BSOE-144

Indira Gandhi National Open University

School of Social Sciences

READING
ETHNOGRAPHIES

School of Social Sciences

Indira Gandhi National Open University
EXPERTS COMMITTEE
Prof R.K.Jain (Retd.) Prof. Rabindra Kumar
CSSS, J.N.U Discipline of Sociology
New Delhi SOSS, IGNOU, New Delhi

Prof. Nilika Mehrotra Dr. Archana Singh

CSSS, J.N.U Discipline of Sociology
New Delhi. SOSS, IGNOU, New Delhi

Prof. Debal K. Singha Roy Dr. Kiranmayi Bhushi

Discipline of Sociology Discipline of Sociology
SOSS, IGNOU, New Delhi SOSS, IGNOU, New Delhi

Prof. Nita Mathur Dr. R. Vashum

Discipline of Sociology Discipline of Sociology
SOSS, IGNOU, New Delhi SOSS, IGNOU, New Delhi

COURSE COORDINATORS
Dr. Archana Singh Dr. Deepak Paliwal
Discipline of Sociology Discipline of Sociology
IGNOU, New Delhi IGNOU, New Delhi

GENERAL EDITOR
Prof. Nilika Mehrotra
CSSS, Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi

COURSE PREPARATION TEAM

Unit Writer Editor
(Content, Format and
Language)
Dr. Archana Singh and
Block I Themes in Ethnographies
Dr. Deepak Paliwal
Unit 1 Understanding Dr Gunjan Arora
Ethnography Post Doc Fellow,
Centre of Social Medicine and
Community Health
School of Social Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi
Unit 2 Colonial Dr Gunjan Arora
Ethnography Post Doc Fellow,
Centre of Social Medicine and
Community Health
School of Social Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi
Unit 3 Classical Dr Sumit Saurabh Srivastava
Ethnography Assistant Professor
Centre for Development
Studies,
University of Allahabad
Uttar Pradesh
Unit 4 Indian Dr. Ritika Gulyani
Ethnography Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology,
Miranda House
University of Delhi
Unit 5 Global Dr. Thuanbina Gangmei
Ethnography Assistant Professor,
University of Delhi, Delhi
Dr. Archana Singh and
Block II Ethnographic Cases
Dr. Deepak Paliwal
Unit 6 Argonauts of Dr. Thuanbina Gangmei
the Western Assistant Professor,
University of Delhi, Delhi
Pacific- B.
Malinowski
Unit 7 Coming of Age Dr. Kalindi Sharma
in Samoa-M. Assistant Professor
Mead (Guest), Amity Institute of
Anthropology
Unit 8 Religion and Dr. Indrani Mukherjee
Society among Post-Doctoral Fellow
the Coorgs- Department of Anthropology
M.N. Srinivas University of Delhi
Unit 9 Mukkuvar Dr. Ektaa Jain Sethi
Women: Post-Doctoral Fellow,
Gender, South Asia University,
Hegemony, New Delhi
and Capitalist Kailash Bhawan
Transformation Arya Samaj Road
in a South Rampura, Kota
Indian Fishing
Community-
Kalpana Ram
Unit 10 Stratagems and Dr. Ritika Gulyani
Spoils: Social Assistant Professor
Anthropology Department of Sociology
of Politics- F.G. Miranda House
Bailey University of Delhi
Unit 11 Street Corner Dr. Mahima Nayar
Society- W.F. Independent Researcher 23
Whyte Deepali Pitam Pura, Delhi
Dr. Archana Singh and
Block III Ethnographic Practices and Styles
Dr. Deepak Paliwal
Unit 12 Debates Dr. Ajaz Ahmad Gilani
on Doing Assistant Professor
Ethnography Dept. of Sociology
University of Kashmir
Unit 13 Scientific Dr. Ajaz Ahmad Gilani
Ethnography Assistant Professor
Dept. of Sociology
University of Kashmir
Unit 14 Feminist Prof. Shubhangi Vaidya
Critique to Interdisciplinary Studies
Ethnography IGNOU

Unit 15 Interpretive Dr. Mahima Nayar

Ethnography Independent Researcher 23
Deepali Pitam Pura, Delhi
Unit 16 Ethics and Dr. Twinkle Pal
Ethnography Assistant Professor
Hindu College
University of Delhi
Acknowledgement: We wish to thank Dr. Rukshana Zaman and Dr. Mitoo Das,
Faculty of Anthropology, SOSS, IGNOU

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January, 2022
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COURSE CONTENTS
Page Nos.

BLOCK 1 Themes in Ethnographies

Unit 1 Understanding Ethnography 9
Unit 2 Colonial Ethnography 23
Unit 3 Classical Ethnography 36
Unit 4 Indian Ethnography 45
Unit 5 Global Ethnography 53

BLOCK 2 Ethnographic Cases

Unit 6 Argonauts of the Western Pacific-B. Malinowski 68
Unit 7 Coming of Age in Samoa- M.Mead 85
Unit 8 Religion and Society among the Coorgs
- M. N. Srinivas 95
Unit 9 Mukkuvar Women: Gender, Hegemony and
Capitalist Transformation in a South Indian
Fishing Community– Kalpana Ram 106
Unit 10 Stratagems and Spoils: Social Anthropology
of Politics- F. G. Bailey 114
Unit 11 Street Corner Society- W.F. Whyte 122

BLOCK 3 Ethnographic Practices and Styles

Unit 12 Debates on Doing Ethnography 133
Unit 13 Scientific Ethnography 143
Unit 14 Feminist Critique to Ethnography 153
Unit 15 Interpretive Ethnography 164
Unit 16 Ethics and Ethnography 178

FURTHER READINGS
GLOSSARY
COURSE INTRODUCTION
This course BSOE-144 on Reading Ethnographies encourages the student
to read ethnographic texts in their entirety. It provides the students the
fundamental understanding of ethnography and its varied usages through the
colonial, classical, global and Indian ethnographies. It has simultaneously
provided ethnographic case studies to highlight the socio-cultural, political,
economic, feminist, conflict and urban dimensions of ethnographic writings
citing examples from India and abroad. The last section of this course
delineates ethnographic practices and styles based on the debates in doing
ethnography by highlighting the scientific, feminist, interpretative and
ethical dimension of ethnography.
The Course is divided into three Blocks. First Block is on ‘Themes in
Ethnographies’. It comprises of five units. First Unit informs the learners
about the development of ethnography and discusses how different
theoretical approaches have informed ethnographic practice. The unit also
explains the pre-requisites of writing Ethnography. Second Unit explains how
different theoretical approaches have informed ethnographic practice and
discusses the various trends in ethnographic practice pre and post-colonial
period. Unit three outlines the classical ethnography and its specificities
and also describes the new kind of ethnography of ‘contemporary’ times.
Unit four give a brief description of Emergence of Anthropology in India,
contribution of Indian anthropologist and discusses different phases for the
growth of Indian anthropology.Unit Five explains in detail the process of
Globalization and Ethnography, social relations in an era of globalization
and also discusses the issues and challenges to ethnography from the process
of globalization.
Block 2 on Ethnographic Cases is divided into six units. Unit Six explains the
processes involved in ethnographic research and also explain how to make
mind maps and tables to process the labyrinthine data that one comes across
during the field study. The unit explains the methods of observation and
participation in detail in order to make sense of the reality in its actual context
by giving importance to the inhabitants own meanings and interpretation of
existence including their social, political, economic, religious and mythical
accounts. Unit Seven develops an understanding of the socio-cultural milieu
at the time of the research and publication of the Coming of Age in Samoa
and also recognizes the methodology of practicing Ethnography (classical
to contemporary times). The unit also demonstrates an understanding of
the techniques employed by the Anthropologist. Unit Eight throws light on
the work of M.N.Srinivias “Religion and Society among the Coorgs”. It
also discusses how and why this ethnographic work holds significance in
Anthropology. The unit also explains the essentials of the Coorgs culture in
this book. Unit Nine discusses in detail the position of women in Mukkuvar
society, dichotomy of gendered power vis-a-vis economic independence
and also sociological understanding of the feminine. Unit Ten discuss the
important features and importance of the book “Stratagems and Spoils: A
Social Anthropology of Politics” written by F.G.Bailey. The unit provides
an overview of the book as written by Bailey. It also explains the main ideas
of the book which is to discover some generalised principles in a political
structure, such that it goes beyond the culture that it is found in and that these
tools could be used to help understand research in other cultures as well.
Unit Eleven describes the main themes of the book Street Corner Society,
written by William Foote Whyte (first published in 1943). The book is a study
about social interaction, networking and everyday life among young Italian-
American men in Boston’s North End (called Cornerville by Whyte). The
unit briefly discusses the lives of the street gangs called the ‘corner boys’
as well as their interactions with the racketeers and politicians. It presents
the social relations and leadership patterns which exist in the Cornerville.
An important contribution of the book is the detailing around carrying out
participant observation in a community which is briefly described here. The
main criticisms and important contributions of the book are also presented
in the unit
Block 3 on Ethnographic Practices and Styles is divided into five units. Unit
Twelve discussed the basic concept of ethnography through discussing how
ethnography came into being and its subsequent development over a period
of time. The unit has also discussed various methodological principles
such as naturalism, ethics, the idea of understanding and induction. The
unit explains the various stages of feminist ethnography; and two important
analytical aspects of ethnography. Unit Thirteen describe the issues
concerning the scientific nature of ethnography by going deep into its past
and present of scientific ethnography. The unit discusses how an ethnographer
formulates the research problem, the kind of field site that ethnographers
chose to conduct their fieldwork, how they gain access and what it means to
having access to a particular group or field site, how an ethnographer presents
self to the group in which she/he participates and collects data as well as other
steps until an ethnographer finally writes the report which is the last stage.
This unit helps’ learners to gain an understanding of scientific ethnography
as a method and guides them in carrying out scientific ethnographic research.
Unit Fourteen has attempted to bring out the impact of feminist theory and
practice on ethnography. The unit discuss the strengths and limitations of
the feminist approach and Identifies major areas of inquiry in which feminist
scholars are currently engaged.
Unit Fifteen begins with tracing the history of Interpretive Ethnography-
explores the reasons for the development of a more reflexive form of
ethnography. It explains what is interpretive research; the importance of
Interpretive ethnography and also describes the evolution of interpretive
ethnography. The unit also discusses the advantages and disadvantages
of interpretive ethnographies. Finally the last unit, Sixteen explains the
concept of ethics and ethnography in detail. The unit in detail discusses
various ethical issues that guide ethnographic research.
UNIT 1: UNDERSTANDING
ETHNOGRAPHY*
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 History and Development of Ethnography
1.3 Pre-requisites for Writing Ethnography
1.3.1 A Holistic Outlook
1.3.2 Contextualization
1.3.3 Emic vs Etic perspective
1.3.4 Non-judgmental view of reality
1.4 Types of Ethnographies
1.4.1 Positivist and Functionalist ethnography
1.4.2 Interpretative approach to ethnography
1.4.3 Phenomenological approach
1.4.4 Critical ethnography
1.4.5 Feminist ethnography
1.5 Ethnography Today
1.5.1 Autoethnography
1.5.2 Online ethnography
1.6 Let Us Sum Up
1.7 References
1.8 Answers to Check Your Progress

1.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you should be able to:
●● describe the development of ethnography;
●● discuss how different theoretical approaches have informed
ethnographic practice;
●● explain the pre-requisities of writing Ethnography;
●● list the different types of ethnographies and explain their features; and
●● outline the ethnography today.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
The word Ethnography comes from Ethnos, a Greek term, denotes a people,
a race, or a cultural group. When ethno prefix is combined with graphic to
form the term ethnographic, it refers to the science devoted to describing
ways of life of humankind. Ethnography, then refers to a social scientific

* Written by Dr. Gunjan Arora, Post Doctorate Fellow CSMCH, JNU.

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Themes in Ethnographies description of a people and the cultural basis of their peoplehood (Peacock,
1986).
Ethnography is the art and science of describing a group or culture
(Fetterman,1998:1). Emerging from Anthropology and adopted by social
science disciplines, it is a systematic description of culture through
fieldwork. It involves the ethnographer/researcher participating overtly or
covertly in people’s daily lives for an extended period and recording and
collecting the available data to throw light on the issues that are the focus
of the research (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995;1). Such an endeavour
aims to provide a ‘thick description’(Geertz,1973), i.e., an in-depth detailed
description of everyday life and practice of the people. Ethnography as a
qualitative methodology lends itself to studying the beliefs, practices, social
interactions, and behaviours of the people through participant observation
and later interpreting the data collected(Denzin& Lincoln,2011; Berry,
2011).Thus,
‘Ethnography is the study of the people in naturally occurring settings
of ‘fields’ by means of methods which capture their social meanings and
ordinary activities, involving the researcher participating directly in the
setting, if not also the activities, to collect data in a systematic manner
without the meaning being imposed on them externally’ (Brewer, 2000;10)
In its early stages, there was a desire by the researchers to make ethnography
appear scientific and a set of rules were followed as to how ethnography
should be done. Ethnography developed as a tool of social science. It
involved the social scientific observer, the observed and the research
report as text, and the audience to which the text is presented (Denzin&
Lincoln,2011).
It is essential here to differentiate between ethnography as a process and as
a product. Ethnography as a process, i.e., participating and collecting data
in the field, allows the researcher to observe closely, record and engage in
the daily life of another culture- an experience labelled as the fieldwork
method. Whereas ethnography as a product (i.e., ethnographic writings),
the ethnographer writes the accounts of the culture he studied in descriptive
detail which are ethnographer’s personal and theoretical reflections and are
available for readers (Barnard &Spencer, 1996).
Here in this Unit, you would understand how the ethnographer writes
ethnography for the reader to grasp the social reality. Ethnographic writing
includes a detailed description that is presented in narrative form. The
purpose of the description is to let the reader understand what happened
in the field and the participant’s worldview in the research. It also gives a
glimpse of the social reality as deciphered and interpreted by the researcher
and later produced as an ethnographic text. The text mentions all the
particular events and activities that happened when the researcher was in
the field. It would also tell the reader about those events which may be
worth exploring further.
The ethnographies also include the kind of questions the researcher is
trying to answer. An entire activity or event will often be reported in detail
because it represents a typical or unique experience or allows a very detailed
micro-analysis. But the extensive description of an event from the field is
10
always balanced by analysis and interpretation. An interesting, coherent Understanding Ethnography
and readable ethnographic report should provide sufficient description to
allow the reader to understand the analysis and adequate analysis to enable
the reader to understand the interpretation and explanation presented. It
should also be noted that the facts presented in an ethnography are not just
a set of objective truths but is an interpretation done by the ethnographer.
The anthropologist who goes to the field, observes and participates in the
reality, collects the data and later interprets this data. The interpretation is
a construct of the reality they witnessed that forms the writing of the text.
Before we go further, we must understand how ethnography became an
essential part of social science research.
Check Your Progress 1
1) Define Ethnography
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1.2 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF

ETHNOGRAPHY
In the first half of the 1800s, the term ethnology was more often used to
study people by comparing their material artifacts and cultures. Ethnologists
did not collect information by direct observation; instead, they examined
the archives of government offices, missionaries documents or accounts
of journeys or explorers’ accounts of the ‘primitives’. The descriptions of
the ‘other’ cultures of the world written by Western missionaries, explorers
and colonial administrators presented the perspectives of the colonizers/
conquering civilizations whose mission was to civilize the ‘less civilized’.
Such accounts were a reversed image of the writer’s ethno cultural ideal.
The pioneering anthropologists then were not fieldworkers themselves
but were armchair largely anthropologists. They researched the reports
from missionaries and colonial administrators to second their theories
about cultures other than their own. It is only later that fieldwork became
an essential component of anthropological inquiry. Thus, ethnographic
methodology did not erupt suddenly in anthropology; rather, it arose
gradually through the works of various authors who initiated the fieldwork.
Over time, the term ethnology i.e., the comparative study of culture, fell
out of favour because anthropologists began to do their fieldwork. The term
‘ethnography’(i.e., the empirical study of particular groups of people) was
used to refer to the integration of both the first-hand empirical investigation
and the theoretical and comparative interpretation of social organization
and culture (Hammersley and Atkinson, 2007;1).
British and Chicago Schools of Ethnography
From being the ‘travelers account’, the journey of ethnography to a
specialized text has been an interesting one. The interest of Westerners in
the origins of culture and civilization with an assumption that contemporary
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Themes in Ethnographies ‘primitive’ people, those thought by Westerners to be less civilized than
themselves, were, in effect, living replicas of the ‘great chain of being’ that
linked the occident to its prehistoric beginnings (Hodgen,1964; 386-432).
The cultural diversity of people outside the West posed a problem for these
scholars to account for the origins, histories and development of such racial
and cultural diversity and consider why differences have risen.
Two independent intellectual developments during the twentieth century,
one in Britain and the other in North America, also referred to as the British
and Chicago schools of ethnography, respectively, led to the development
of formal ethnography. The classical tradition of social anthropology that
developed in Britain led to the British school of ethnography, whereas the
other is known as the Chicago Sociological tradition.
Boas, popularly called the father of American anthropology, strongly
denounced the half- baked generalizations propagated by early 19th century
anthropologists based on their scanty data made available through others.
For Boas, to theorise one had to be dependent on proper ethnographic data
collected on a first hand basis. Boas vehemently believed that all fields of
anthropology had to be investigated in order to procure accurate data and to
provide a viewpoint. This thought permitted him to reconstruct the history
of the growth of ideas with much greater accuracy than the generalizations
of a comparative method (Hyatt 1990:43). Boas thus introduced new ways
of doing fieldwork in anthropology where he emphasised on ethnographic
fieldwork, cultural relativism and participant observation method. His
cultural relativism brought in new insights to the study of anthropology as
the emphasis shifted from the reasoning of the investigating anthropologist
to the perception and interpretation of the respondents of the culture
investigated. This was to do away with objective notions of one society
being claimed more superior than another, or more correct than the other
Box 1.0
Though the British school is often linked with European colonialism,
whose primary interest was to know the culture and native people of their
colonies to exploit the labour powers of the natives and also utilize their
natural resources to feed the extractive industries of Europe. It is no longer
associated with colonialism. The European scholars mainly became
interested in studying the ‘other’-focusing on the non-industrialized
people and their culture.
While E Tylor and L. H. Morgan were the pioneers who wrote on
ethnography, Bronislaw Malinowski has explicitly described steps
in an ethnographic study. Through his works on the communities of
New Guinea, Malinowski defined the fieldworker as a ‘professional
stranger’(Agar,1980), becoming embedded into a culture and conducting
fieldwork through participant observation (Participant observation is one
type of data collection method by practitioner-scholars typically used
in qualitative research and ethnography) to understand the social reality of
the society. Malinowski emphasized holism to gain the native’s point of

