Field note (ethnology)

A field note (ethnology) is one of the basic research tools that enables registration of events, phenomena, characters, their features and properties, conversations, etc. during field tests.

forms

It can take different forms, depending on the persistence method: Methodological practice

In ethnology, it is assumed that a note should be prepared on an ongoing basis, while participating in events, but it is not always possible due to the social conditioning of research. Systematic in their preparation is important

The aim of the field note is to allow the most accurate reproduction of the research situation, which facilitates analysis and widens the field of interpretation of the collected material. Notes can be short, passwords, if they start a series of associations, to help you later recall event details

Fragments containing the current interpretation should be clearly marked in order not to be considered as fact or statement of the examined person. During the interviews, recording works best because it allows the researcher to focus fully on the interview and usually provides greater freedom to the subject being examined. issues

Each form of the note has some limitations.

Manual entries make it difficult to focus on observation / interview;

Audio recording may be distorted by background noise; does not save behavior and non-verbal communication, skips the context of the meeting. All this makes the statements themselves the main material for analysis. Another obstacle is the time-consuming development of recordings (transcription).

The ethnographic film eliminates the problem of subjectivity - anthropologist / anthropologist decides what, when and how it records.

The use of photography requires a detailed analysis of photos, because (like video) it is selective; the person behind the camera decides about the moment of taking the picture, composition, etc. Data storage and retrieval

All collected data are kept in ethnography in chronological order. The need to organize it in other categories appears at the stage of analysis. The key is to create the right categories, to think about how to divide the material. Coding of memo fragments allows you to assign them to more than one category. The classic tool is the sorting index, which is increasingly replaced by computer software (including Ethnograph, Text Analysis Package, Textbase Alpha, Qualpro), enabling the creation of databases and structuring them according to specific topics. Bibliography

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