Etnografi og kon(tekst)

En metodologisk komparasjon av deltagende observasjon og spørrelister

Abstract

In this article, I compare participant observation and qualitative questionnaires as core qualitative research methods used in social anthropology and ethnology respectively. The argument is that the main distinctions between social anthropology and ethnology are where and how the subject fields have traditionally conducted their studies. Even so, how big are the differences really? Both ethnologists and social anthropologists do ethnographic fieldwork. While the latter have tended to do fieldwork at home, anthropologists have traditionally done fieldwork in other societies. However, while social anthropologists often rely heavily on the method of participant observation in their accumulation of cultural empirical knowledge, ethnologists have also used qualitative questionnaires as research method and data to achieve the same means. But what happens when context is replaced by text? And is it? Moreover, what can the qualitative questionnaires be used to say something about compared to data gathered through participant observation? To answer these questions I draw on my own experiences with both research methods. The objective of the article is to discuss and re-think what it is that defines ethnology and social anthropology as separate subject fields, and therein contribute towards a greater understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the two methodologies.