12
view and emphasized a rigorous scientific approach .In his famous work Understanding Ethnography
Argonauts of the Western Pacific, in the Introduction itself, Malinowski
described the methodological principles stating the goal of ethnography to
‘grasp the native’s point of view, his relation to life, and realize his vision
of his world’. Malinowski lived for two years (between 1914 and 1918)
among the Kula of the Trobriand Islands, learned their language, used
natives as informants and directly observed the social life, participating in
their everyday activities.
From the 1920s onwards, ethnographic methodology was incorporated in
Sociology, adopted by the Department of Sociology of the University of
Chicago. The Chicago School (of urban ethnography) is usually regarded as
the main force behind sociological fieldwork. The Chicago school researchers
Robert E. Park and Ernest Burgess and their students during the last quarter
of the 19th century, just before the Great Depression, produced ethnographies
based on everyday lives, communities and symbolic interactions of a specific
group. The core chicago ethnographies that resulted presented a vital picture
of the then urban life and these works are considered as classics throughout
the world. These ethnographies captured urban life, talked of social change
and used statistical data with qualitative techniques like interviews and life
histories. Community studies and homegrown ethnographies were the two
forms of ethnography encouraged in Chicago.
Box 1.1
By the 1930s several ethnographies had been written about the ‘deviant
sub-cultures’ and members of the down-and-out groups in Chicago. The
professional thieves, taxi dancers, and urban gang members were studied
using the life history method. The interviews were conducted in natural
settings like brothels, street corners, tenements, mission shelters, bars and
Union halls, etc. (Van Maanen, 2011;19-20).
Another significant development in the latter half of the 20th century was that
ethnography spread further to psychology and human geography. It was also
influenced by theoretical ideas like anthropological functionalism, symbolic
interactionism, philosophical pragmatism, feminism, constructionism, post-
structuralism and postmodernism. Ethnography today plays a complex and
shifting role in the dynamic tapestry that the social sciences have become in
the 21st century. It has also, in a way, changed what ethnographers actually
do, how they collect data and how the various paradigms in social science
have informed and continue to inform the ethnographic practice. Let us first
discuss what ethnographers do before understanding how the theoretical
discourses influence knowledge production and thus ethnographies.
Check your Progress 2
1) What was the positivist approach to writing ethnography?
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13
Themes in Ethnographies
1.3 PRE-REQUISITES FOR WRITING
ETHNOGRAPHY
In the beginning, anthropologists and ethnographers accepted the positivist
approach and the central aim of ethnography was to provide a rich, holistic
and complete accounts of the fields they visited. As Hammersley states,
‘the task is to document the people’s culture, perspectives and practices, of
the people in these settings. The aim is to ‘get inside the way each group
of people sees the world’. The ethnographer provides a detailed description
of the research setting and its participants based on the researcher’s direct
observations or interviews of a few key informants.
Owing to the complex nature of social life, the ethnographers gather data
participant observations, directly engaging and involving with the world
they are studying. During the observations, ethnographers use interview
schedules/guides and even indulge in informal conversational interviews
to collect data. The interview guide and informal discussions allow the
researcher to immerse in reality, engage with the informants, and probe
deeper into emerging issues. Ethnographers also gather in-depth interviews,
documentary data and visual data as photographs and video recordings.
Ethnographers also triangulate interviews and observation methods to
enhance the quality of the data. Triangulation is a technique designed to
compare and contrast different methods to provide a more comprehensive
account of the phenomena under study. The triangulation technique is useful
as it helps to contrast what people say and what their actual behavioris.
Analysis of the ethnographic data is done in an inductive thematic manner
i.e., the data is categorized into themes and then through careful analysis, the
ethnographers generate tentative theoretical explanations of their empirical
work.
It is important here to understand that any cultural interpretation of carefully
collected ethnographic data using ethnographic methods and techniques has
to also take note of certain fundamental concepts that shape an ethnography,
notable- a holistic perspective, contextualization, emic and etic perspective
and a non-judgmental view of reality (Fetterman, 2010).
1.3.1 A Holistic Outlook
Ethnographers assume a holistic outlook in research to get a comprehensive
picture of the social group and describe the history, economy, religion,
politics and environment. This outlook allows the ethnographers to grasp the
reality even beyond the immediate cultural scene. For instance, knowing the
history of a social group would reflect on the religion and rituals and their
significance. Each scene is complex and multilayered and has a context to
it and having a holistic outlook would help the ethnographer to understand
the social whole.
1.3.2 Contextualization
Placing the observations made on the field within a social context would
provide a larger perspective. Take an example of a study on girl’s education.
You may find that often the girl students’ drop out rate from school is much
higher than those of boys. Suppose the ethnographer locates this issue in a
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larger context. In that case, he might find that the girls drop out of education Understanding Ethnography
due to the additional burden of daily household chores or taking care of the
younger siblings and helping their mothers. The ethnographer taking into
account the larger context of gender roles and such contextualization might
help grasp social life. Take another example, on reaching puberty, the girls
themselves are absent from the school because of lack of hygienic toilets.
Then it is understood that due to lack of infrastructure, the girl’s education
takes a backseat. Thus, it is essential to move beyond the immediate cultural
scene and contextualize the data within the larger perspective.
1.3.3 Emic vs Etic perspective
The emic perspective -the insider’s or native’s perspective of reality is at
the heart of most ethnographic research. This insider’s perception of reality
is instrumental to understanding and accurately describing situations and
behaviors (Fetterman,2010;20). This emic perspective helps the fieldworker
understand why members of the social group do what they do and the emic
perspective helps record the multiple realities. An etic perspective, on the
other hand, is the external, social scientific perspective of reality. Most
ethnographers record the emic perspective and then append it with their
scientific analysis. And a good ethnography requires both emic and etic
perspectives (ibid;22).Although taking the emic stance is a time-consuming
task, this ensures the validity of the data collected. Combining both emic
and etic helps produce a more scientifically informed empirical reality.
1.3.4 Non-judgmental view of reality
It is essentially a pre-requisite for the ethnographer to have a non-judgmental
view in the field. They should refrain from making any inappropriate
judgments if they encounter any unfamiliar practice. But it is also understood
that the ethnographer cannot be neutral and has their own set of beliefs and
biases. Ethnocentric behaviour i.e., imposition of one’s cultural values and
standards on another culture, assuming that one is superior to the other is an
error in ethnographic practice.
Check your Progress 3
1) Differentiate between emic and etic perspective
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2) How do ethnographers get the insider’s view of the people they study?
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1.4 TYPES OF ETHNOGRAPHIES

The difference between approaches and methods used by different
ethnographers, especially at different periods, can be explained to some extent
by the influence of various ideas in the social sciences (O’Reilly, 2005;44).
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Themes in Ethnographies The philosophical approaches that inform ethnographic approaches can be
Positivism, Functionalism, Interpretative, feminist and post-modernism.
1.4.1 Positivist and functionalist ethnography
During the 19th century, a positivistic approach in anthropology and
ethnography predominated. This approach adheres to the empiricist notions
of knowledge generation and advocates objectivity and distance from the
object of inquiry. Objectivity requires the researcher to maintain distance
and remain detached from the object of inquiry and the results are focused
on facts rather than the researcher’s own beliefs and values (Payne &Payne,
2004). The primary focus is to seek generalizable laws that may be applied
to human behaviour. The anthropologists like Malinowski, Evans Pritchard
and Radcliffe Brown, following the positivist approach, presumed that
cultures were static and homogenous and a holistic approach would be
best suited to collect the data in the field. This approach opined that every
aspect of a culture has a distinct role in the maintenance of the whole, i.e.,
every element of culture had a function and contributed to the maintenance
of the whole society. The society was presumed to be in equilibrium and
functioning harmoniously. Some very famous ethnographies have been
produced during this time.
Some of the classical ethnographies include, Bronislaw Malinowski’s
Argonauts of the Western Pacific(1922); E.E. Evans Pritchard’s,
TheNuer(1940) and Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa(1928).
Malinowski acknowledged that the aim of ethnography was to capture the
native’s worldview. The ethnographers tried to have a positivist approach
and collected their data as scientifically and objectively as possible using
participant observation.Similarly, Radcliffe Brown’s work on Andaman
Islanders is another example of an ethnographer taking an objective view
of reality without considering the actual/ real thinking of the natives. Since
they talked of harmonious societies in equilibrium, these ethnographies
were more of a construct of reality. But it was soon realized that writing
objectively about cultures does not describe actual and real situations and
then it was urged to locate meanings in the situations in the field.
1.4.2 Interpretative approach to ethnography
With ‘thick description’, Clifford Geertz professed on meanings and real
emotions rather than just noting of facts in the field. It was stated that it
is essential to see humans as actors in the social world rather than simply
reacting as objects in the natural world (O’Reilly;49). It was emphasized
that the actual context of the situation be noted to know the relation between
the action and the environment in which the action is taking place and
what participants have to say about it. The focus shifted to creating more
meaningful ethnographies with rich data and more qualitative depth. The
aim was to generate an interpretative understanding (or verstehen) that is
in search for meanings. Ethnographies then focused on just recording what
people say, rather what meaning it has for the people. The ethnographer
would then find the logic of the actions and then only the text would be
insightful. Giving an example of the famous Balinese cockfight, Geertz has
stated that each item of culture makes sense only when seen in a context and
what meaning does the partcipant in the field attaches to it.
16
1.4.3 Phenomenological approach Understanding Ethnography

Following Alfred Schutz (1972), much of the 1960s and 1970s qualitative
research turned to phenomenological approach, i.e., obtaining the actor’s
point of view. Humans make sense of what we receive through our senses-
we see, hear, smell, feel, and taste by splitting up the world around us
into categories and sub-categories. By emphasizing on the ‘constituted
meanings’, phenomenology offers a vision of the social world where human
subjects define themselves and what they value and a variety of ways they
experience the world. It becomes imperative for ethnographers to look how
the ‘lived world’ of the people under study is constituted. Contemporary
ethnographers cover this experiential dimension and subjective experience
of the people they study and recreate a text in a reflexive manner. The idea
is to make detailed observations combined with historical dimensions and
create a reflexive account where the reader can draw their conclusions.
1.4.4 Critical ethnography
Some ethnographies are strategically situated to shed light on larger social,
political, symbolic or economic issues. Moving from parochial vision, there
has been a shift in ethnographies to larger issues like addressing the political
economy or seeing from the perspective of the disadvantaged group in
advanced capitalist societies. These are example of critical realist tales
embedded within the Marxist frame. For example, June Nash’s We Eat the
Mines and the mines Eat Us, is a historical and contemporary account of
Bolivian tin miners. Another example is Hochschild’s (1983) work on the
sociology of emotions, which does not have a Marxist slant but is an example
of a critical tale. Using participant observation and interviews among flight
attendants, the author has talked about a problematic emotional work –
‘Service with a smile’. While providing a larger context, the ethnographers
of these ethnographies have referred to Economics, Political Science,
History and Psychology to advance their understanding of the social reality.
1.4.5 Feminist ethnography
Women ethnographers have brought a new perspective to the way
ethnographies are written and read. During the 1970s when feminists
began questioning the use of masculine pronouns and nouns, the female
was essentially missing in the ethnographies. Sally Slocum’s (1970) paper
Woman the Gatherer: The Male Bias in Anthropology critiqued the popular
conception of ‘man-the hunter’ and challenged the androcentric academy.
Another volume by Peggy Golde Women in the Field is an edited volume by
women anthropologists, opened the debate of how being women affected
the experiences of anthropologists conducting their research in diverse
settings. Such feminist paradigms have revealed that how women have been
conceptualized in Western intellectual tradition, which is often constructed
from a male and white-centric point of view, does not address anything
associated with women. The production of knowledge was from the male
perspective and power played a significant role in how the reality was looked
into and how one did fieldwork. As done by traditional ethnographers,
the power and hierarchy in the field further marginalized the women’s
perspective. And feminist methodology highlighted this. The fieldwork
and analysis of the field was not free from relations of power between the
17
Themes in Ethnographies ethnographer/observer and the observed. Annette Wiener’s famous re-study
of the Trobriand Islands, (where she visited the site of Malinowski’s classic
work and incorporated women’s voices) showed a different picture of the
Trobrianders than one shown by Malinowski.

1.5 ETHNOGRAPHY TODAY

One of the major developments in anthropology has been the reflexive turn,
which is a process of reflection that allows the researcher/ethnographer to
be the object i.e., a focus on the self-examination, self-critique, and self
hood is incorporated in the text. Reflexivity in anthropology developed due
to three main developments, i.e.,
●● acknowledgment of the Euro-centric bias in anthropology (which was
critically addressed by scholars like Talal Asad and Dell Hymes)
●● the emergence of the feminist movement that accused the androcentric
nature of Anthropology.
●● The 1967 publication of Malinowski’s field diaries, A Diary in the Strict
Sense of the Term, revealed Malinowski’s fieldwork’s subjectivity.
The other two volumes that focused on different forms of new ethnographies
and supported reflexivity were by James Clifford and George Marcus’s
Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography and Michael Fisher
and George Marcus’s Anthropology Cultural Critique. These developments
changed the methodological approaches in Anthropology and emphasized
reflexive understanding of the ethnographer and their field study. The most
important reflexive ethnographies were Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese
Cockfight (1972) by Clifford Geertz and Reflections on Fieldwork in
Morocco (1977) by Paul Rabinow.
In doing and writing ethnographies there were multiple voices, multiple
identities and multiple actors – all of which needed to be given space.
This included not only the natives being studied, but also the ethnographer
himself/ herself, and his/ her own personality and life experiences both
in and off the field. All these gave rise to reflexive ethnography and auto-
ethnography and online or virtual ethnography.
1.5.1 Autoethnography
Autoethnography is where the researcher’s thoughts and perspectives derives
from their social interactions in the field form the central element of the
study. Autoethnography refers to turning the ethnographic gaze inward on
the self(auto), while maintaining the outward gaze of ethnography, looking
at the larger context wherein self-experiences occur (Denzin,1997:227).
It broadly refers to both the method and their product of researching and
writing about personal lived experiences and their relationship to culture
(Ellis, 2004;xix). As a methodology, it accommodates the subjectivity of
the researcher and their influence on the research. Autoethnography began
in the 1980s (although self-observation and confessional tales began in
the 1960s) and two major works during 1992, namely Anthropology and
Autobiography by Judith Oakley and Helen Callaway and An Invitation to
18
Reflexive Sociology by Pierre Bourdieu, led to its development. Personal Understanding Ethnography
narratives and experiences in the field were dealt with in the former book
whereas awareness of the researcher’s position in the social fields was
discussed in the latter.
1.5.2 Online ethnography
An online or virtual medium used to study internet communities in various
forms is a new way of doing ethnography. This research method explores
how humans live and interact online through a wide range of different
research strategies. Hine argues that ethnographic researchers start from
the perspective of questioning what is taken for granted and seeking to
analyse and contextualize ‘the way things are’ (Hine 2000: 8). In relation
to the internet this means that researchers challenge the notion that the
internet is the product of the features of its technology, and explore how it is
constructed by the way in which people inhabit, utilize and actively make it.
A diffuse and diverse set of approaches to Online ethnography has emerged
that uses a variety of terms, including Virtual ethnography, Netnography
and Cyberethnography, all establishing that online context could be sites for
ethnographic study.
Ethnography conducted in online settings has been instrumental in
demonstrating the complex nature of Internet based interactions and
enabled us to explore the new cultural formations that emerge online (Hine,
2008; 401). As the Internet developed, so did various approaches to study
the online spaces emerged. For instance, Kendall (2002) did fieldwork
focusing on gender in an online forum. Later, Kozinets (2010) developed
Netnography to efficiently study online domains used in the marketing
context to understand consumer motivations and behaviours. Another
example is Coleman’s (2013) ethnography of a hacker community involving
extensive online fieldwork. Robinson and Schulz (2009) have identified
three different phases of online ethnography:
●● Pioneering approaches saw the Internet as the new domain for identity
formation and stressed the distinctiveness of online social formations.
●● The transfer of offline methodological concerns into the online
domain and
●● The recent emergence of multi-modal approaches that consider video
and audio data alongside textual data and also seek to conceptualize
online interactions within offline spaces.
Internet studies have been a rich field for methodological development
and have dramatically transformed the social research landscape. Mixed
method research designs have emerged in Internet studies allowing for a
combination of large -scale and small-scale focus through which researchers
can explore both patterns and meanings(Hesse-Biber and Griffin, 2013).
Coleman (2010) argues that ethnography in online spaces is significant as
these sites have emerged as central sites of experiences in everyday life and
offer heterogeneity. Online spaces have provided access for ethnographers to
explore everyday life in depth and detail and have a significant contribution
to social sciences.

