Title: Why Ethnography Is Important - Owlcation
Headings: Why Ethnography Is Important
Why Ethnography Is Important
What is Ethnography?
Understanding Cultural Differences
Missionary Work & The Development of Ethnography
Ethnography & Changing Perspectives
Franz Boas: Cultural Relativism
Bronisław Malinowski: Participant Observation
Margaret Mead: Reflexivity
Ruth Benedict: The Essence of Culture
E.E. Evans-Pritchard: Judging Premises, Not Beliefs
© 2013 Melanie Shebel
Comments

Content: How absurd is this? We know that germs and viruses are the cause of disease. To the Azande, who, at the time of the study, had little to no exposure to scientific methods, witchcraft is a perfectly legitimate reason that a person becomes ill. In fact, an Azande person, upon hearing about bacteria and viruses, might scoff and think it's ridiculous. Think about it. We actually believe that tiny beings attack our bodies. Though modern medicine allows us to show that viruses do exist, it does nothing in the way of proving that the Azande are, in fact, completely wrong about witchcraft. pinterest-pin-it
Missionary in a Tapuyos village, Brazil
Missionary Work & The Development of Ethnography
Missionaries found that understanding another culture was important in achieving their goals of conversion. By immersing themselves in a culture, missionaries found that not only were they able to weave Christianity into the target culture, but groups were more receptive to the missionaries' messages than in cases where missionaries refused or were unable to engage with a group. When working with various cultures, missionaries often took copious notes describing various mechanisms of society within various ethnic groups.