What is Ethnography
In terms of etymology the word "ethnography" is derived from the Greek words "Îθνος" (ethnos: nation) + "γραφία"< "γράφω" (grapho: to write). Ethnography is a research strategy which is designed to observe, examine, explore and describe social and cultural phenomena in action (Murchison, 2009). According to Murchison (2009) "ethnography aims to study life outside of a controlled environment". Ethnographers use a number of different methods and techniques in order to collect data and gain insights through the involvement and interaction with other human beings. This interaction may involve interviews, conversations, as well as shared ritual and emotional experiences; therefore, the ethnographic researcher is not a detached or uninvolved observer.
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Brief history
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As stated in Murchison (2009) ethnography was developed as a research strategy within the discipline of anthropology at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century in the context of specific historical circumstances, such as the dominant understandings of gender, ethnicity and race, the European imperialism as well as the American expansionist tendencies.
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Anthropology has used ethnography in order to expose human systems offering insights, as well as explicit or implicit techniques of these systems and their understandings. Situations of disempowerment and suffering have been addressed in the early ethnographic research. White males were the first ethnographers that went from academic and political centers in Europe and the United States in order to study marginalized groups in geographically distant areas (Murchison, 2009).
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Bronislaw Malinowski, Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict and E.E. Evans-Pritchard have given some important ethnographic texts and videos. Most of the early ethnographies provided definitive information about particular groups of people such as the Trobriand islanders (Malinowski 1922) the Nuer (Evans-Pritchard 1940) and the Japanese (Benedict 1946). These texts contributed in establishing a sense of cultural essence in a time where cultural difference "was the subject of much discussion" (Murchison, 2009, p.5).