Ethnographic Research

Recently, there has been a renewed scholarly interest in the study of ethnographic research, particularly the way it applies to the field of communication. Many of the new works readdress some of the historical issues inherent in the field, and often purport to merge the disciplines of history, sociology, anthropology, pure linguistics, and communication studies. Moreover, the new literature seems to take much of its impetus from the 1962 study by Hymes, who posited the notion that when anthropologists researched culture, they focused on observable or pragmatic behavior, rather than allowing a more inclusive approach to language and the bridge to culture. Instead, they argued, it was the job of linguists to study language. Problems arose, however, since linguists tended to focus more on language as an entity itself, instead of looking at the cultural ramifications present in the broader, more holistic base of the society in question. In other words, each discipline was intent on studying only the things it was comfortable describing, and often neglected a broader range (Hymes, 1962).

This paper will deal with the emerging literature in the field of ethnography as a broader tool for social research and a discipline that has the potential to merge several areas of social research by finding areas that address common questions. Initially, the paper will begin by looking at the overall conception of ethnography, and will deal with current issues in the field. It will th

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usually spent on research, it is often difficult to maintain a distance from the subjects. In fact, this may result in a type of selfcensorship that has the potential to skew the data and the resulting picture of the culture under observation (Adler, 1989). Cultural meaning has different connotations, and is usually used to refer to the actual frame of reference used within the study itself. Contextual meanings, cultural categorizations, and semantics are also important indictors when using ethnographic research. For instance, one society may have a way of classifying individuals by ages or experience, another by education or occupation. It is up to the ethnographer to place these categorizations within the contextual makeup of the indigenous society, and to also bridge the gap between the societal categorizations and a personal frame of reference from which to understand the ensuing components (Rabinow, 1988; Brislin, 1973). It is also important to recognize that ethnographic "texts" have a life of their own, outside of the researcher or the cultural description inside. In essence, then this leads to a more critical methodology, one that may, in essence, be compared to literary deconstructionism in that the component pa

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