German conversations about field ethnography: a view from the Russian tradition

Cover Page

Cite item

Full Text

Open Access Open Access
Restricted Access Access granted
Restricted Access Subscription Access

Abstract

The article presents a Russian researcher’s view of German ethnographers as “Others” and their perception of fieldwork as the main practice and method of the discipline, as reflected in their informal communication. In attempting to compare this with the Russian material, I found that it was impossible to apply the same optics to the analysis of the professional cultures of Russian and German ethnographers, yet similar narratives about fieldwork emerged as the result. The reason for these similarities lies in the communicative nature of ethnologists’ work and the universal traits of the psychology of people who produce ethnological knowledge. Reflecting on my experience of collecting this field material in Berlin, I look at myself as an observer of “Others” and argue that subjective experiences and boundaries influenced the way the research was conducted and the character of interpretations that the material received. I further comment on the unfavorable role asymmetry between the researcher and the researched, that made the coproduction of knowledge problematic.

Full Text

Restricted Access

About the authors

Julia V. Butschatskaja

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: julia.butschatskaja@yahoo.de

к. и. н., старший научный сотрудник

Russian Federation, 3 University Emb., St. Petersburg, 199034

References

  1. Beer, B. 2008. Einleitung: Feldforschungsmethoden [Introduction: Field Research Methods]. In Methoden ethnologischer Feldforschung [The Methods of Ethnological Field Research], edited by B. Beer, 9–37. Berlin: Reimer.
  2. von Bose, A. 1990. Feldforscher über Feldforschung: Probleme und Methoden der ethnologischen Feldforschung [Field Researchers About Field Research: Problems and Methods of Ethnological Field Research]. Norderstedt: Grin.
  3. Braukmann, F., M. Haug, K. Metzmacher, and R. Stolz, eds. 2020. Being a Parent in the Field: Implications and Challenges of Accompanied Fieldwork. Bielefeld: Transcript.
  4. Butschatskaja, J.V. 2017. Etnograficheskie kollektivy Berlina: vzgliad iz Kunstkamery [Ethnographic Collectives of Berlin: A View from the Kunstkammer]. In Experto crede Alberto. Sbornik statei k 70-letiiu Al’berta Kashfullovicha Baiburina [Experto crede Alberto. Collection of papers for the 70th anniversary of Albert Kashfullovich Baiburin], edited by A. Piir and M. Pirogovskaya, 85–123. St. Petersburg: Izd-vo EUSPb.
  5. Clifford, J., and G.E. Marcus, eds. 1986. Writing Culture. The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkley: University of California Press.
  6. Davydov, V.N., and E.A. Davydova, 2020. Professional’noe i lichnoe: opyt raboty na Chukotke vsei sem’ei [The Professional and the Personal: An Experience of Fieldwork in Chukotka with the Entire Family]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 3: 121–140.
  7. Färber, A. 2009. Das unternehmerische ethnographische Selbst. Aspekte der Intensivierung von Arbeit im ethnologisch-ethnographischen Feldforschungsparadigma [The Entrepreneurial Ethnographic Self. Aspects of Intensifying Work in the Ethnological-Ethnographic Field Research Paradigm]. In Horizonte ethnographischen Wissens. Eine Bestandsaufnahme [Horizons of Ethnographic Knowledge. An Inventory], edited by I. Dietzsch, W. Kaschuba, and L. Scholze-Irrlitz, 178–203. Köln: Böhlau.
  8. Freidson, E. 2001. Professionalism, The Third Logic. On the Practice of Knowledge. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
  9. Gadea, С. 2011. Sotsiologiia professii i sotsiologiia professional’nykh grupp. V zashchitu izmeneniia podkhoda [Sociology of Professions and Professional Groups. For a Changing Approach]. In Antropologiia professii, ili Postoronnim vkhod razreshen [Anthropology of Professions, or Not Only for Personnel], edited by P. Romanov and E. Iarskaia-Smirnova, 15–35. Moscow: Variant.
  10. Gans, H. 1968. The Participant Observer as a Human Being: Observations on the Personal Aspects of Field Work. In Institutions and the Person. Papers presented to Everett C. Hughes, edited by H.S. Becker et al., 300–317. Chicago: Aldine.
