Ethnographic course

The ethnographer is the one who works in the field of ethnography, the method by which researches in the field of ethno-anthropological sciences operate. According to Marcel Griaule's classification: ethnography records information about different peoples, while ethnology builds coherent systems from these descriptions. Doing ethnography means going among those you want to study for a certain period of time, and using some research techniques (such as observation or interview) in order to collect a set of data that, once interpreted, make understanding possible. of the culture in question. Rites, rituals, ceremonies, norms, values, beliefs, behaviors, artifacts, are the main phenomena of interest to the ethnographer, through which culture makes itself intelligible. The ethnographic work and the complex modalities of relationship that the anthropologist establishes with his interlocutors (individuals or institutions) are what best identifies and distinguishes the anthropological discipline. The professionalism of the anthropologist is manifested essentially on the ground, in the places where the researcher is confronted with the disorienting otherness of other cultures. The history of anthropology highlights how the ethnographic component is closely integrated and harmonized in the discipline and, consequently, in the professional profile of the anthropologist. The dominant epistemological paradigm in ethnographic research practices, at least until the early 1950s, still widely used today by many anthropologists, is the so-called participatory observation method.