19
Themes in Ethnographies Check your Progress 4
1) How the reflexive turn has changed the way ethnography is written
today?
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
2) Define Autoethnography
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
3) Define Online Ethnography
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………

1.6 LET US SUM UP

Ethnography emerging from anthropology, developed as a tool in social
science to describe the people one studies. It refers both to the process
and the product. The process is defined as the actual fieldwork that the
ethnographer or the researcher indulges in. The ethnographer collects the
description of a particular culture- their customs, beliefs and behavior and
then analyze and writes it as an ethnographic text. Also, an ethnography
is not just a document on the lives of ‘others’, rather it presents the voice
of a community or people, who, along with the author, are present in the
text. The growth of ethnography has evolved over the years and has been
informed by various theoretical approaches. The traditional ethnography has
evolved and the contemporary ethnographies are more realist, confessional
and critical tales, capturing new set of values, ways of thought and new
ways of life. The ethnographer’s subjectivities too inform the text and along
with the voice of the observed.

1.7 REFERENCES
Agar, M. (1980) Professional Stranger: An Informal Introduction to
Ethnography.New York: Academic Press Inc.
Atkinson,P and M. Hammersley (1996). Ethnography and Participant
Observation, Handbook of Qualitative Research.
Barnard, Alan and Jonathan Spencer(ed) (1996). Encyclopaedia of Social
and Cultural Anthropology. London and New York: Routledge.
Berry, K (2011). The Ethnographer’s Choice: Why Ethnographers do
ethnography. Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies, 11(2), 165-177.
Brewer, John D. (2010) Ethnography. New Delhi: Rawat Publications
(Indian Reprint)

20
Clifford, James (1986) ‘Partial Truths’ in James Clifford and George Understanding Ethnography
Marcus(ed) Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press,pp. 1-26.
Coleman, E.G. (2010) ‘Ethnographic approaches to digital media’, Annual
Review of Anthropology,39(1) 487-505
Coleman, E.G (2013). Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of
Hacking. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Denzin and Lincoln (2011). The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research.
USA: Sage Publications.
Denzin, N. K. 1997. Interpretive Ethnography. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Ellis, C. 2004. The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about
Autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
Fetterman, (1998). Ethnography, 2nd ed., Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.
Fetterman, (2010). Ethnography, 3rded., Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.
Geertz,C.(1973). The Interpretation of Culture. New York: Basic Books.
Hammersley .M & Atkinson, P. (1995). Ethnography principles in Practice.
London: Routledge.
Hammersley .M & Atkinson, P. (2007). Ethnography principles in Practice.
London: Routledge. Third edition.
Hesse-Biber, S &A.J. Griffin (2013) ‘Internet-mediated technologies
and mixed methods research: problems and prospects, Journal of Mixed
Methods Research,7(1): 43-61
Hine, C (2000) Virtual Ethnography. London: Sage Publications
Hine, C (2008). ‘How can Qualitative Internet researchers define the
boundaries of their projects?’ In A.N. Markham and N., Baym (ed)
Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications, pp1-20.
Hodgen M. (1964). Early Anthropology in 16th and 17th century. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
Kendall, L (2002). Hanging Out in the Virtual Pub: Masculinities and
Relationships Online. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Kozinets, R.V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online.
London: Sage Publications.
Marcus, George (1995). ‘Ethnography in/out of the World System: The
Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography’, Annual Review of Anthropology
24: 95-117.
O’Reilly, K. (2009) Key Concepts in Ethnography. London: Sage
Publications.
Payne & Payne, (2004). Key Concepts in Social Research. London: Sage.
Peacock,J. L. (1986). The anthropological lens: Harsh lights, soft focus.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
21
Themes in Ethnographies Robinson. L &J.Schulz (2009). ‘New Avenues for sociological inquiry:
evolving forms of ethnographic practice, Sociology, 43(4); 685-98
Strong, P. 1977. The Ceremonial order of the Clinic. London: Routledge.
Van Mannen, J. (2011). Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Second edition

1.7 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress 1
1) Ethnography has been defined as the art or science of describing a
culture or group. It emerges from the discipline of anthropology and
adopted by social sciences.
Check Your Progress 2
1) During the 19th Century, the positivist approach predominated in
ethnography and this approach was based on the empiricist notion of
knowledge generation. It believed in objectivity and keeping distance
from the object of inquiry. Thus, the researcher was supposed to
maintain detachment while conducting ethnographic research.
Check Your Progress 3
1) Emic perspective is that of the insiders i.e. the nativer’s perspective of
social reality while the elite perspective is that of the outsiders, scientific
perspective of social reality; as understood by the ethnographer.
2) The insider’s view of the people is obtained by the researcher using
methods of observation and interview through participation. It is
this instrumental knowledge which helps to understand why people
behave the way they do and this is the core of ethnographic research.
Check Your Progress 4
1) One of the major developments in anthropology has been the entry
of the reflexive way of booking at social reality. It’s a process of
reflection which allows the researcher i.e. the ethnographer to be the
object. She is allowed to be self examines; self-critique etc. one’s own
views and subjectivities and include it as part of the text.
2) Autoethnography is where the researcher’s own thoughts and
perspectives derives from their social interactions in the field form
the central element of the study Auto ethnography; therefore, helps to
turn the ‘gaze’ towards the ethnographer’s own self at the same time
obscuring and recording the social reality outside.
3) Online ethnography is ethnography which is done using the internet.
It is virtual mode of collecting information etc. it differs from the
traditional ethnography notions to ethnography done through
technologically mediated interactions through online network.

22
UNIT 2: COLONIAL ETHNOGRAPHY*
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Origin and Development of Colonial Ethnographies: An Overview
2.3 Ethnographic Inquiry in Colonial India: Some Famous People and
their Works
2.3.1 Herbert H Risley
2.3.2 Christoph Von-Fuhrer Haimendorf
2.3.3 G S Ghurye
2.3.4 Verrier Elwin
2.3.5 D N Majumdar
2.4 Post 1960s
2.5 Let us Sum Up
2.6 References
2.7 Answers to Check Your Progress

2.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you should be able to:
●● understand the origin and development of ethnographic practice
●● understand how different theoretical approaches have informed
ethnographic practice
●● understand the various trends in ethnographic practice pre and post
colonial period

2.1 INTRODUCTION
The discipline of Anthropology, like any other social science, is historically
and socially conditioned. The discipline emerged during the colonial period
to meet the administrative needs of the expanding colonial regime. The
administrative problems that arose in the expansion and consolidation of
the colonial rule had the colonial powers in dearth of data on the colonized
people. The intellectual climate of Western Europe and the political and
economic conditions then favoured the development of social sciences,
particularly anthropology and sociology.
The growth of the two disciplines in India is also attributed to the interaction
between the ruler- the colonizer and the ruled – the colonized. The origin
of sociology and anthropology dates back to when British officials realized
that knowledge about the Indian culture was essential for the smooth
functioning of the colonial government. As early as 1769, Henry Verelst,
the Governor of Bengal and Bihar, realized the need to collect information
regarding leading families, their customs, and social life. Since then, the

* Written by Dr. Gunjan Arora Post Doctorate Fellow CSMCH, JNU

23
Themes in Ethnographies British officials and missionaries made earnest efforts to collect and record
information regarding the life and culture of their Indian subjects (Srinivas
& Panini, 1973). This started the detailed analysis of the culture and society,
and many anthropologists from England came to India to collect data on
Indian populations and prepared monographs on them. Also, the Darwin’s
theory of evolution provided the idea and background that the institutions
of the non-Europeans represented the stages through which the Europeans
had passed long ago. This gave impetus to studies that collected data on the
cultures of the primitives in various parts of the world. It was also thought
essential to document the primitive culture before they vanish or develop to a
more advanced stage. Social evolution theory was followed by philosophies
on diffusionism that opined that the ideas, artifacts, beliefs and institutions
spread from one part of the world to the other. Anthropologists thus started
tracing the diffusion of cultural traits from one part of the world to the other.
Later, with functionalism, participant observation and fieldwork among the
native population became the principal technique to document the ‘other’.
Here in this Unit, we trace the development of ethnographies through the
colonial age to the present. You would realize how India’s historical, socio-
political climate paved the way for the variety of studies and ethnographies
that were initiated. These ethnographies are classic works of native scholars
and Western scholars and have provided the background for future studies
in anthropology and sociology.

2.2 ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF COLONIAL

ETHNOGRAPHIES: AN OVERVIEW
Abbe Dubois, a French missionary in Mysore, wrote about people’s
lives, customs, and rituals and published Hindu Manners, Customs
and Ceremonies in 1816. These early works were systematic attempts
undertaken by British officials, missionaries and scholars to document the
colonized. In 1871, the British officials launched the first All India Census
to collect information about Indian society. In 1901, Sir Herbert Risley
conducted an ethnographic survey of India. Since then, the census data
has been an invaluable source of information giving demographic details
and useful information for social and cultural analysis. Indological studies
involving studies on religious practices, customs and laws also gained
a stimulus because of the efforts made by British scholars and officials.
Sir William Jones, a British Orientalist, established the Asiatic Society of
Bengal in 1787. The society published a journal devoted to anthropological
interests.
By the 19th century, the data taken from surveys, literature and other
sources were used by Western scholars to write about society in India.
Sir Henry Maine, Law Member in the Viceroy’s Council, published
Ancient Law (1861) much before visiting India. His second book, Village
Communities in the East and West (1871), was published later (Srinivas
and Panini,1973;184). Several monographs were written on tribal and other
communities by British administrators and anthropologists. Anthropologists
and sociologists like WHR Rivers became interested in India and published
a study of The Todas (1906) after intensive fieldwork. And his posthumous
work Social Organisation, edited by W.J. Perry came in 1924. Rivers two
24
students G S Ghurye and K P Chattopadhyaya, played an important role in Colonial Ethnography
the development of anthropology and sociology in India. Two other Indian
scholars, namely S C Roy and Ananthakrishna Iyer wrote on castes and
tribes of India. Roy wrote numerous monographs on several tribes of Bihar.
His book Caste, Race and Religion in India (1934) is a famous work.
By 1900-1920, few departments in various state universities emerged in
Mysore, Calcutta, Bombay, Lucknow and anthropologists and sociologists
were conducting more and more ethnographic studies. And by the 1950s,
the study of the two disciplines became professionalized. With this
brief introduction about the development and growth of sociology and
anthropology as formal disciplines in India during the colonial period, we
now chart out how and what type of ethnographies were written and read
about a few important scholars and their contributions to social sciences. But
let us first see the different phases explaining how the discipline developed
and what major ethnographies came during each phase.
The Formative phase (1774-1919)
For Majumdar, this phase ended in 1911, but for Vidyarthi, this phase
extended to 1920. This phase saw the ethnographic studies on tribes and
other communities. The monographs produced were on customs and beliefs,
traditions and caste communities and social life. A lot of work on tribes
was published during this period. The classical evolutionary theory that
influenced the work to search for primitive survivals was attempted along
with the listing of customs. Administrative reports and land revenue reports
gave the realistic picture of India’s rural society as reflected in the works of
Dalton, Buchanan and Lord Baden Powell.
The Asiatic Society that was established in 1774 (later became the Asiatic
Society of Bengal in 1784) by Sir William Jones also began to publish
articles on Indian tribes in journals. Many works were published, which
were primarily written by British administrators and missionaries rather
than anthropologists. Some famous scholars like Edward Tuite Dalton,
Herbert Hope Risley, William Crooke, J. T. Blunt, Buchanan, Sir Edward
Gait, Sir Denzil Ibbetson (1848-1923) and others compiled works on castes
and tribes of various parts of India. The Anthropological Society of Bombay
(1886) published the first journal, and many anthropological studies were
initiated. Anthropologists were posted in different parts of the country, which
produced knowledge on local societies and cultures to acquaint the colonial
government to facilitate the smooth functioning and implementation of
laws.
Scholars like Herbert Risley, S.C. Roy, L.K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, started
publishing ethnographic works on the different communities in India. H.
H. Risley, in 1891 published his famous work Tribes and Castes of Bengal.
The Constructive phase (1920-1949)
A full-fledged Department of Anthropology was established at Calcutta
University in 1920. L.K. Anantha Krishan Iyer, who joined the University,
published Monographs on Tribe and Caste of Ernakulam. He also wrote and
presented a paper on Marriage Customs of the Cochin State and Nambuthari
Brahmins of Malabar at Indian Science Congress in 1914. S.C. Roy was
the first Indian ethnographer who worked among the tribal population of
25
Themes in Ethnographies Chhotanagpur and produced a Monograph Munda and their Country in
1912. In 1921 under the editorship of S. C. Roy, the print journal Man in
India was started. Many Indian anthropologists like D. N. Majumdar, M
Chattopadhyay, I. Karve and T. C. Das wrote on social institutions. Their
works gave the necessary impetus to social anthropology in India. The
Changing Hoof by D.N. Majumdar, Marriage and Family in Mysore(1942)
by M. N. Srinivas and Hindu Methods of Tribal Absorption(1941) of N.
K. Bose were significant works that were produced that are still popular
among anthropology students. Many anthropologists like G S Ghurye were
educated abroad who later contributed substantially to the discipline.
Many foreign scholars like Verrier Elwin and Christopher Von Fuhrer-
Haimendorf contributed to studies on Indian tribes. Verrier Elwin’s works
among the tribes of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa made him produce some
famous works, namely The Baiga (1939), The Agaria (1943) and The Muria
and their Ghotul (1947). Haimendorf, who was an Austrian ethnologist,
spent nearly four decades in India and wrote and produced some famous
ethnographies, namely The Chenchus: Jungle folk of Deccan (1943); The
Raj Gonds of Adilabad; Myth and Ritual (1948); The Reddis of the Bison
Hills: A study of Acculturation (1945). These ethnographic studies are
popular among anthropologists and sociologists.
After independence, during the Analytical phase (1950-1990), many Indian
scholars collaborated with foreign scholars like Oscar Lewis, Morris Opler,
F G Bailey, McKim Marriott, Gerald D Berreman and David Mandelbaum
and did fieldwork on Indian villages. A shift was seen as the emphasis
shifted from descriptive tribal studies to analytical studies on village and
caste studies. A large number of monographs were published on village
studies both by Indian and foreign scholars. L P Vidyarthi, S C Dube, D
N Majumdar, M N Srinivas, B K Roy Burman, G S Ghurye, N K Bose,
T N Madan, Iravati Karve are some Indian scholars who made significant
contributions to village and community studies. A large number of village
study monographs were published in the 1960s through the Census of
India 1961. These studies generated new ideas and concepts that provided
a baseline for future studies. For instance, L P Vidyathi’s famous work
The Sacred Complex of Hindu Gaya in 1961, gave the concept of sacred
complex. In his research in the famous Hindu religious pilgrimage spot of
Bihar called Gaya- the place provided a meeting place of different people
and traditions, of different castes and sects and different classes. The sacred
geography, a set of sacred performances and a group of sacred specialists
together constituted the sacred complex. These concepts became very
popular in studying the traditional pilgrimage and religious places of the
simple societies in India.
Likewise, M N Srinivas famous book Social Change in Modern India
1966 developed the Sanskritization concept. The concept explained how
the low caste or tribe takes over the customs, rituals, ideology and style of
life of higher caste i.e., people of lower caste imitate the people of upper
or twice (dwij) born caste to improve their economic and political position
in the society. He gave the example of the Chamars of Uttar Pradesh, the
Ramgharias of Punjab, the Oraons of Bihar, the Gonds of Madhya Pradesh

26
and the Bhils of Rajasthan. He stated that they all tried to sanskritize their Colonial Ethnography
way of life.
The current evaluative phase, i.e., 1990 onwards, has led to the development
of Indian anthropology with emerging new sub-fields like Medical
Anthropology, Business Anthropology, Environmental Anthropology,
Gender Anthropology, Psychological Anthropology and Tourism
anthropology. Below is the description of some ethnographers and their
studies that form most of the colonial ethnographies. Though the list is not
complete, every student in anthropology and sociology should be aware of
these scholars and their work from the colonial era.
Check your Progress I
1. Write a short note on the development of social sciences during the
British period
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
2. State the different phases in which the growth of anthropology in
India is divided.
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………

2.3 ETHNOGRAPHIC INQUIRY IN COLONIAL

INDIA: SOME FAMOUS PEOPLE AND THEIR
WORKS
2.3.1 Herbert Risley (1851-1911)
Risley was colonial India’s leading anthropologist who was elected as the
President of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) in 1910. He was
an ‘official anthropologist’ as his work was mainly taken on behalf of the
government. He, along with William Crooke (1848-1923) and Sir Denzil
Ibbetson (1847-1908), developed Indian ethnography and anthropology
in the late Victorian period (Fuller, 2017;1). The purpose of official
anthropology was to contribute to scientific knowledge and strengthen and
improve British rule (ibid;2). The Indian society, as seen by the Britishers,
was a ‘traditional’ society- an antithetical ‘other’ of modern European
society. The society was made up of separate religious communities; castes
were a distinct social group with the tribal population at the periphery. The
systematic anthropology of India developed with the decennial censuses,
which started in 1871-72 and these pioneers directed the census surveys over
the next few decades. The various censuses done during that period gave a
theoretical argument that the caste system was a product of the evolution
of the division of labour. For instance, at the 1881 census, Ibbetson was the
27
Themes in Ethnographies superintendent for Punjab and classified castes based on their occupation
in his ethnographic survey of Punjabi castes and tribes. Caste, as a single
most important trope for colonial Indian society is also documented in
Rilsey’s classic work The People of India. Risley had earlier published
a multivolume work, The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, in 1891. In 1901,
he became the Census Commissioner of India for the 1901 census and
collected the data on Indian castes and tribes. And later wrote The People
of India (along with E A Gait), an expanded version of the commissioner’s
report on the 1901 census. Here he summarized his views on the origin
and classification of the Indian races based on his historical speculations
and anthropometric research. His contemporaries and subsequent writers
criticized Risley for emphasizing the racial basis of caste and stressing
anthropometric measurements.
William Crooke suggested that occupational criteria provided a much more
comprehensive index for understanding caste systems than race. Another
famous scholar, Edgar Thurston, the Director of the Madras Museum
between 1885 and 1908, shared common enthusiasm on anthropometry as
Risley and collected physical/biological data about the castes and tribes
of India. He published a seven-volume work, The Castes and Tribes of
Southern India (1907), which mentioned more than three hundred caste
groups listed in alphabetical order. Salient ethnographic features on each
group- their origin stories, descriptions of kinship structure, marriage and
funerary rituals, occupational profiles, material culture, and anthropometric
measurements. The text was designed as an easy reference work for
colonial administrators, police and revenue officers, district magistrates and
army recruiters (Dirks,1992;70). These decennial censuses played the most
crucial institutional role not only in providing the facts but also in installing
caste as the fundamental unit of India’s social structure (Dirks,2012;49).
2.3.2 Christoph Von-Fuhrer Haimendorf (1909- 1995)
Christopher Von Haimendorf was an Austrian ethnologist who spent four
decades in India and did extensive fieldwork to collect data on the social and
cultural life of tribal communities. Initially, he worked in the Naga Hills and
published a travelogue titled The Naked Nagas in 1938. He later studied the
Chenchus of Andhra Pradesh, a hunting-gathering community. He described
their social life and enumerated their problems in his book The Chenchus:
Jungle Folk of Deccan (1943). In his other work, The Raj Gonds of Adilabad:
Myth and Ritual (1948), he enumerated their problems, recommended
welfare measures, and suggested separate development programmes. Later
he made an extensive study on the Apatanis of Arunachal Pradesh and found
them well educated and was impressed by their stage of development. Thus,
based on his experience in the study of the tribes of India, he proposed the
idea of Isolationism. He argued that since the Apatanis, who were isolated
as they lived in difficult terrain, could not be contacted, they have developed
better than many tribes who have come in contact with the people from
the mainland. He suggested that the state should prevent or control their
interaction with the outsiders and proposed that the tribes be left alone and
allowed to develop independently. The main problem faced by the tribals
was that their rights on the forests were curtailed, which had upset their