  11. Hillmann, K.H. 1994. Wörterbuch der Soziologie [Dictionary of Sociology]. Stuttgart: Kröner-Verlag.
  12. Kaschuba, W. 2006. Einführung in die Europäische Ethnologie [Introduction to European Ethnology]. München: C.H. Beck.
  13. Kloos, P. 1969. Role Conflicts in Social Fieldwork. Current Anthropology 10 (5): 509–512.
  14. Komarova, G.A. 2012. Akademicheskaia zhizn’: pole mezhdistsiplinarnykh nauchnykh issledovanii [Academic Life: A Field of Interdisciplinary Scientific Research]. Moscow: IEA RAS.
  15. Korpela, M., L. Hirvi, and S. Tawah. 2016. Not Alone: Doing Fieldwork in the Company of Family Members. Suomen antropologi 41 (3): 3–20.
  16. Lange, C. 2005. “Zurückholen, was uns gehört”. Indigenisierungstendenzen in der arabischen Ethnologie [“Taking Back What Is Ours”. Indigenization Tendencies in Arabic Ethnology]. Bielefeld: Transcript.
  17. Lévi-Strauss, C. 2010. Pechal’nye tropiki [Tristes Tropiques]. Moscow: ASK.
  18. Lindner, R. 1981. Die Angst des Forschers vor dem Feld. Überlegungen zur teilnehmenden Beobachtung als Interaktionsprozeß [The Researcher’s Fear of the Field. Reflections on Participant Observation as an Interaction Process]. Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 77: 51–63.
  19. Pinçon, M., and M. Pinçon-Charlot. 1996. Otnoshenie k ob’ektu issledovaniia i usloviia ego priniatiia nauchnym soobshchestvom [Attitude to the Object of Research and the Conditions for Its Acceptance by the Scientific Community]. Socio-Logos’96. Al’manakh Rossiisko-frantsuzskogo tsentra sotsiologicheskikh issledovanii Instituta sotsiologii RAN [Socio-Logos’96. The Almanac of the Russian–French Center of Social Research of the Sociological Institute of the RAS], 39–48. Moscow: Socio-Logos.
  20. Phillips, T. 2002. Imagined Communities and Self-Identity: An Exploratory Quantitative Analysis. Sociology 36 (3): 597–617.
  21. Pratt, M.L. 1986. Fieldwork in Common Places. In Writing Culture. The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, edited by J. Clifford and G.E. Marcus, 28–50. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
  22. Romanov, P.V. and E.R. Iarskaia-Smirnova. 2008. Mir professii kak pole antropologicheskikh issledovanii [The World of Professions as a Field of Anthropological Research]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 5: 3–17.
  23. Sangren, P.S. 1995. Comment on “Ethnography: Storytelling or Science?” by Robert Aunger. Current Anthropology 36 (1): 121–122.
  24. Sangren, P.S. 2007. Anthropology of Anthropology? Further Reflections on Reflexivity. Anthropology Today 23 (4): 13–16.
  25. Shapin, S. 2010. Historical Studies of Science as if It Was Produced by People with Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and Authority. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
  26. Shchepanskaia, T.B. 2008a. Proektsii sotsial’nogo kontrolia v prostranstve professii [Projections of Social Control in the Space of Professions]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 5: 23–25.
  27. Shchepanskaia, T.B. 2008b. Simvolicheskie reprezentatsii znaniia v neformal’nom diskurse “polia”. [Symbolic Representations of Knowledge in the Informal Discourse of the Fieldwork]. In Antropologiia akademicheskoi zhizni: adaptatsionnye protsessy i adaptivnye strategii [The Anthropology of the Academy: Adaptive Processes and Strategies of Adaptation], edited by G.A. Komarova, 100–141. Moscow: IEA RAS.
  28. Shchepanskaia, T.B. 2010. Sravnitel’naia etnografiia professii: povsednevnye praktiki i kul’turnye kody. Rossiia, konets XX – nachalo XXI v. [Comparative Ethnography of Professions: Everyday Practices and Cultural Codes. Russia, Late 20th – Early 21st Century]. St. Petersburg: Nauka.
  29. Smirnova, T. 2010. Zapiski etnografichki [Notes by a Female Ethnographer]. In Antropologiia akademicheskoi zhizni: mezhdistsiplinarnye issledovaniia [The Anthropology of the Academy: Interdisciplinary Research], edited by G.A. Komarova, 296–314. Moscow: IEA RAS.
  30. Sokolov, M., and K. Titaev. 2013. Provintsial’naia i tuzemnaia nauka [Provincial and Indigenous Science]. Antropologicheskii forum 19: 239–275.

Supplementary files

Supplementary Files
Action
1. JATS XML
Download

Copyright (c) 2024 Russian Academy of Sciences