skin tones, hair textures, accents, styles of dress and the various combinations of each that you observed at the food court suggests that the food court might evidence a certain degree of racial and ethnic diversity (a topic that could be studied more in-depth at a later date with surveys or interviews).
Example of Observing
Let's now consider the example of conducting observations at a park to explore the different kinds of things each of our senses might tell us.
- Observing with our sense of sight
- The grass is green in some areas but not in others. Some parts of the grass even appear to be different shades of green and maybe even different types of grass.
- The sidewalk around the park is cracked and in a state of disrepair in some parts and seemingly new in other spots.
- The trees are planted in rows in one area of the park and in clusters in another area. Also, different trees seem to be planted in different areas of the park.
- The playground in the park is located in the center of the park whereas the baseball diamond is located toward the southwest corner of the park.
- Many houses lining the park have colorfully painted wooden siding, but some houses on the north and west side of the park have brick, aluminum siding, and are not as brightly colored.
- Some streets lining the park have speed bumps but not others.
- If you follow the track/sidewalk on one side of the park it takes you around the armory building away from the green space but on the other side of the park, the track keeps you within the green space of the park.
- The streets within one block of the park in all directions are all different. The streets on the north side evidence many older-looking well-maintained homes and some businesses. The streets on the south side of the park, however, evidence some abandoned buildings, very little grass/yards, lots of chain link fences, and a few storefronts with broken glass.
- The people at the park in the early morning are often walking around the track and/or walking with dogs. Many of these people at the park at this hour are adults; some walk alone and others walk in pairs or small groups.
- Observing with our sense of smell
- Parks can evidence many different smells, whether those of grass, hot food, produce, trash, trees/leaves, flowers, dirt, mulch, sweat, feces, urine, car exhaust, alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis etc.
- Sometimes you may smell something you can't quite identify, in which case, describe what you smell.
- Other times, you won't smell much at all, which is also worth noting.
- Observing with our sense of taste
- You might be able to taste the air at the park, in which case, describe what you taste.
- Quite often, however, you will only use your sense of taste for observations in situations where you are observing something that offers you the chance to eat like at a farmer’s market at a park. There, you may have the opportunity to taste fresh food, cooked food, coffee, ice cream etc.
- If your observations don't include many tastes, this fact is noteworthy and will add to your understanding of the place.
- Observing with our sense of touch
- In some areas of the park the ground is soft; the mulch in the playground area is almost spongy and uneven at the same time; some of the grassy areas feel softer than others.
- In other areas of the park , the ground feels quite hard, like on the paved paths running around and throughout the park or the curbs and asphalt streets surrounding the park.
- The wooden benches feel hard and smooth at the same time.
- The playground equipment feels mostly smooth but depending on the specific part of the playground, the equipment can also feel squishy, slippery, and even sticky.
- Observing with our sense of hearing
- You can often hear many things at the park, whether it be the sounds of leaves blowing, raindrops falling, the wind howling, people talking, shoes hitting the pavement, car engines revving, music playing, beeps from maintenance vehicles backing up, or the screams and laughter of children.
- Depending on the time of day and day of the week, sometimes you can even hear preachers preaching, the whiny jingle of an ice cream truck, a band playing, a singer singing, or the sirens of first responder vehicles.
Documenting Observations
When conducting ethnographic research, it is critical that we document what we observe. Below are some tips for documenting observations:
- Note-taking. Note-taking is the most common way to document observations when conducting ethnographic fieldwork. Researchers take notes in pocket-sized notebooks, on note-taking apps on their phones, and by typing on laptops and tablets. How you take notes, and what you take notes on while conducting observations is up to you and may be determined by the environment, whether in terms of convenience or appropriateness. For example, it may be inappropriate to take notes at all during a religious service let alone be typing on a laptop. Therefore, we find other ways to take notes, which may involve stepping away from participation from time to time to jot down a few key words, phrases, or names. Most often, ethnographers will take shorthand notes while engaging in participant observation and then take substantial time to flesh them out more fully as soon as possible after the fact. Just be careful not to embellish or fill in blanks if they arise.
- Voice Dictation. Especially when observing a situation in which it can be difficult or impossible to take detailed notes, taking time immediately after the event to find a quiet space and dictate your observations can be the fastest way to document them before you forget them. Later, you can go back and listen and transcribe them into written notes.
- Recorded Material. Researchers often document sounds and images of their observations through audio or video recording, photos, or sketches. Just be mindful to gain permission prior to including anyone in your recorded material. Make sure to follow your institution's recording protocols for human participant research.
More Wondering. Once we have had the chance to document our observations, we can begin to allow ourselves to wonder once again! We can begin to ask ourselves "why" about our observations, and just like before, we want to be slow to jump to conclusions.
Example of More Wondering
Sticking with the park example, some questions we might begin to ask ourselves are:
- Who is at the park in the morning, noon, afternoon, and evening? What about the day of week or season? Do you see any patterns in terms of things like ages, groups vs. individuals, or activities? Why might this be?
- Who is not at the park? Are there any groups of people omitted or underrepresented? Why might this be?
- Which people seem to use certain areas of the park more than others? Who engages in what types of activities? Why might this be?
- What does the park look like from different angles? How does your approach to the park impact how you observe it? Would your understanding of the park be different had you approached it from a different angle? What if we could only see the park from a birds-eye view from up above? How would that perspective change our understanding of it?
- Do the people who live in the houses facing the park use the park? How often?
- On average, how far away does the average user of the park reside?
- Why is the armory building on the south end of the park divided from the park with a chain-linked fence surrounding a large, mostly empty parking lot? Did it always look like that or was the armory ever more integrated with the park's green space? If so, how and why?
- What is the history of the residences surrounding the parks? Who lived in them and how did the residences and the inhabitants change over time?
- How has the park itself changed over the years? Are the trees that are currently standing in the park the trees that were planted when the park was first created?
- What about the baseball diamond, the kids' playground, the bocce and volleyball courts, the fenced-in statue of Ebenezer Dexter, the stone seats arranged like Stonehenge, the domino tables, and and all of the paved walkways?
- Who takes care of the park? Where does the funding come from?
- Has the park been valued consistently by the community and the city throughout its history? Why or why not?
- Why have the interior walking paths been repaved but the perimeter walking paths remain in disrepair?
As we continue to wonder, if we decide we want to gather more information, we can do more participant observation, conduct library and internet research, or we could conduct interviews, which will be addressed in the next section.
For more examples of observing in ethnographic research, click here to check out the Examples page.