28
economic life. The new ‘voortrekkers’ snatched their lands, and the people Colonial Ethnography
from plains were disrupting the tribal life (Haimendorf,1985;326). He has
also worked on tribes of Nepal and retired as a Professor from the School
of Oriental and African Studies, London. He is well known for his detailed
ethnographies and contributions to anthropology.
2.3.3 G S Ghurye (1893-1984)
G S Ghurye was the most influential Indian academic to write about Indian
sociology during the colonial period and even after. He did his Ph.D. at
Cambridge in social anthropology under the supervision of W HR Rivers
and A. C. Haddon. He later became the head of the Department of Sociology
at Bombay University in 1924. His famous work Caste and Race in India
was first published in 1932. It outlined six significant features of the caste
system: the segmental division of society, hierarchy, restrictions of feeding
and social intercourse, civil and religious disabilities and privileges of the
different sections, lack of choice of occupations and restrictions of marriage
(Dirks,2012; 246). Ghurye, having surveyed the literary sources, was also
concerned to evaluate the claims of Risley about the racial origins of the
caste and the use of anthropometric methods and data. He was also critical
of Risley’s views on the racial origin of caste. He also criticized that the
colonial government’s passion for labels and pigeonholes has led to the
crystallization of the caste system, which was initially very fluid under
indigenous rule (ibid, 248).
2.3.4 Verrier Elwin (1902-1964)
Verrier Elwin, a Christian missionary turned anthropologist (without
anthropological training), mainly did his fieldwork because he was
concerned about the plight of the aboriginals who were dispossessed of
their land and were exploited (Haimendorf, 1964;174). He spent nearly
three decades doing anthropological studies of Indian tribesmen and is well
known for his works among the Baigas and Gonds of Orissa and Madhya
Pradesh in Central India. He also worked on the tribes of Northeast states,
especially North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA). In 1932, he started his
social work among the Gond tribals. He produced substantial ethnographic
data and was one of the most prolific writers. Elwin wrote about tribal art
and culture, their music and dance, their dresses and ornaments, and their
beliefs and values, which he thought would disappear under the influence
of Hinduism and Christianity. Through his books, pamphlets, newspapers
and magazine articles, he made the national leaders aware of the tribal
situation and also made the tribal aware of their rights. In a way, his work
was instrumental for tribal welfare and influenced policymakers. Elwin’s
extensive work influenced national leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, who have
acknowledged his knowledge about the Indian tribes. In 1945 he served as
the Deputy Director of the Anthropological Survey of India. Later, Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appointed him as an advisor on tribal affairs
for north eastern India. His famous works are: The Agaria(1943);The
Aboriginals; The Muria and their Ghotul (1947). In his book The Muria
and their Ghotul, among the Murias of Bastar, he studied the important
role the youth dormitories had and were an indispensable part of the tribal
society. These dormitories initiated the youth into sexual activity and also
29
Themes in Ethnographies trained them in various social activities. It was Elwin who proposed that the
tribes should be left alone and allowed to develop in isolation away from
the mainstream.
In contrast, Ghurye believed that tribals should be completely assimilated
in the mainstream. But later Government of India under the leadership of
Nehru set out the Panchsheel Document (which was also aided by Elwin)
laid a middle path. It was proposed that tribal land and forest rights be
protected and allowed to develop on their own. Their social and cultural
institutions should be respected and no over-administration of tribal areas
should be done.
2.3.5 D N Majumdar (1903-1960)
Professor Dhirendra Nath Majumdar, an anthropologist par excellence, was
born in 1903 at Patna. He did his masters in anthropology from Calcutta
University in 1924 and taught at Lucknow University in 1928. He conducted
his fieldwork in the Chotanagpur region and later went on to Cambridge to
complete his Ph.D. under professor T.C.Hodson . He selected the tribe Ho
in the Kolhan region of Chotanagpur for his fieldwork. In his research he
found that the external pressures were influencing the Hos. But he disagreed
with either of the approaches of assimilating them with the mainstream or
isolating them from the mainstream. He was of the view that tribes should
be integrated into Indian society. His PhD was published as a book, titled A
Tribe in Transition: A Study in Culture Pattern (1937), which is regarded as
a first scientific study of the impact of modern civilization on tribal people.
He also gave lecture invited lectures at Cambridge and was elected a Fellow
of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland in 1936.
He was also involved in the decennial census operations of 1941, carrying
out anthropological surveys in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh).
Majumdar also studied the Khasas of Jaunsar-Bawar in the Himalayas and
the Korwas and the Tharus of Uttar Pradesh and extended his studies from
tribes to caste to urban societies. Some of his famous works are:
Races and Cultures of India (1944);
Caste and Communication in an Indian Village (1958) and
Himalayan Polyandry (1962) which was published posthumously.
Thus, it is observed that by the 1950s a large number of Western and Indian
scholars were involved in village studies. D N Majumdar, M N Srinivas,
Kathleen Gough, Pauline Kolenda Oscar Lewis and McKim Marriott
produced books on village studies. Village studied took up the issue of caste,
religion, kinship, marriage & family, peasant life and agrarian studies.
2.3.6 John Henry Hutton(1885-1968)
John Henry Hutton was the son of a Church of England clergyman. He
was born on 27 June 1885 at West Heslerton, then in the East Riding of
Yorkshire and now in North Yorkshire. Dr. Hutton has made a special study
of the ethnography of the Nagas of Assam. Not only is he himself the author
of two of the volumes in the series of monographs published under the
auspices of the Government of Assam, one dealing with the Angami Nagas
(1921) and the other with the Sema Nagas (1922), as well as a contributor
30
of numerous papers on Naga culture to scientific periodicals, but he has also Colonial Ethnography
so stimulated and organized the researches of his colleagues that the hill
tribes of Assam are now as well, or even better known to anthropological
science than any other comparable population of India. When Dr. Hutton
was seconded under the Government of India to take charge of the Census
of India, 1931, it was generally felt that no more suitable selection could
have been made. His introduction to the Report marked him as no unworthy
successor to the late Sir Herbert Risley. However much opinions may differ
as to the validity of the conclusions on the racial history of India at which
Dr. Hutton arrived in that remarkable document, it cannot be denied that
he has shown a notable breadth of out look in grasping the essentials of his
problem in their archaeological and historical perspective, combined with
a detailed knowledge of the multifarious facts, which is without rival in the
Indian field.

2.4 POST 1960s

In the late 1950s and 1960s, there was a sharp increase in the popularity
of the two disciplines; there were more teaching posts in universities and
colleges and the planned development charted for new independent India,
demanded the development of social sciences (Srinivas&Panini;197). The
census organization, which expanded its activity in independent India,
needed sociologists, anthropologists, and social scientists (ibid. 198). The
rapid transformation in Indian society post-independence also saw a shift
in scholarship and ethnographic works that were now carried out. The
analytical phase saw a shift from descriptive studies, which were single
village studies. Many of these studies lack an emphasis on both institutional
(rural-urban, peasant-elite, and caste -class) and conceptual (historical and
political economy) linkages and led to the emergence of a movement towards
the Indigenization of culture concepts (Gupta &Kedia, 2004;231). The
growing influence of the Functionalist and structure-functionalist paradigm
emphasized empirical fieldwork, systematic analysis and attention to
theory. Yet, most studies remained descriptive and did not yield substantial
methodological and theoretical innovations (Kolenda, 1985).
By mid of the 20th century, scholars like M N Srinivas brought structural-
functional influence to the Indian work. His work on Religion and Society
among the Coorgs of South India (1952) is an example. In this work. Srinivas
shows close interconnections between religious institutions, family and
kinship and the laws of inheritance and succession. Iravati Karve’s Hindu
Kinship System (1953) extended the functional paradigm and linked kinship
and marriage with the caste system. Another work which was influenced by
structure-functionalist paradigm was F G Bailey’s Caste and the Economic
Frontier (1971). Other scholars like S C Dube and D N Majumdar were
exploring the nature and functions of the caste to understand the social
structure of Indian villages. With the advent of community development
programmes in India, many ethnographies like Majumdar’s work on
Himalayan Polyandry (1963) focused on the impacts of community
development programmes on the Khasa tribal community in the Himalayas.
Other noted scholar Louis Dumont worked within the structuralism model,
embraced a cognitive-historical approach and published Homo Hierarchicus
31
Themes in Ethnographies (1970) and offered a cognitive and ideological structure of the Indian social
system (Kedia &;233). A number of ethnographies were also written about
the position of women in Indian society. Scholars like Susan Seymour
and Patricia Caplan described the roles of women in the family. Caplan
(1985) in Class and Gender in India: Women and Their Organizations in
a South Indian City noted the relationship of gender to the formation and
reproduction of class in capitalist societies using the example of upper-
class women’s voluntary social welfare organizations in Madras. Another
noted work by Susan Wadley Struggling with Destiny (1994) captures the
life stories of Karimpur respondents. It examines lives, feelings, images
of Gods and Goddesses, negotiations with struggles, and women’s role
in the family and their health. Another theme that emerged was women’s
adjustment to the economic change, including gendered division of labour,
modernization, economic development and urbanization. Seymour (2000)
in Women, Family and Child Care in India: A World in Transition examined
the impact of increased education and delayed marriage age on women’s
roles in the family.
Subaltern studies became a recent trend led by Ramchandra Guha, Partha
Chatterjee, Gayatri Spivak, and others in the 1980s. They reinterpreted
the colonial history of India, thereby providing a canvas for post-colonial
anthropology. Anthropologists today are trying to reformulate their ideas
about ethnographic practices and the construction of cultural concepts.
Given the historical circumstances, anthropology and sociology and
ethnographic writings have been immensely contributed by native scholars,
native scholars trained abroad and western scholars. The Indian ethnographic
practice thus has to be situated in the context of colonial and post-colonial
history and politics. The local and global forces of globalization are another
feature that must be taken care of. The new knowledge must be produced
while being sensitive to historical and political-economic details. Given
the extensive cultural diversity, India always has and will always provide
immense potential for classic ethnographies.
Check your progress II
1. Discuss contributions of famous scholars during the colonial period.
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
2. What are the new areas of research in anthropology?
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………

2.5 LET US SUM UP

The colonial period saw the development and rise of social sciences,
particularly anthropology and sociology. The initial stages of the British
rule required data on the people they colonized. Thus began the collection
of detailed analyses of the culture and society of the people they ruled. The
32
colonizers wanted data on the local political, economic, and social systems Colonial Ethnography
to understand the people they ruled. Anthropologists from England came to
India and collected data on the Indian populations and prepared monographs
on them. The second half of the 19th century saw a substantial number of
monographs on the tribal and other communities by British administrators
and anthropologists.
Along with these, a small number of Indian anthropologists primarily trained
in foreign universities in the US and UK were also involved in intensive
fieldwork and wrote on the caste system, tribal communities and Indian
villages. By the beginning of the 20th century, many Indian anthropologists
had directed setting up Anthropology and Sociology departments in the
country. Such Indian anthropologists wrote about the cultures they grew
up in. The gradual shift has been witnessed in the kind of ethnographic
studies that have been initiated over the decades. Moving from descriptive
to evaluative and analytical studies, the Indian canvas of anthropology,
though brought up under the dominant influence of the colonial regime,
has shown immense potential for classic ethnographies. A move towards
reflexive studies is promising for Anthropology.

2.6 REFERNCES
Basu Roy, Indrani. (2003). Anthropology: The Study of Man. New Delhi: S.
Chand and Co. Ltd.
Cohn, Bernard S. (1987). An Anthropologist among the Historians and
Other Essays. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Dirks, Nicholas. B. (1992). Castes of Mind. Representations, Special Issue:
Imperial Fantasies and Postcolonial Histories No 37, pp56-78.
Dirks, Nicholas. B. (2012). Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of
Modern India. New Delhi: Permanent Black.
Fuller, C. J. (2017) Ethnographic inquiry in colonial India: Herbert Risley,
William Crooke, and the study of tribes and castes. Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, 23 (3). pp. 603-621. ISSN 1359-0987.
Gupta, Giri Raj and Satish Kedia. (2004). Theoretical trends in post-
independence
Ethnographies of India. Chap. 20 in Emerging social science concerns:
Festschrift in honour of Professor Yogesh Atal, edited by Surendra K.
Gupta. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Co.
Srinivas, M. N., and M. N. Panini (1973) “The Development of Sociology
and Social Anthropology in India.” Sociological Bulletin 22:179–215.
Dr. J. H. Hutton . Nature 138, 394 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138394b0

2.7 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress 1
1. Systematic attempts undertaken by British officials, missionaries
and scholars to document the colonized. In 1871, the British officials
launched the first All India Census to collect information about Indian
society. In 1901, Sir Herbert Risley conducted an ethnographic survey
33
Themes in Ethnographies of India. Since then, the census data has been an invaluable source of
information giving demographic details and useful information for
social and cultural analysis. Indological studies involving studies on
religious practices, customs and laws also gained a stimulus because
of the efforts made by British scholars and officials. Sir William
Jones, a British Orientalist, established the Asiatic Society of Bengal
in 1787. The society published a journal devoted to anthropological
interests.
2. a) The Constructive phase
b) Analytical Phase
c) Evaluative Phase
Check your progress 2
1. a) Herbert Risley- He, along with William Crooke (1848-
1923) and Sir Denzil Ibbetson (1847-1908), developed Indian
ethnography and anthropology in the late Victorian period
(Fuller, 2017;1). The purpose of official anthropology was to
contribute to scientific knowledge and strengthen and improve
British rule (ibid;2). The Indian society, as seen by the Britishers,
was a ‘traditional’ society- an antithetical ‘other’ of modern
European society. The society was made up of separate religious
communities; castes were a distinct social group with the tribal
population at the periphery. The systematic anthropology of
India developed with the decennial censuses, which started in
1871-72 and these pioneers directed the census surveys over the
next few decades.
b) Christoph Von-Fuhrer Haimendorf- Christopher Von
Haimendorf was an Austrian ethnologist who spent four
decades in India and did extensive fieldwork to collect data
on the social and cultural life of tribal communities. Initially,
he worked in the Naga Hills and published a travelogue
titled The Naked Nagas in 1938. Based on his experience
in the study of the tribes of India, he proposed the idea of
Isolationism. He is well known for his detailed ethnographies
and contributions to anthropology.
c) G S Ghurye- His famous work Caste and Race in India was
first published in 1932. It outlined six significant features of
the caste system: the segmental division of society, hierarchy,
restrictions of feeding and social intercourse, civil and religious
disabilities and privileges of the different sections, lack of choice
of occupations and restrictions of marriage (Dirks,2012; 246).
He criticized the colonial government’s passion for labels and
pigeonholes has led to the crystallization of the caste system,
which was initially very fluid under indigenous rule
d) Verrier Elwin- He spent nearly three decades doing
anthropological studies of Indian tribesmen and is well known
for his works among the Baigas and Gonds of Orissa and
Madhya Pradesh in Central India. He also worked on the tribes
34
of Northeast states, especially North-East Frontier Agency Colonial Ethnography
(NEFA).
e) D N Majumdar -He was of the view that tribes should be
integrated into Indian society. His PhD was published as a
book, titled A Tribe in Transition: A Study in Culture Pattern
(1937), which is regarded as a first scientific study of the impact
of modern civilization on tribal people.
2. Anthropologists today are trying to reformulate their ideas about
ethnographic practices and the construction of cultural concepts.
Given the historical circumstances, anthropology and sociology and
ethnographic writings have been immensely contributed by native
scholars, native scholars trained abroad and western scholars. The
Indian ethnographic practice thus has to be situated in the context of
colonial and post-colonial history and politics. The local and global
forces of globalization are another feature that must be taken care of.

