NCJ Number
234128
Date Published
1987
Length
355 pages
Annotation
This second of two volumes on systematic fieldwork in ethnography (a text that discusses a social group or a knowledge system and makes the claim that it bears a close resemblance to the life in the group or to the knowledge in a social system) addresses ethnographic analysis and data management.
Abstract
An ethnography can be viewed as an expert system, i.e., a database to which anyone interested in the subject of the ethnography can refer. Part I of this volume is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter discusses the management of an ethnographic database. This encompasses the establishment of an appropriate data retrieval system. The second chapter presents the structural methods of "classical" ethnoscience, primarily based on the relations M and T. The third chapter introduces methods that go beyond static structural analysis, primarily the relation Q (verbal action plans). The fourth chapter discusses verbal action plans and their dependence on decisionmaking. The fifth chapter develops techniques of decision modeling, followed by a chapter that extends proposed methods to semantic systems based on complex relations rarely used in cognitive ethnographic analysis; for example, causal chains, themes, and values. The seventh chapter shows the applicability of the proposed methods to the analysis of texts, and the eighth chapter discusses the uses of "hapax logomenon" for data reduction, as well as various statistical techniques that can be applied to ethnographic analysis. Part II of the volume addresses the activities of writing the ethnographic report after analysis is complete, and Part III discusses the need for minimum standards for the craft of ethnography. A list of recommended minimum standards is presented that covers all topics and techniques discussed in both volumes. 62 figures, 170 references, and a subject index