THE OBSERVATION OF PARTICIPATION AND THE EMERGENCE OF PUBLIC ETHNOGRAPHY

Participant observation was created during the late 19th century as an ethnographic field method for the study of small, homogeneous cultures. Ethnographers were expected to live in a society for an extended period of time (2 years, ideally), actively participate in the daily life of its members, and carefully observe their joys and sufferings as a way of obtaining material for social scientific study. This method was widely believed to produce...