35
UNIT 3: CLASSICAL ETHNOGRAPHY*
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Understanding Ethnography
3.3 Classical Ethnography: Key Signposts
3.3.1 Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922) by Bronisław Malinowski
3.3.2 The Andaman Islanders (1922) by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown
3.3.3 Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) by Margaret Mead
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (1937) by E.E. Evans
3.3.4
- Pritchard
3.4 Classical Ethnography: Moving ‘ahead’
3.5 Let us Sum Up
3.6 References
3.7 Answers to Check Your Progress

3.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you should be able to:
●● describe the distinctive characteristics of the classical ethnography
●● discuss the classical ethnography in social research;
●● explain the classical ethnography as mode of data collection;
●● discuss major signposts of classical ethnography; and
●● describe the new kind of ethnography of ‘contemporary’ times

3.1 INTRODUCTION
According to Malinowski, the aim of ethnography is ‘to grasp the native’s
point of view ... to realize his vision of the world’ (1922: 25). At a
rudimentary level, ethnography consists of two words; ‘ethno’ meaning the
people and ‘graphy’ which can be understood as picturesque description
of the people (in terms of group, community and/ or society). According
to the Oxford Reference, ethnography is the ‘scientific study of customs,
habits, and behavior of specified groups of people, usually applied to tribes
or clans of people in nonliterate societies’ whereas for Merriam-Webster, it
is the ‘study and systematic recording of human cultures also; a descriptive
work produced from such research’. Seen in this way, ethnography is a
detailed and exhaustive descriptive analysis of any community’s or society’s
holistic existence wherein both the Emic (‘ingroup’) and Etic (‘outgroup’)
perspectives are important. As far as the disciplinary antecedents of the term
ethnography is concerned, it primarily originated within the conceptual and
theoretical domains of Anthropology and more particularly social (British

* Written by Dr. Sumit Saurabh Srivastava, CDS, University of Allahabad

36
usage) and cultural (American usage) anthropology. In this context, Geertz Classical Ethnography
has rightly pointed out that “In anthropology, or anyway social anthropology,
what the practioners do is ethnography. And it is in understanding what
ethnography is, or more exactly what doing ethnography is, that a start can
be made toward grasping what anthropological analysis amounts to as a
form of knowledge” (1973: 5-6). Though, it is beyond the scope of the Unit,
yet it is pertinent to note that anthropology has been many a times accused
of being the ‘handiwork of the Euro-centric colonialism’ and ‘ethnography
(classical) being the study of ‘Other’ i.e. ‘exotic society’ (Clifford 1983: 118-
146). Furthermore, it has been argued that classical/ colonial anthropology
thrived on the exotic ethnographic accounts of the ‘primitive’ societies
(Lewis 1973: 581-602). However, to arrive at such a definitive conclusion
of such academic endeavour is beyond the scope of the present unit.

3.2 UNDERSTANDING AND DEFINING

ETHNOGRAPHY (CLASSICAL)
Before one proceeds to define the term ethnography, it needs to be underlined
that the discipline of Anthropology and the practice of ethnography evolved
hand in hand. For instance, the anthropological ethnographic investigation/
study of the Iroquois people by L.H. Morgan published as Systems of
consanguinity and affinity of the human family (1871); study of the Kwakiutl
society on the Pacific Northwest coast during 1885 and 1930 by Franz Boas
to understand the social dynamics of the potlatch ceremony among them
published as The Social Organization and Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl
Indians (1897), Ethnology of the Kwakiutl (1921) and Kwakiutl Culture as
Reflected in Mythology (1935); Patterns of Culture (1934) by Ruth Benedict,
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935) by Margaret
Mead, We, the Tikopia: a sociological study of kinship in primitive Polynesia
(1936) by Raymond Firth based on a year-long ‘in-person’ study in Tikopia
among other similar texts are considered to be signposts not only of the
classical ethnography but are also seen as ‘stepping stones’ of anthropology
as a discipline. Needless to say, Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922)
by Bronisław Malinowski and The Andaman Islanders (1922) by A.R.
Radcliffe-Brown revolutionised the ‘field’ altogether.
In one of the most comprehensive understanding of ethnography both in
terms of definition and its method is outlined by Levi-Strauss for whom
“ethnography ….. corresponds to the first stages in research - observation
and description, field work. The typical ethnographical study consists of a
monograph dealing with a social group small enough for the author to be
able to collect most of his material by personal observation. Ethnography
also includes the methods and techniques connected with field work, with the
classification, description, and analysis of particular cultural phenomena”
(1963: 354-355). According to Hammersley, “For most anthropologists,
from the early twentieth century, ethnography involved actually living
in the communities of the people being studied, more or less round the
clock, participating in their activities to one degree or another as well as
interviewing them, collecting genealogies, drawing maps of the locale,
collecting artefacts, and so on” (2006: 4). Similarly, for the American

37
Themes in Ethnographies Anthropological Association, “Ethnography involves the researcher’s study
of human behavior in the natural settings in which people live” (2004).
Thus, it becomes clear that ethnography involves both participant and
non-participant observation, informal and semi‑structured interviewing
along with a degree of ‘empathy’ among the ethnographer and his/ her
‘respondents/ informants’.
Check Your Progress I
i) According to the ……………, ethnography is the ‘scientific study of
customs, habits, and behavior of specified groups of people, usually
applied to tribes or clans of people in nonliterate societies’
ii) Ethnography involves both participant and (a) ……………………
observation, informal and semi-structured interviewing along with a
degree of (b) ……………

3.3 CLASSICAL ETHNOGRAPHY: KEY

SIGNPOSTS
In its definitional aspect, it is in the process of locating classical ethnography
within the social science research, it becomes clear that ethnography
(classical) is a qualitative research methodology wherein the researcher /
investigator ‘observes’ a social setting/ location in person (‘fieldwork’) so
as to provide ‘thick’ descriptions of a group, society, or organization. Such
a process of sociological & anthropological inquiry crisscrosses with terms
like ‘field (work) diary’ and ‘field (work) notes’ alike. According to Atkinson
et al. ‘the ethnographic traditions ..... are grounded in a commitment to the
first-hand experience and exploration of a particular social or cultural setting
on the basis of (though not exclusively by) participant observation’ (2001:
4). In this way, fieldwork has been an essential mode of inquiry pertaining
to data collection in ethnography (both classical and contemporary). As the
unit will progress further, student/s will get to know how Malinowski in
a way pioneered the term ‘fieldwork’ in his anthropological explorations
of the Trobriand Islanders while studying the Kula ‘ring’. Furthermore,
participant observation (participating in activities during observations) is a
key to the practice of anthropology in general and ethnography in particular.
Nearly all the classical ethnographers and their respective ethnographies
have a detailed account of the ‘native’ society’s cultural practices which
were ‘witnessed in person’ by the ethnographer him/herself. The key is to
understand the ‘inherent’ meaning of any ritual or practice of the ‘native’
so as to arrive at a holistic interpretation of the same. At this juncture, it’s
very crucial to heed what O’Reilly has to say; ‘The term “fieldwork” is
often confused with participant observation and ethnography, as if they
were all one and the same thing. To be clear: ethnography is a methodology,
participant observation is a method, and fieldwork refers to the period of
primary data collection that is conducted out of the office or library’ (2009: 2).
Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922) by Bronisław
3.3.1
Malinowski
With a Preface by James George Frazer, Argonauts of the Western Pacific:
An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of
38
Melanesian New Guinea (1922) by Polish-British anthropologist Bronisław Classical Ethnography
Kasper Malinowski is considered to be not only the classic text in anthropology
but also the foundation on which the troika of ethnography i.e. fieldwork,
participant observation and learning of the local/ native language/ dialect by
the ethnographer have been formulated. His ‘forced’ two years long-term
intensive fieldwork in 1915-16 and 1917-18 in the Trobriand Islands off the
east coast of New Guinea in a way ‘reconfigured’ anthropological research
method. He was fascinated by the ‘Kula’ which he saw as the circulating
exchange/ trading system of valuables in the Archipelagoes of Eastern New
Guinea wherein the ‘primitive native’ people stripped the commodity of its
materialistic ‘value’ and treated it as a symbol of exchange fostering kinship
and group ties. Elaborating upon the basics of the ethnographic research
and three foundation stones of fieldwork, Malinowski stated that ‘the
student must possess real scientific aims, and know the values and criteria
of modern ethnography. Secondly, to live without other white men, right
among the natives. Finally, he has to apply a number of special methods of
collecting, manipulating and fixing his evidence’ (1922: 6). Furthermore,
underlining the significance of participant observation, he noted that ‘…
with the capacity of enjoying their company and sharing some of their
games and amusements, I began to feel that I was indeed in touch with
the natives, and this is certainly the preliminary condition of being able
to carry on successful field work’ (ibid.: 8). A Diary in the Strict Sense of
the Term (Malinowski 1967/ 1989) is another classic masterpiece which
outlined the day-to-day fieldwork travails. While writing its Introduction
in 1989, Firth noted that ‘One of Malinowski’s outstanding contributions
to the development of social anthropology was the introduction of much
more intensive and much more sophisticated methods of field research
than had previously been current in his subject. (ibid.: xiii-xiv). Though
Malinowski’s Diary has its fair share of critical analysis (Geertz 1983: 55-
59), yet as Murdock has noted that ‘The average quality of anthropological
field work and ethnographic reporting has risen appreciably as a consequence
of Malinowski’s influence’ (1943: 444).
The Andaman Islanders (1922) by A.R. Radcliffe-
3.3.2
Brown
The Andaman Islanders: A Study in Social Anthropology (1922) by A.R.
Radcliffe-Brown was the result of anthropological research carried out in
the Andaman Islands during the years 1906 to 1908 so as to understand
social institutions of the tribes of the Great Andaman. In the process of
the study, he looked into the integrative function of an institution and
while studying the social organization of the tribe’s social organization, he
outlined two main division termed as the Great Andaman Group and the
Little Andaman Group having their own distinctive elements (ibid.: 11).
It is only in the Chapter V titled ‘Customs and Beliefs: Ceremonial’ that
one comes across the significance of ethnography as outlined by Radcliffe-
Brown. For him, ‘Living, as he must, in daily contact with the people he
is studying, the field ethnologist comes gradually to “understand” them, if
we may use the term. The better the observer the more accurate will be his
general impression of the mental peculiarities of the race’ (ibid.: 231). How
Radcliffe-Brown understood ethnography and outlined its significance in
39
Themes in Ethnographies the overall discipline of ethnology / anthropology, I quote: ‘The most urgent
need of ethnology at the present time is ….. in which the observation and the
analysis and interpretation of the institutions of some one primitive people
are carried on together by the ethnologist working in the field’ (ibid.: 232).
3.3.3 Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) by Margaret Mead
Intrigued by the issues bordering to the culture and personality school “such
as rebellion against authority, philosophical perplexities, the flowering of
idealism, conflict and struggle - ascribed to a period of physical development”
(1928: 5), Coming of age in Samoa: a psychological study of primitive youth
for western civilisation (1928) by Margaret Mead attempted to answer
“Were these difficulties due to being adolescent or to being adolescent in
America ?” (ibid.: 5). To look for such answers she went to Samoa, a South
Sea Island about thirteen degrees from the Equator, inhabited by a ‘brown’
Polynesian people and chose to concentrate upon the adolescent girl in
Samoa (more particularly fifty girls in three small neighbouring villages
on the coast of the little island of Tau, in the Manu’s Archipelago). In the
course of her investigative and ethnographic explorations attempting to
underline unique cultural patterns, Mead ‘tried to present to the reader the
Samoan girl in her social setting, to describe the course of her life from
birth until death’ (ibid.: 12). Elaborating upon her method of study during
the nine months which she spent in Samoa, this is what she had to say: ‘I
concentrated upon the girls of the community. I spent the greater part of
my time with them. I spent more time in the games of children than in the
councils of their elders. Speaking their language, eating their food, sitting
barefoot and crosslegged upon the pebbly floor, I did my best to minimise
the differences between us...’ (ibid.: 10). Towards the end of the study, she
concluded that ‘adolescence is not necessarily a time of stress and strain,
but that cultural conditions make it so’ (ibid.: 234).
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (1937)
3.3.4
by E.E. Evans-Pritchard
E.E. Evans-Pritchard’s ethnographic explorations are based on the fieldwork
he did among the Zande and Nuer of now South Sudan. The former in
particular were a central African people who live in the former colonial
territories of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, French Equatorial Africa, and the
Belgian Cong. Subsequently these findings were published as Witchcraft,
Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande (1937) and The Nuer (1940)
which made him a celebrated anthropologist with rigour and outstanding
observational skills. Over a period of time his cumulative writings made
him an authoritative figure in terms of African culture/ cultural system.
Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande (1937) is based on
fieldwork conducted in Sudan in the 1920s and 1930s and is considered
to be one of the classic texts of social anthropology. According to Evans-
Pritchard, “Azande believe that some people are witches and can injure
them in virtue of an inherent quality. A witch performs no rite, utters no
spell, and possesses no medicines. An act of witchcraft is a psychic act.
They believe also that sorcerers may do them ill by performing magic
rites with bad medicines. Azande distinguish clearly between witches
and sorcerers. Against both they employ diviners, oracles, and medicines.
The relations between these beliefs and rites are the subject of this book”
40
(1976: 1). Significantly, the entire social life of the Azande revolves around Classical Ethnography
witchcraft which is often associated with the ‘cause’ of their misfortune. In
general, the Azande people, when they fell sick, they consult the ‘witch-
doctors’ as one of their many oracles in the community who is both diviner
and magician. Evans-Pritchard underlines that “By oracles they can foresee
future dispositions of witchcraft and change them before they develop. By
magic they can guard themselves against witchcraft and destroy it” (ibid.:
65-66).
It is in the ‘Appendix IV Some Reminiscences and Reflections on Fieldwork’
(ibid.: 240-254) of the book that Evans-Pritchard has flagged key issues
pertaining to ethnographic anthropological fieldwork explorations in a
concise manner. One of the issues relate to the extent /period of fieldwork
to which Evans-Pritchard is of the view that it should be a minimum of two
years with a break in a while so as to ponder upon the findings in between.
Second issue is regarding what anthropologists have been talking about is
participant-observation and its context; “By this they mean that in so far
as it is both possible and convenient they live the life of the people among
whom they are doing their research” (ibid.: 243). However, Evans-Pritchard
has its own set of apprehensions regarding the same as it is very difficult
for a person to transform into the ‘native’ within two years of research. For
him, what best scenario can be achieved by the anthropologist is that “one
lives in two different worlds of thought at the same time, in categories and
concepts and values which often cannot easily be reconciled. One becomes,
at least temporarily, a sort of double marginal man, alienated from both
worlds” (ibid.: 243). Just to take a detour, while writing on the nature of
anthropological understanding from the ‘native’s point of view’, Geertz
also is of the view that “‘The trick is not to get yourself into some inner
correspondence of spirit with your informant. The trick is to figure out
what the devil they think they are up to’ (1983: 58). Furthermore, learning
the language of the ‘native’ and subsequently conversing in the same with
them is a first most requirement of a conducive ethnographic fieldwork. It
was during the study of the Azande, as Evans-Pritchard informs us that he
struggled very hard to make sense of the Azande language and was equally
strained to write/ script it down so as to make sense of the daily social
lives of the Azande. One of the profound issues regarding ethnographic
fieldwork which has been raised by Evans-Pritchard which still rings true
to its account is about the nature, context and ‘validity’ of the ‘reflexivity’
i.e. “transformed by the people they are making a study of” (ibid.: 245) in/
during the fieldwork. He after due deliberation affirms that “learnt from
African ‘primitives’ much more than they learnt from me” (ibid.: 245).
Check Your Progress II
1. Differentiate between the following terms:
Ethnography, Participant Observation and Field Work. Use three lines
for your answer.
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
41
Themes in Ethnographies
3.4 CLASSICAL ETHNOGRAPHY: MOVING
‘AHEAD’
Over a period of time, one comes face to face with the ‘break’ from the
Classical to a Contemporary mode of ethnographic travails. With the
emergence and subsequent widespread of audio-visual techniques and
media earlier and new digital technology of the present has transformed
classical ethnography. At the same time ‘multi-sited’ ethnography has been
also making its mark. However, before one moves ahead in this direction,
it is pertinent to have an informed conceptual discussion on what Clifford
Geertz calls as ‘thick description’, a notion he, in his own admission,
borrowed from Gilbert Ryle. For Geertz, “The ethnographer ‘inscribes’
social discourse; he writes it down. In so doing, he turns it from a passing
event, which exists only in its own moment of occurrence, into an account,
which exists in its inscriptions and can be reconsulted” (1973: 19). His
understandings on the interpretation of the meaning of Balinese Cockfights
have immensely added to what he meant by ‘thick description’ via seeing
culture as a text.

3.5 LET US SUM UP

The objective of the Unit was to understand classical ethnography and
its specificities. In the process of doing so, it was grounded on some of
the key classical ethnographic texts authored by those anthropologists
(& ethnologists) who in a way have made a paradigmatic contribution to
ethnography. These texts included those authored by Bronisław Malinowski,
A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Margaret Mead and E.E. Evans-Pritchard. It however
does not mean that such an enumeration is exhaustive. It emerged from their
writings that classical ethnography and the contemporary ethnography do
share certain features and characteristics which are central to the practice of
the same. It became clear to us that classical ethnography has been a holistic
approach to the study of cultural systems primarily of the ‘primitive’ &
‘pre-literate’ societies. As the ethnographer is from the ‘outside’, he/ she
has to make an attempt to understand and decipher the meanings within
cultural systems. In doing so, it becomes clear that conducting ‘fieldwork’
is essential to classical ethnography. Associated with it is the requirement of
the daily and continuous recording of fieldnotes/ field diary. It also emerged
that if Malinowski has been credited with ‘rediscovering’ the basic tenets
of ethnographic fieldwork in terms of participant observation and learning
of the ‘natives’ language system; Radcliffe-Brown is often seen as the one
who ascribed the functional dimension to the constitutive cultural elements
of any social organization. As a female anthropologist, Margaret Mead
in her various writings have grappled with the ‘methodological’ issues of
how the gendered identity of the researcher intersects with that of the field
and the ‘subjects’ of the study. In a way she outlined that being a woman
anthropologist, it was conducive for her to conduct ethnographic fieldwork
having adolescent girls as her central theme. By and large, the same issue
has been also taken up by none other than Evans-Pritchard who has vividly
discussed how women and adolescent girls of his ‘varied’ ethnographic
explorations have interacted with him. He notes that in certain cases he was
42
at liberty to do so and in other cases, he was closely watched by the male Classical Ethnography
members of the society.
In nutshell, what is being attempted here is to have some sort of ‘continuity’
at the epistemological, pedagogical and ‘practical’ planes having classical
ethnography on one hand and the contemporary ethnography on the other
extreme. The central features of classical ethnography as reflected in what
is to be understood as fieldwork and participant observation are still very
important in the contemporary times. To what extent the researcher while
engaging in an ethnographic account of a community or social unit be
allowed to ‘go native’ so that he/ she can retain his/ her obligation/ duty to
‘report back’ and to submit the key findings of his/ her study is something
we still have to resolve. Though the proponents of the classical ethnography
argued for a ‘fieldwork’ of a considerable amount of time; most of them
were vary of this issue. Added to it is another issue of the ‘reflexive’ nature
of the ethnographic fieldwork itself. In the Durkheimian mode of reference,
how to be objective if one has to totally immerse him/her self into the ‘field’
and the ‘community’ under study to grasp the hidden / inner meaning / logic
of the social practice. How to be neutral in with regards to the ‘illogical /
immoral’ entities present in the ‘field’ is something which impinges upon
ethics of doing fieldwork. So as and when, Mead became aware of the subtle
presence of attraction between opposite sexes leading to sometimes sexual
‘deviance’; how to respond to it? Needless to say, classical ethnography
and texts associated with this era/ period are classical not only in terms of
chronology i.e. they happened to be written ‘first’; rather they are classical
because the basic tents of ethnography they founded at that point of time
(and place) still reverberates across great distances and spans of ‘present
and contemporary’ time.

3.6 REFERENCES
American Anthropological Association. 2004. American Anthropological
Association Statement on Ethnography and Institutional Review Boards.
URL: https://www.americananthro.org/ParticipateAndAdvocate/Content.
aspx?ItemNumber=1652. Accessed 28/10/2021.
Atkinson, Paul, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont, John Lofland and Lyn
Lofland. 2001. ‘Editorial Introduction’, in Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey,
Sara Delamont, John Lofland and Lyn Lofland (eds.): Handbook of
Ethnography. London: SAGE Publications Ltd., pp. 1-7.
Clifford, James. 1983. ‘On Ethnographic Authority’, Representations,
(Spring), No. 2, pp. 118-146.
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1937/ 1976. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among
the Azande. [Abridged with an Introduction by Eva Gillies]. London: Oxford
University Press. [1937: Oxford: The. Clarendon Press].
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays.
New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers. pp. 3‑32.
Geertz, Clifford. 1983. Local Knowledge: Local Knowledge: Further Essays
in Interpretive Anthropology. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers.

43
Themes in Ethnographies Hammersley, Martyn. 2006. ‘Ethnography: problems and prospects’,
Ethnography and Education, 1(1): 3-14, DOI: 10.1080/17457820500512697
Lévi-Strauss, C. 1963. “The place of anthropology in the social sciences
and problems raised by it”, in C. Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology.
[Translated from the French by Claire Jacobson and Brooke Grundfest
Schoepf]. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, pp. 346-381.
Lewis, Diane. 1973. ‘Anthropology and Colonialism’, Current Anthropology,
14(5): 581-602.
Malinowski, B. 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London: Routledge
& Kegan Paul.
Malinowski, Bronisław. 1967/ 1989. A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term.
Great Britain: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.; [1989 edition published by
London: The Athlone Press Ltd.]
Mead, Margaret. 1928. Coming of age in Samoa. New York: William
Morrow & Co.
Murdock, G.P. 1943. ‘Bronisław Malinowski’, American Anthropologist,
N.S. 45, pp. 441-451.
O’Reilly, Karen. 2009. Key Concepts in Ethnography. London: SAGE
Publications Ltd.
Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred R. 1922. The Andaman Islanders. New York:
The Free Press of Glencoe. (Republished 1970. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press).

3.7 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress I
1. Oxford Reference
2. (a) non-participant
(b) Empathy
Check Your Progress II
1. Ethnography is a methodology, participant observation is a method,
and fieldwork refers to the period of primary data collection that is
conducted out of the office or library’

44
UNIT 4: INDIAN ETHNOGRAPHY*
Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Modern Anthropology of India
4.3 Contribution of Indian Anthropologist
4.4 Various Phases of Indian Anthropology
4.4.1 The formative phase (1772-1919)
4.4.2 The Constructive Phase (1920-1949)
4.4.3 The Analytical Period (1950-1990)
4.4.4 Evaluative Period (1990 onwards)
4.5 Let Us Sum Up
4.6 References
4.7 Answers to Check Your Progress

4.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you will should able to:
●● understand emergence of anthropology in India;
●● understand contribution of Indian anthropologist; and
●● understand different phases for the growth of Indian anthropology;

4.1 INTRODUCTION
Ethnography comes from the Greek words “Ethnos” which means people
and from the word “Graphein” which means writing. For Wolcott (1999)
ethnography can be defined as the “description of the customary social
behaviours of an identifiable group of people”. Ethnography uses the method
of first hand written description of different cultures. In other words, it can
be understood as the account which pulls together all the scattered pieces
of data into a common thread and presents it as a whole. It is essentially
a comparative study which looks at the questions about human existence
from the point of view of a specific society and the cultural system that
exists within it (Armstrong 2008). There are three critical questions that
constantly reoccur when talking about ethnography in the context of self
and other. These are; how do we know what we know, how do we assume
to speak for someone else and finally who is it being addressed to? (ibid,
55) The way in which this information is presented in can take many forms,
such as articles, journals, statistical data, documentaries, books to name a
few.
Two words are considered as seminal in the field of ethnography in the arena
of modern anthropology. These are the works by British anthropologist

* Dr. Ritika Gulyani, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Sociology, Miranda House, DU

45
Themes in Ethnographies Bronislaw Malinowski in the Trobrian Islands of Melanesia and by the
American anthropologist Margaret Mead in Samoa.

4.2 MODERN ANTHROPOLOGY OF INDIA

The idea of a modern, secular India has its origins in the second half of
the nineteenth century. There are three major areas which influenced the
emergence of anthropology in India. The first of these were the colonial
attempts by British India to understand the historical and ethnographic
knowledge. Secondly, a lot of societies and journals were founded and
materials were displayed in the museums. This was also a way in which the
subject was able to enter as well as make a mark for itself in the university
setup. Thirdly, the movement for an independent India was also a reaction
to the increasing control that colonial rule was exerting on the Indian state
and anthropology was one of the ways in which this was done (Berger &
Heidemann 2013)
Before Independence, the anthropological work in India was majorly
descriptive and encyclopaedic in nature and the idea was the creation of an
image of India that was seen as an exotic culture that needed to be explored
and discovered. It was only a few decades before independence, around
the 1920s and 30s that the discipline of anthropology was able to break
free from the administrative chains and studies took place in India now
looked at the understanding of India from a different perspective. Post
1947, the discipline of modern anthropology developed as a separate field,
wherein not just within the country but also at a global level it went through
numerous changes with regards to its discourse, methodology, conceptual
understanding and so on. Not just these, but even the field got expanded to
other states and union territories of India and did not just confine itself to
the unexplored, remote areas. The urban areas also started to be looked into
as well as concepts such as religion, the economy, politics, understanding of
the social system as well as understanding about other parts of the culture.
This process led to the emergence of multiple ethnographies which were
very detailed and were located in very specific areas.
The Indian anthropology post independence stated to get influenced by
international debates in anthropology and had discussions on the social and
symbolic values, on ideas and values and on the idea of resistance and as
well as on the concepts of post colonialism. Various Indian concepts such as
caste, untouchability, nationalism also developed further. The development
of anthropology then was a result of Indology, archaeology and history
and well as long discussion of cultural continuity as well as the evolving
concepts of change spanning over several decades (Berger & Heidemann
2013). The ethnographies before the independence were mainly centered
around the understanding of the tribal societies, while the concepts of
caste and religion took precedence post 1947. In the years that followed
independence, anthropologists conducted detailed ethnographic research in
all parts of the country, even though not equal attention has been accorded
to the different parts of the country. Additionally, during various decades,
the anthropological discourse has been completely different depending in
the surrounding factors. The focus on what is considered to be appropriate
and worthy of study has undergone a lot of changes (Berger 2012)
46
Indian Ethnography
4.3 CONTRIBUTION OF INDIAN
ANTHROPOLOGIST
In the context of India, there are seven eminent Indian scholars who
can be mentioned whose works have been instrumental to the birth and
development of anthropology in India. These are S.C. Roy, G.S. Ghurye,
N.K. Bose, D.N. Majumdar, L.R. Vidyarthi, Surajit Sinha and S.C. Dube.
S.C Roy made the first attempt in 1921 to provide a bibliographical account
of all the publication on tribes and caste till that time which was present in
published magazines, compilation of handbooks and monographs on the
tribes. D.N.Majumdar made an attempt similar to Roy in 1946, when he
reviewed how anthropology had developed so far and how the condition of
the study was under the British Administration. G.S. Ghurye in his article
‘The Teaching of Sociology, Social psychology and Social anthropology’
in 1956 mentioned how India had not managed to keep pace with the
development that was happening in Europe and America, and while the
British influence was still present, the understanding of American Social
Anthropology was completely missing. S.C. Dube discussed a similar
issue and in 1962, he highlighted the need for more refined techniques of
methodology and research for the Indian Social Anthropology. In 1963,
N.K.Bose came up with a booklet, “Fifty years of Sciences in India, Progress
of Anthropology and Archaeology” in which he discussed the progress
of anthropology in India with respect to prehistoric archaeology, cultural
anthropology and physical anthropology. L.P Vidyarthi in 1964 referred to
the emergence of a new trend in Indian anthropology which was the study of
village, caste, religion, kinship, and the emergence of applied anthropology.
Surajit Sinha in 1968 in a conference observed that the direction that the
Indian anthropology was taking was not so much as imitation of the west,
but rather to establish the Indian traditions in anthropology.

4.4 VARIOUS PHASES OF INDIAN

ANTHROPOLOGY
Vidhyarthi and Sinha divide the growth of Indian anthropology into four
phases
4.4.1 The formative phase (1772-1919)
The establishment of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1774 under the leader
ship of Sir William Zones is taken as a point where the scientific study of
‘Nature and Man’ in India began. The society published a number of journals
which reflected the various tribes and cases of India and detailed the various
customs followed. Books by ethnographers were published which were the
foundation of the study.
Anthropology in colonial India was mostly undertaken by the government
and in that sense, most people who undertook this work belonged to the
Indian Civil Services. A few others were a part of the army, and some
belonged to the medical, educational, police and other services. The study
of anthropology in India began around the same time that the census of
the country were being taken, i.e., around 1871-72. The idea of this dual

47
Themes in Ethnographies exercise was to contribute to the scientific knowledge around anthropology
as well as to help improve the British rule. This exercise also reiterated the
idea that the traditional society present in India was composed of a number
of separate castes and religious communities, which formed the core of the
society, along with tribes which existed on the periphery (Fuller 2017).
While the attempts to classify and give accounts of castes and tribes have
been a part of the census data since the 1870s, the first attempt to provide a
comprehensive anthropological data on castes and tribes was in the census
of 1901, which was led by Risley. Due to these efforts, a lot of tribes who
resided in the interior parts of the country were brought into focus. This
continued even in 1911, so much so that both these census were largely
considered as ‘anthropological classics’. In a similar vein, the 1931 Census
was a very important milestone in ethnological studies as it formed the basis
of classification of the people of the sub-continent (P. Padmanabha 1978)
Two very important works that came out of that period was ‘The tribes and
castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh’ by William Crooke and
‘The tribes and castes of Bengal’ by Sir Herbert Risley. In nineteenth century,
the common belief among anthropologist in India was that people had
descended either from the more ‘advanced’ Aryans or the more indigenous
and primitive Dravidians. Risley in his work discusses how the division
among the castes cannot only be explained by a division of labour, but
rather how it was a hierarchical distinction between the fair skinned Aryans,
who were at a higher pedestal and the dark skinned Dravidians, who were
at the lower pedestal. His theory, also supported by the anthropometrical
measurements, also revealed this distinction between the modern Indians,
and his work among the Bengalis showed hoe some bodily characteristics,
such as the shape of the nose, could be strongly associated with the social
status. Crooke on the other hand included anthropomorphic data from the
North Western Provinces to show that nasal indices varied only marginally
among the castes and tribes and this it could not be taken as a basis of caste,
which for him could only be found among occupation.
Both authors devoted a lot of their space in their work to the internal structure
of how caste, tribe and marriage worked. In both of their handbooks, the
terms ‘caste’, ‘tribe’ and ‘race’ have been used fairly interchangeably. Race
was sometimes used to denote another term for people and sometimes to a
particular group. The terms caste and tribe have also been used to describe
the same group, which is indicative of the fact that at that time, the distinction
between them was not so sharp as it would be much later, which came about
due to changing classifications of the census and their formal definitions to
define the dalits and the adivasis, the schedule castes and schedule tribes.
One of the main aims of the handbooks was to better the classification of
the social groups that existed, more so for the reason that this could assist
census better. The official belief was that understanding of the social system
could only be sought through accurately counting and classifying the castes
and tribes into their sub divisions (Fuller 2017). However, these handbooks
have been criticised for being ‘superficial’ and ‘inadequate’ and for the fact
that it does not include a holistic analysis of the regional caste system that
they undertook with the help of their fieldwork.

48
4.4.2 The Constructive Phase (1920-1949) Indian Ethnography

A new turn came into the ethnographic studies when social anthropology
was included as a subject in the curriculum of University of Calcutta in
1920 in the Post graduate syllabus. The inclusion of the subject as an object
of study established it as a discipline worthy of research at the University
level and not just as a tool in the hands of the administrators. Soon after,
the department of anthropology also found place in the University of Delhi
(1947) University of Lucknow (1950) and the University of Guwahati
(1952). In 1938, a joint session of the Indian Science Congress and the
British Assocation also took place which had in attendance many important
national and international anthropologist, who discussed the future of the
subject in India. Additionally, a lot of important works also came up such as
the work by Majumdar on racial and ethnic surveys in Bengal, Gujarat and
Uttar Pradesh which was an important step in the study of physical and social
anthropology and M.N. Sriniva’s work on marriage and family in Mysore.
In 1945, the Anthropological Survey of India was established in India,
which looked at the anthropometric study in different parts of the country
and focused on the racial classification based on the ethnic differences. This
was also the time period when Vemer Elwin published a number of books
on the tribal people of Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Orissa,
which are seen as classics within the field.
The subject thus matured within this period and influenced by the British
line of thought and works done eminent universities in Europe, the Indian
anthropologists too stated to look at Indian anthropology from a different
light and started to develop their own distinct study.
4.4.3 The Analytical Period (1950-1990)
Post the Second World War and the Indian Independence, in addition to the
British line of thought, the American style of anthropology was also seen.
The understanding of India as a pre-literate, isolate society, one that had
been the influence of British thought, was replaced during this period with
more emphasis on inward thoughts and study of India as a complex society
emerged, with the idea of village study gaining much traction (Ghosh, A. &
Banerjee 2008)
The work in 1955 by American Anthropologist Mc Kim Marriott titled
“Village India: Studies in the little community’ is one of great significance
in Indian anthropology. A general shift was already taking place in general
anthropology which was from studying “deserts, jungles, and arctic
wastes” (Geertz 2010) towards more of complex societies, and similarly
in India also, the shift was observed from more of tribal studies to now
where the emphasis was more on the study of the Indian civilization from a
grassroots’ level. This edited volume contained reports of eight villages and
five provinces of India, which in no way is representative of the villages in
India, but still is an attempt to understand the method of dealing with the
‘little community’. As mentioned in the forward of the work by American
Anthropologists Robert Redfield and Milton Singer, this work was a great
step towards looking at civilizations as a result of their smallest sections-
the family, neighbourhood, work, economy, politics and so on. In this light
the work displayed a variety of approaches to the study, and in fact these
49
Themes in Ethnographies different approaches went on to become the various theoretical stands in
the anthropology of India (Berger 2012). Indian Anthropologists like D N.
Majumdar, M.N. Srinivas and S.C. Dube were important figures in the study
of community and village studies.
Not just the influence of British and American Anthropologists, but even
French Structuralists such as Levi-Strauss and Dumont & Leach influenced
study of kinship and caste respectively. (Ghosh, A. & Banerjee 2008) In
the late twentieth century, around the 1980s and 1990s, the understanding
to anthropology underwent a drastic change. This change was a result of
the reaction to the caste studies that were popularised by the structural
functional approach by Louis Dumont in the 1960s and 1970s. This decline
from the ‘village studies model’ was what allowed Indian anthropology to
break out of the mould of caste and move on to larger structures within the
Indian setting, such as class, religion, and so on (Fuller and Spencer 1990).
Understanding of great and little traditions (Robert Redfield), social and
economic basis of the India society ( Katherine Gaugh, Edmund Leach,
N.K. Bose), the study of caste as a system of stratification (M.N.Srinivas)
among gave rise to a plethora of perspectives and helped the discipline
expand leaps and bounds. Additionally, post independence, the spirit of
nationalism was strong among the Indian scholars, which also led to the
creation of multiplicity of indigenous approaches to study the society. N.K.
Bose developed a model to look at the process of modernization for tribes
and castes. S.C Dube looked at the Indian civilization through a six-fold
classification of tradition (classical, national, regional, local, western and
local sub-cultural traditions of social groups). Iravati Karve tried to explain
the Indian civilization on the basis of historical, linguistic, structural and
cultural variables. B.K. Roy Burman in order to understand India in terms
of the socio-political process developed the concept of nation and sub-
nation. M.N. Srinivas came up with a mobility model to understand social
change. Surujit Sinha posited tribe and caste at two opposite continuum in
order to understand the social structure of the Indian society (Ghosh, A. &
Banerjee 2008).
Many anthropologists have also very keenly chosen the path of an active
anthropology in order to direct their knowledge in pursuit of the welfare
and development of the society. In light of this, in 1953, Tribal Research
and Training Institutes were set up across the country with the main purpose
of conducting research and using the collected data for planning purposes.
Thus, this makes it apparent that the feature of the Indian anthropology that
was a part of the colonial India has continued to remain so to some extent.
4.4.4 The Evaluative Period (1990 onwards)
Post the realization that the British and American anthropological analyses
are unable to explain sufficiently the complexity of the Indian society, a need
for the reorientation of the discipline was needed. Post the 1990’s Indian
anthropology had been much more concerned with the problems of one’s
own society, and it is the new and novel ways of looking at the data that
has made Indian anthropology more distinct. There is now an increasing
interest in newly emerging fields and sub fields of anthropology, such as
Medical anthropology, development studies, and psychological studies,
50
among others. Adding to this, the interaction of the discipline with other Indian Ethnography
social sciences, especially sociology has provided with a unique element to
the study,. In this way, both disciplines now can rely on each other to look at
issues pertaining to the tribal, the agrarian and the industrial socio-economic
societies and cultural systems and give rise to holistic understandings of the
discipline (Ghosh, A. & Banerjee 2008)
Check Your Progress
1. In which year Asiatic Society of Bengal established?
2. Iravati Karve explained the Indian civilization on the basis of
............................variables.

4.5 LET US SUM UP

M.N. Srinivas maintains that due to the particular history of Indian
anthropology, the scholars have gained a lot of experience in studying their
own cultures and their own histories. This unique position will help the
scholar of today, who has studied the others in order to understand the self,
to now look at self in itself as a valid means of study. Thus, the study of
one’s own life can also become a case study.
The analysis thus shows how Indian anthropology has grown and sustained
itself over the years. Beginning from a colonial pursuit, and being heavily
influenced by the view point of British and later American perspectives,
Indian anthropology has managed to grow, survive and thrive on its own
strength. Due to various historical and cultural reasons, that shaped the
study of Indian anthropology, the discipline has emerged in the form that it
is visible today and it is important to understand this trajectory, in order to
understand the present as well as the future of the discipline.

4.6 REFERENCES
Fuller, C., & Spencer, J. (1990). South Asian Anthropology in the
1980s. South Asia Research, 10(2), 85-105
Armstrong, K. (2008). Ethnography and Audience. In P. Alasuutari, L.
Bickman, & J. Brannen (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Social Research
Methods (pp. 54-67). London, UK: Sage Publication.
Wolcott, H. F. (1999). Ethnography: A Way of Seeing. Walnut Creek, C.A.:
Altamira Press.
Clifford Geertz. 2010. Life among the anthros and other essays, edited by
Fred Inglis. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Fuller, C. J. (2017) Ethnographic inquiry in colonial India: Herbert Risley,
William Crooke, and the study of tribes and castes. Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, 23 (3), 603-621
P. Padmanabha (1978). Indian Census and Anthropological Investigations
(Rep.). Xth International Congress of Anthropological And Ethnological
Sciences.
Berger, P., & Heidemann, F. (2013). The modern anthropology of India:
Ethnography, themes and theory. London: Routledge

51
Themes in Ethnographies Berger, P. (2012). Theory and ethnography in the modern anthropology of
India. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. 2 (2) : 325-57
Ghosh, A. & Banerjee, B.G. (2008) History of Anthropology in India.
National Science Digital Library.URL: http://nsdl.niscair.res.in/jspui/
handle/123456789/519

4.7 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. 1774
2. Historical, linguistic, structural and cultural.

52
UNIT 5: GLOBAL ETHNOGRAPHY*
Structure
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Understanding Globalization and Ethnography
5.2.1 Globalization
5.2.1.1 The three axes of globalization: global forces, connections and
imaginations.
5.2.2 Ethnography
5.2.2.1 Global Ethnography
5.2.2.2 Global Forces
5.2.2.3 Global /Transnational Connections
5.2.2.4 Global / Transnational Imaginations
5.3 Alternative Approaches to Global Ethnography
5.3.1 Virtual Ethnography,
5.3.2 Multi-sited fieldwork.
5.4 Locating the Global in Transnational Ethnography
5.4.1 Two types of Globalization
5.4.1.1 Non-contiguous, and
5.4.1.2 Contiguous Globalization
5.5 Reimagining the Social in Global Ethnography
5.5.1 The Social as Flow or Network
5.5.2 The Social as Transnational
5.5.3 The Social as Border Zone
5.5.4 The Social as Place-Making Projects
5.6 Issues and Challenges in Global Ethnography
5.7 Future Directions
5.8 Let us sum up
5.9 References
5.10 Answers to Check Your Progress

5.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit you should be able to:
●● understand and define the process of globalization and ethnography.
●● re-define the character of social relations in an era of globalization.
●● understand the various perspectives of globalization: the global as
forces, connections, and imaginations.
• discuss the issues and challenges to ethnography from globalization.

* Dr. T. Gangmei, Assistant Professor, Delhi University, Delhi

53
Themes in Ethnographies
5.1 INTRODUCTION
Globalization has strongly exploded the sociological agenda in recent
decades. It continues to be an increasingly important issue for contemporary
anthropology and sociology as cross-border interconnections and the
movement of peoples, capital and culture around the world expand and
intensify. Since the 1990s, an increasing number of researchers have
become interested in this general topic and the literature on the subject has
proliferated. Within this literature has emerged an approach of the study
of globalization commonly referred to as global ethnography (Tsuda et al.,
2014).
In this chapter, we shall examine the changes brought about by the process
of globalization which eventually impacted the site, relations of people,
and ethnographic research. We shall also discuss the various alternative
approaches to global ethnography and highlight the key issues and challenges
emerging in global ethnography. The chapter conclude by discussing the
way forward in this most challenging times.

5.2 UNDERSTANDING GLOBALIZATION AND

ETHNOGRAPHY
5.2.1 Globalization
Globalization is a trans-planetary process or set of processes involving
increasing liquidity and the growing multi-directional flows of people,
objects, places and information as well as the structures they encounter and
create that are barriers to, or expedite, those flows (Ritzer, 2011). A term that
is closely related to globalization is transnationalism and transnationality:
a) Transnationalism is the “processes that interconnect individuals and
social groups across specific geo-political borders”.
b) Transnationality denotes “the rise of new communities and formation
of new social identities and relations that cannot be defined through
the traditional reference point of nation-states”.
5.2.1.1 The three axes of globalization
When considering the site of ethnographic research, it is important to take
into account three axes of globalization: global forces, connections and
imaginations.
a) Global forces are understood as those pressures on places, institutions,
situations and people from such overarching, often intersecting,
imperatives as capitalism, modernity and colonialism.
b) Global connections refer to trans-national links and networks between
such globally mobile people.
c) Global imagination refers to the different and competing ways that
globalization is understood and portrayed.
5.2.2 Ethnography
Ethnography emerged from anthropology, and adopted by sociologists, is
a qualitative methodology that lends itself to the study of the beliefs, social
54
interactions, and behaviours of small societies, involving participation and Global Ethnography
observation over a period of time, and the interpretation of the data collected.
In its early stages, there was a desire by researchers to make ethnography
appear scientific, and with this in mind a manual was produced for people
in the field, with a set of instructions as to how ethnography should be
‘done. The goal of ethnography, argued Naidoo (2012) then was to give
an analytical description of other cultures, an exploration of a particular
phenomenon, rather than the testing of a hypothesis. The data consisted of
unstructured accounts and the analysis, which provided interpretation of
meaning, was done by the researcher, using observation, description and
explanation.
The ethnographer’s task, argued Naidoo (2012), is to find what connects to
what, and to construct subjects in changing contexts as they act and are acted
upon. In taking such a stance, the ethnography becomes an ethnography of
the system, too, and the global, “…an emergent dimension of arguing about
the connection among sites in a multi-sited ethnography. Ethnography is
linked to the lived experience of the ethnographer.
5.2.2.1 Global Ethnography
Ethnography is an especially suitable methodology with which to investigate
social structures that are constituted across multiple scales and sites. It can
strategically locate itself at critical points of intersection of scales and units
of analysis and can directly examine the negotiation of interconnected social
actors across multiple scales. Global ethnographies can be outlined through
the lens of three slices of globalization—global forces, global connections,
and global imaginations (Gille & ’O’ Riain. 2002).
5.2.2.2 Global Forces
The first type of global ethnographies is those that examines how external
transnational forces affect local peoples and how they respond to and
appropriate such influences (Tsuda et al. 2014). These transnational forces
originate in other countries as part of globalization and therefore impact
localities from a distance. Examples include multinational corporations,
international agencies and organizations, global migrants and ideologies,
and global mass media/popular culture. Ethnographies that examine global
forces do not necessarily have to be based on multi-sited research, since
they can be studies of how the global affects one locality or community.
However, researchers can use multi-sited fieldwork in various countries to
compare how global forces affect two or more communities in a different or
similar manner (Tsuda et al. 2014).
In studies of global forces, the social actors and places being studied are
caught up in a place-making project constituted well beyond their influence
that can hardly be shaped by them- although they may develop complex
forms of adaptation, avoidance, and survival. Global ethnographies at their
best reveal not just the impact of an impersonal force but also how localities
are made penetrable by forces, how localities assimilate these forces into
their own socio-scapes, and how forces are resisted, accommodated to,
and fled from (Gille & ’O’ Riain. 2002). We include under “forces” what
Burawoy (2000) calls “imagination,” that is, local social movements that
use aspects of globalization or react against it. In contrast, accommodation
55
Themes in Ethnographies refers to local communities that do not respond contentiously to the effects
of globalization, but simply accept, acquiesce and adapt to them or attempt
to mitigate their effects, especially in cases where globalization has a
negative impact (Tsuda et al. 2014).
5.2.2.3 Global /Transnational Connections
The global forces perspective tends to regard the global and local as
dichotomous and separate entities that impact each other depending on
whether they are constituted in relations of opposition, accommodation and
appropriation. Instead, others approach globalization at the local level as a
matrix of transnational interconnections and networks within which local
actors and institutions are embedded. Such transnational connections are
not simply between two countries, but can involve people living in multiple
countries. These cross-border networks are therefore not unidirectional
but can fan out and circulate in multiple directions (Burawoy 2000, 30)
and enable local communities scattered across the globe to influence each
other over considerable geographical distances. They are created and
reproduced by peoples and commodities moving across national borders,
as well as by de-territorialized social interactions made possible through
telecommunications and the Internet (Tsuda et al. 2014:136).
Ethnographic studies about transnational networks can benefit the most
from multi-sited fieldwork. Of course, it is possible to conduct research in a
single site and explore how local communities maintain connections to other
countries through telecommunications, the Internet, and mass media, as
well as through the circulation of peoples and commodities across national
borders. However, such studies examine only one node in the network and
can only provide a geographically limited understanding of how it functions.
If a social network extends across two countries, it should ideally be studied
from both ends, which requires fieldwork in both sites. For transnational
networks that extend across more than two countries, fieldwork in multiple
sites may be necessary for a comprehensive global ethnography (Tsuda et
al. 2014).
Examining the impact of globalization on local societies, it becomes quite
apparent that most “global” influences are locally experienced and manifested
only as specific transnational social processes and institutions. In fact, few
global processes that affect localities are truly global in scope, since they
do not actually encompass the entire world, but consist of more localized
transnational processes that are simply part of globalization. Ultimately,
all macro-level, global processes manifest themselves as specific, -level
transnational flows and connections between local places and communities.
Therefore, it is somewhat of a reification to claim that the “global” or
“globalization” is actually impacting local societies when, in reality, their
effects are actually represented by much more specific and geographically
limited transnational forces. In fact, not only are transnational processes and
networks smaller in scale, they are more rooted and embedded in specific
localities as simply part of larger global forces, making them more amenable
to localized, ethnographic study (Tsuda et al. 2014).
5.2.2.4 Global / Transnational Imaginations
In studies of global imaginations, the local actively participates in public
discourse about what globalization might look like. The construction of a
56
global vision has tangible implications for the outcome of a conflict. First of Global Ethnography
all, references to global ideas and actors today provide an entrance ticket to
participating in public discourse, and those unwilling or unable to formulate
their claims in global terms often find themselves invisible. Second, when
local actors wage their battles with claims about the global, to acquire more
credibility they themselves build connections to outside actors and enter
globally circulating discourses. (Gille & ’O’ Riain. 2002:283).
In addition to being an external force and a configuration of transnational
networks, globalization has also become a form of identity making.
Ethnographies that focus on the imagination are those that examine how
local peoples develop transnational identifications with other peoples,
cultures, and societies through the lived experience of globalization. Global
migration and mobility, as well as the increasing availability of mass
media and the flow of information and communications across borders
has enabled people to expand their imaginations and affiliations beyond
their geographically confined lives. (Tsuda et al. 2014). As part of the lived
experience of globalization, transnational affiliations and subjectivities can
also inform local lives and relationships. However, we should not assume
that globalization always broadens local people’s imaginations and leads to
more expansive transnational identifications and affiliations. Although this
often happens when the experience of globalization is positive, it just as
often evokes negative responses and emotions. As a result, individuals can
react against the effects of globalization. This can cause them to strengthen
nationalist loyalties and other localized affiliations, leading to more insular
and parochial identities (Tsuda et al. 2014).
Check Your Progress I
i) What do you know about Globalization?
………………………………………………………………………
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ii) Explain the difference between Transnationalism and Transnationality?
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iii) Examine the three axes of globalization
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Themes in Ethnographies iv) Discuss Global Ethnography.
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5.3 ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO GLOBAL

ETHNOGRAPHY
The process of globalization challenges conventional ethnography.
It destabilizes the meaning of the key concepts (e.g., site, place, and
local) of ethnography because of the increasing impact of world-wide
interconnectedness and interdependence. In order to study the imagined
lives made possible by global mass media, ethnography must engage in
cultural studies by examining mass media, film, literary fiction, and other
types of public culture. However, if such mass media are to be incorporated
into global ethnography, it must consist of much more than simply the
researcher’s interpretation of public cultural texts, as is often the case in
cultural studies. Instead, we must do actual face-to-face fieldwork to gather
information about how local peoples engage, interpret, and respond to
such global mass culture from other countries and how it reshapes their
subjectivities, identities, and imaginations (Tsuda et al. 2014).
5.3.1 Virtual Ethnography
Another suggested approach to global ethnography is virtual ethnography
based on the Internet and online communities. Since the internet is one
of the primary means by which local people maintain social relations and
communities across national borders. However, ethnographers should be
cautious about regressing to a contemporary digital “armchair anthropology”
based on secondary sources and interactions captured in cyber-communities.
A rich ethnographic account of online communities would ideally explore
the relationship between people’s online activities and their actual offline
social lives through firsthand fieldwork.
5.3.2 Multi-sited fieldwork
Since traditional ethnographic approaches that are restricted to one locality
cannot capture the essence of global flows and trans-border processes,
a number of scholars have urged ethnographers to engage in multi-sited
fieldwork.
There are three reasons for global ethnographers to conduct multi-sited
fieldwork.
a) To compare how macro global institutions and processes are impacting
multiple locales in similar or different ways.
b) To conduct multisite fieldwork to track the movement and flow of
global commodities, migrants, cultures, ideologies, and information
across national borders.
58
c) To directly study the increasing transnational connections between Global Ethnography
different places and communities.
Multi-sited ethnography as a research method for globalization:
Varol (2017) argued that the emergence of multi-sited ethnography as
an alternative (research method) to the conventional ethnography for
better understanding the interconnectedness in the globalized world. The
globalization process destabilizes the meaning of the key concepts (e.g.,
site, place, and local) of ethnography because of the increasing impact
of world-wide interconnectedness and interdependence. The world has
experienced “time and space compression” because of the technological
developments in travel and communication that led to the shrinking map of
the world. Thus, distances between different places are no longer important
for interaction between different cultures, societies and identities. Capitals
and commodities can easily pass local and national barriers. The relationship
between space and place are inherently dynamic and inseparable from each
other. The identities of place are not fixed and one-dimensional because it
is the result of the interconnections and links between local, national, and
international. But conventional ethnography is not enough to understand the
globalization process because it mostly situates itself in a single place for
in-depth understanding of cultures and societies. Therefore, it is necessary
to take into account the multiplicity of global network and flows that
overlap with one another in the global and local to better understand the
globalized world because of the changes in our time and space experience.
Thus, the multi-sited ethnography has developed to overcome the risk of
avoiding the complexity of the global circulation and its impact on the
local. The basic approach within multi-sited ethnography is to follow global
flows (e.g., migrants, commodities and movements) to understand global
interconnectedness and the interaction between the local and the global
(Varol, 2017). Nonetheless, multi-sited fieldwork is by no means the only
way to do global ethnography nor even necessary and essential since it is
possible to study the impact of globalization in a specific locality through
single-sited fieldwork. In addition, there are problems associated with multi-
sited fieldwork that cannot always be easily overcome.

5.4 LOCATING THE GLOBAL IN

TRANSNATIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY
Although multi-sited ethnographic methodologies undoubtedly have
strengths, we argue that these proposed ethnographic methods are not the
only way of studying globalization. This is because traditional ethnography
based on intensive and long-term fieldwork in a single location is a completely
sufficient method for capturing global dynamics. Global flows may be large-
scale, de-territorialized, and trans-local but they are not simply disembodied
processes that supersede localities and thus escape ethnographic study.
Instead, all global processes are manifested and embedded in specific places
(Tsuda et al. 2014).

59
Themes in Ethnographies 5.4.1 Two types of globalization: Non-contiguous and
Contiguous Globalization
It is important to remember that there are, in fact, two different types of
globalization, both of which can be simultaneously experienced at the local
level (Tsuda et al. 2014).
5.4.1.1 Non-continuous
The first type can be called non-contiguous globalization—the flow of
information and images across national boundaries in which the globalizing
agent influences local societies over a geographical distance without being
physically present. This type of globalization does not involve the transfer
of actual materials or peoples, but occurs in the “space of flows,” the non-
contiguous, virtual space of telecommunications networks, the Internet,
and other types of digital media make the exchange and transmission
of information and images possible over long distances. This enables
individuals and institutions to interact and communicate and therefore
transcends the constraints imposed by territory. (Tsuda et al. 2014)
5.4.1.2 Continuous Globalization
There is another type of globalization that is contiguous and involves the
actual physical movement of people, goods and capital across national
borders. It de-territorializes, since it involves social processes that are
no longer tied to specific places and territories, but move across national
borders. Here the globalizing agent (whether people, goods, capital, or
facilities) actually moves and relocates to other countries and is physically
present in the local society.
Check Your Progress II
i) What are the alternative approaches to Global Ethnography
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ii) State the reasons for global ethnographers to conduct multi-sited
fieldwork.
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iii) Discuss the two types of globalization.
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60
Global Ethnography
5.5 RE-IMAGINING THE SOCIAL IN GLOBAL
ETHNOGRAPHY
Ethnography is uniquely well placed to deal with the challenges of
studying social life under globalization because it does not rely on fixed
and comparable units of analysis. It also faces significant challenges in
reconfiguring itself for a global era—ethnography explicitly seeks to analyze
the social by locating the researcher in the space of the social relations being
analyzed, and this ability to straight forwardly access the social by going to
the local becomes problematic under conditions of globalization recently,
attempts were made in sociology to redefine the social under globalization
(Gille & ’O’ Riain. 2002).
The conventional postwar social science view assumes that the nation
is a container for everything within it, while international relations are
assumed to account for all relations outside of the national. Ethnography
tends to accept these categories—either, as in sociology, generalizing to
the national society or, as in anthropology, taking the local as the site of
culture, which is often analyzed in terms of its relationship to the world of
nations (colonialism, nation-building, etc.). However, thematic approaches
to globalization identify a new empirical phenomenon that has undermined,
or at least destabilized, these established hierarchies of the local, national
and international. Globalization signifies the increasing significance of
trans-local relations, local-global relations, and global-global relations at
the expense of national-national relations. (Gille & ’O’ Riain. 2002).
Some scholars claim that globalization fundamentally reorders the classical
relationship between self and the other, society and knowledge, and most
importantly between space and society. According to these authors, we
must redefine the concept of the social itself; that under conditions of
globalization social relations are disembedded from the local and can
operate in contexts where space no longer matters because shared systems of
symbols and knowledge circulate globally. Still others define globalization
as the culmination of the disembedding of economy from society leading to
a world market unbound (Gille & Riain, 2002).
5.5.1 The Social as Flow or Network
Lash & Urry (1994) argue that the disembedded “social” is increasingly
constituted by flows of people, information, goods, and particularly signs or
cultural symbols. For Appadurai (1990), the entities that “flow” around the
world are “scapes” or cultural formations around finance, media, ideologies,
technologies and people. Hannerz (1992) sees society as constituted by
“networks of networks,” down to networks among individuals. For Castells
(1997) the networks are between places, and a space of flows is being
superimposed upon, and replacing, a space of places. Those places left
outside the space of flows are profoundly disadvantaged by their structural
exclusion. A newer set of studies consciously borrows the network concept
from economic sociology and talks of a new geography and the need to
draw new maps.
61
Themes in Ethnographies 5.5.2 The Social as Transnational
Some scholars have sought to retain the insight that cross-national
networks are increasingly significant while still providing an analysis of
the structured social relations within those networks. Transnational studies
are understood as the study of various types of border-crossings by people,
texts, discourses, and representations at various geographical levels. (Gille
& ’O’ Riain. 2002).
5.5.3 The Social as Border Zone
Other authors are more concerned with social relations at the borders and
boundaries of social orders. Marcus & Fischer (1986) opposed the imagery
of global versus local with a view of still distinct cultural worlds increasingly
in communication with one another. Their “anthropology as cultural
critique” sought to explore the recombinant, hybrid forms of cultural life
that were emerging at these boundary points of cultures in contact with one
another and enhancing the possibilities for other societies to provide us with
tools for cultural critique of our own society. However, conceiving of the
social as a border zone and emphasizing connections and contacts means
that the cultural worlds that come into contact with each other are still
conceptualized as self-contained, territorial worlds with readily identifiable
differences that then clash. Conceiving of the social as a border zone often
implies that boundary-localities are liminal, hybrid, syncretic and fluid, an
assumption that can only hold if we abstract away from the powers that
create and maintain boundaries. (Gille & ’O’ Riain. 2002).
5.5.4 The Social as Place-Making Projects
Each of these approaches to redefining the relationship between the social
and the local offers a different avenue for future conceptualization. From the
discussion of flows, we see the need to redefine place in light of the multiple
connections cutting across places. From the study of transnationalism,
we see the critical importance of the emergence of new scales of social
action and the reconfiguring of relationships among the multiple scales
within which places are embedded. Finally, from the study of borders,
we see the vital importance of seeing place as politically produced and
contested. Together we can combine these various threads into a concept
of the social as increasingly embroiled in place-making projects that seek
to redefine the connections, scales, borders, and character of particular
places and particular social orders. These projects are the critical sites
through which global ethnographers can interrogate social relations in an
era of globalization. (Gille & ’O’ Riain. 2002). Several scholars strongly
believed that place continues to be central to global ethnography, albeit in a
conceptualized form. In short, the locality-the site is historically produced
in interaction with a variety of external connections, and this process also
produces distinctive patterns of inequality internal to the locality. Together,
these propositions form the basis of a global sense of place.
However, others quite in opposition to the authors advocating the idea of
the social as network and flows that imply the fixity of the local—argues
that communities in globalized places are fluid and scape-like as well.
People may live in the same neighborhood or town, but their meaningful
social lives may reach beyond that locality to a highly uneven degree.
62
These reaches or networks constitute what he calls socio-spheres, “distinct Global Ethnography
patterns of social activities belonging to networks of social relations of very
different intensity, spanning widely different territorial extents, from a few
to many thousands of miles” (Albrow, 1997). Prior to the contemporary era
of globalization, these socio-spheres usually intersected in the locality, new
intersections are now forming that he calls socio-scapes. Socio-scapes are
fluid imaginations of spatial belonging and of the social formations created
by and making possible the reach of social relations beyond the locality. The
contemporary era of globalization consists not simply of a shift of power
and of social interaction upward from the national to the global but of a
destabilization of the existing hierarchies of spatial scales. While creating a
crisis in national social formations, this also opens up opportunities for social
actors to develop new combinations of local, national, transnational, and
global social relations. Scholars begin to assume a global level of analysis
at their peril and must begin their analysis by seeking out place-making
projects that seek to define new kinds of places, with new definitions of
social relations and their boundaries. Such a concept of global ethnography
enables us to make sense of the variety of ethnographies dealing with global
processes and to classify them according to how they identify their subjects’
relations to certain place-making projects (Gille & ’O’ Riain. 2002).

5.6 ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL

ETHNOGRAPHY
An ethnographic approach to globalization requires the understanding of
locally, socially, and culturally specific ways in which people understand
the place of their locality in the global scheme of things, and the actions
they take to shape that place. These understandings and actions are deeply
political, and the very definition of the ethnographer’s topic and site is
shaped by the place-making projects within which any particular site
is embedded. Globalization involves the contesting of the boundaries of
places and negotiations concerning which geographical scale is best suited
for action. As a result, the choice of site also becomes political. Thus, the
challenge to ethnography from globalization lies in the concept of ‘field’,
and the need to provide the ‘hard’ data that characterizes positivist research
(Gille, 2001). Some researchers have always questioned the concepts of
field or homework, rural or urban, community or corporation, arguing that
such dichotomies create boundaries that are in fact non-existent, and are
products of discriminatory white western discourses, whereby no alternative
way of looking at ‘other’ is presented. Globalization, however, seems to
have made such concepts redundant, since the whole notion of location
appears to have lost its meaning. Gille (2001) argues that such challenges
need to be put into the context of global social relations. For Naidoo (2012),
the epistemological basis of ethnography involves the study of people who
are in or affected by certain situations, and sometimes locale is difficult to
define, even with Marcus’ attempt to put this in the context of multi-sited
ethnography, allowing for the fact that many localities are no longer isolated,
but linked to the world in often complex ways. In fact, globalization (Tsuda,
2014) is not only instantiated at the local level as specific transnational
processes; they often take on an even more localized character. The local
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Themes in Ethnographies impact of macro-global processes is mediated by various local institutions
and states, which are transnationally linked to other countries and places.

5.7 FUTURE DIRECTIONS

We have noted the continued relevance of ethnography for an increasingly
globalized world. Globalization often refers to de-territorialized and large-
scale forces that appear to be beyond the scope of ethnography, which is
limited to the intensive study of micro-level social processes in specific
localities. However, globalization is not simply an abstract, external force
that supersedes and operates outside the purview of localities but that the
global exists only as it is embedded and localized in specific places. The
global and the local should not be conceptualized as opposed, dichotomous
entities, which makes localized ethnographic fieldwork seem incompatible
with the action of global forces (Tsuda et al. 2014).
The dynamics of contiguous globalization involve a constant dialectic
between brief periods of de-territorialization and longer periods of re-
territorialization in specific localities, making it mainly a place-based
process. Even for de-territorialized, non-contiguous globalization, the
cross-border flow of digital and mass media in virtual space becomes
socially meaningful only as they are consumed and incorporated by local
peoples according to local cultural understandings and identity-making
projects. Because all global processes are territorialized, appropriated and/
or challenged, and eventually re-created in localities, it is well suited for
ethnographic approaches based on specific places and local communities.
In addition, at the local level, most macro-global processes operate as
transnational institutional and social networks that connect specific
localities. It is therefore possible to study the transnational linkages that
are part of globalization in the localized contexts in which fieldworkers
traditionally operate. (Tsuda et al. 2014:137-139).
Although globalization is often associated with movement across localities,
cyberspace, and mass media, ethnographers do not necessarily have to
conduct multi-sited fieldwork that prioritizes breadth at the expense of depth
or rely on the Internet or cultural studies. Traditional fieldwork methods
based on long-term immersion in one locality are sufficient for global
ethnography. The essence of globalization can be captured by face-to-face,
single-sited studies of how individuals in a specific locality react to and
appropriate global forces, how they create transnational connections to those
living in other countries, or how globalization enhances their imagination,
enabling them to construct transnational identities and subjectivities (Tsuda
et al. 2014).
Most global ethnographies have examined what can be called globalization
from below, the engagement of local peoples and communities in trans-
border processes. However, we also need more ethnographic studies
about the powerful elites and institutions that control globalization from
above. Instead of simply focusing on local consumers, factory workers,
labor migrants, or grassroots organizations, ethnographers need to “study
up” and turn their attention to governmental officials and agencies that
regulate globalization, managers of multinational corporations and financial
institutions, and transnational NGOs and development organizations (Tsuda
et al. 2014).
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Global Ethnography
5.8 LET US SUM UP
Globalization is not simply a unilineal process that leads to increasingly
greater transnational interconnectedness between various locales but can
also lead to disconnection in some cases. This is true especially if local
peoples react negatively to or resist the effects of globalization and actively
withdraw from or reduce their connections to other places.
Globalization is often associated with macro-social processes,
deterritorialized flows and networks across national borders, and large-scale
international institutions and corporations that are either detached from
localities or affect many places at once (Tsuda et al., 2014). In contrast,
ethnography traditionally consists of in-depth descriptions of micro-social
phenomenon in a specific locality and is based on long-term research
and face-to-face relations in territorially bounded places. Given such
discrepancies between the global and the localized nature of ethnography,
how does one do global ethnography? (Tsuda et al., 2014).
Some researchers have advocated new types of ethnographic research
in order to make it more appropriate for a globalized world. They
include cultural studies, virtual ethnography, and multi-sited fieldwork
among others. Although such new approaches can certainly supplement
traditional ethnographic methods, some scholars believe they are by no
means necessary or even desirable ways to do global ethnography. They
argue that traditional ethnography based on in-depth fieldwork in one
locale is sufficient to capture the intricacies of an increasingly globalized
world, because globalization is ultimately grounded and instantiated in
territorialized localities as specific transnational processes (Tsuda et al.
2014). Global ethnography does not necessarily entail new ethnographic
methods based on cultural studies, the exclusive use of new digital media,
or even multi-sited fieldwork. What differentiates global ethnography from
other types of ethnography is not methodology per se, but scope of analysis.
It contextualizes local peoples, communities, and practices within larger
transnational processes and connections that operate across national borders
and are part of globalization.

5.9 REFERENCES
1. Anna Tsing. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connections.
Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005. Published
online by Cambridge University Press: 18 August 2005.
2. Appadurai, A. (1991). Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and queries
for a transnational anthropology. In R. Fox (Ed.), Recapturing
anthropology. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.
3. Appadurai, A 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of
Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
4. Debbie Epstein et al. Multi-sited global ethnography and travel: gendered
journeys in three registers. Forthcoming in the International Journal of
Qualitative Studies in Education.
5. Ferrándiz, F. 2020. Contemporary Ethnographies Moorings, Methods,
and Keys for the Future. Routledge. New York.
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Themes in Ethnographies 6. Fitzgerald, D. 2006. Towards a Theoretical Ethnography of Migration.
Qualitative Sociology (C 2006) DOI: 10.1007/s11133-005-9005-6.
7. Gille, Z. & Sean´ O´ Riain, S. 2002. GLOBAL ETHNOGRAPHY.
Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2002. 28:271–95
8. Naidoo, L. 2012. Ethnography: An Introduction to Definition and
Method. University of Western Sydney, Sydney, NSW Australia.
9. Ritzer, G. 2011. Globalization: The Essentials. John Wiley & Sons
Ltd.
10. Ritzer, G (ed). Vol. II, DE-H. 2012. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedias
of Globalization. A John Wiley &. Sons, Ltd., Publication. UK.
11. Tsuda,T et al, 2014. Locating the Global in Transnational Ethnography.
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 2014, Vol. 43(2) 123–147.
12. Varol, F. 2017. Küreselleşme üzerine bir araştırma yöntemi olarak
çok-sahalı etnografi. International Journal of Human Sciences
ISSN:2458-9489 Volume 14 Issue 4 Year: 2017.

5.10 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress I
i) Globalization is a trans-planetary process or set of processes involving
increasing liquidity and the growing multi-directional flows of
people, objects, places and information as well as the structures they
encounter and create that are barriers to, or expedite, those flows. A
term that is closely related to globalization is transnationalism and
transnationality.
ii) Transnationalism is the “processes that interconnect individuals
and social groups across specific geo-political borders” whereas,
transnationality denotes “the rise of new communities and formation
of new social identities and relations that cannot be defined through
the traditional reference point of nation-states”.
iii) The three axes of globalization are:
a) Global forces are understood as those pressures on places,
institutions, situations and people from such overarching,
often intersecting, imperatives as capitalism, modernity and
colonialism.
b) Global connections refer to trans-national links and networks
between such globally mobile people.
c) A global imagination refers to the different and competing ways
that globalization is understood and portrayed.
iv) Ethnography is a qualitative methodology that lends itself to the study
of the beliefs, social interactions, and behaviours of small societies,
involving participation and observation over a period of time, and
the interpretation of the data collected. It is especially suitable
methodology to investigate social structures that are constituted
across multiple scales and sites. It can strategically locate itself at
critical points of intersection of scales and units of analysis and can
66
directly examine the negotiation of interconnected social actors across Global Ethnography
multiple scales. Global ethnographies can be outlined through the lens
of three slices of globalization—global forces, global connections,
and global imaginations
Check Your Progress II
i) The process of globalization challenges conventional ethnography. It
destabilizes the meaning of the key concepts (e.g., site, place, and
local) of ethnography because of the increasing impact of world-wide
interconnectedness and interdependence. Scholars have suggested
an alternative (research method) to the conventional ethnography for
better understanding the interconnectedness in the globalized world
which include: virtual and multi-sited fieldwork.
a) Virtual Ethnography: Another suggested approach to global
ethnography is virtual ethnography based on the Internet and
online communities. Since the Internet is one of the primary
means by which local peoples maintain social relations and
communities across national borders. However, ethnographers
should be cautious about regressing to a contemporary digital
“armchair anthropology” based on secondary sources and
interactions captured in cyber-communities. A rich ethnographic
account of online communities would ideally explore the
relationship between people’s online activities and their actual
offline social lives through firsthand fieldwork.
b) Multi-sited fieldwork: Since traditional ethnographic approaches
that are restricted to one locality cannot capture the essence of
global flows and trans-border processes, a number of scholars
have urged ethnographers to engage in multi-sited fieldwork.
ii) Reasons for global ethnographers to conduct multi-sited fieldwork.
a) To compare how macro global institutions and processes are
impacting multiple locales in similar or different ways.
b) To conduct multisite fieldwork is to track the movement and
flow of global commodities, migrants, cultures, ideologies, and
information across national borders.
c)
To directly study the increasing transnational connections
between different places and communities
iii) Two types of globalization: Non-contiguous and Contiguous
Globalization
There are, in fact, two different types of globalization, both of which
can be simultaneously experienced at the local level.
iv) Non-continuous: The first type can be called non-contiguous
globalization—the flow of information and images across national
boundaries in which the globalizing agent influences local societies
over a geographical distance without being physically present.
v) There is another type of globalization that is contiguous and involves
the actual physical movement of people, goods, and capital across
national borders.
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