On Ethnological Research Methods

Different disciplines have different research methods because of different research objects, but they must meet some basic requirements of scientific methodology, otherwise their scientific nature will be doubted. However, the scientific method is summed up in scientific research practice. Ethnology has been developing and progressing in methodology and research methods since it came into being as a social science discipline in the19th century.

Scientific research is empirical research. The basis of empirical research is to master first-hand information. The so-called first-hand information is the information recorded according to what you have seen or experienced with your own eyes. Different disciplines have different ways to obtain first-hand information. For example, physics and chemistry are mainly obtained in experiments, history is mainly obtained in literature, and the first-hand information of ethnology is mainly obtained through field investigation. Field investigation is also called "field work" or "field investigation". Field investigation is the most important feature of ethnology research. Ethnographers use a relatively microscopic overall description method to describe, summarize and analyze their findings and experiences in the investigation, which is the writing of ethnography. Field investigation and writing ethnography have become the most important method and basic process of ethnology research.

There are two main ways of empirical research, one is called "qualitative" or qualitative research; The other is called "quantitative" or "quantitative" research. Generally speaking, natural science mainly focuses on quantitative research, and sociology also conducts quantitative investigation and research. Ethnology is characterized by qualitative investigation and research. Ethnological investigation should pay special attention to the principles of neutrality and objectivity, that is, to overcome subjectivity and one-sidedness. Because each of us grew up in a certain culture, we will be unconsciously limited by our own nationality, gender, age and world outlook. This is like wearing a pair of colored glasses, which will have certain prejudice against other nationalities, people or cultures in the process of investigation, thus making the investigation and research unscientific because of some prejudices. How to minimize and avoid subjectivity and one-sidedness?

Ethnological investigation emphasizes "getting closer" and "participating in observation". That is, investigators are required to pay attention to narrowing the emotional and cultural distance from the respondents at the beginning of the investigation, and to participate in the community and production and life scenes of the respondents for a long time for direct observation. Generally speaking, in a community, you should have a year of field observation and experience, communicate directly with the local people, fully understand the situation, and learn about the local culture by learning the local language and way of thinking.

Ethnological investigation has obvious life, generality and reality. The culture studied by ethnology is mainly civilian culture, that is, civilian life. This kind of investigation is mainly about the behavior patterns of civilians, such as birth and death, food, clothing, housing and transportation, emotions, customs, values and so on. Because it is the folk customs and the characteristics of daily production and life of the surveyed communities and nationalities that represent their cultural patterns and cultural types. From the perspective of time and space, the study of ethnology includes both human past and reality, but mainly studies reality. When ethnological investigation and research involves history, its starting point and purpose are often to explain the phenomena and problems in reality with history. The results of ethnological investigation and research will become historical works in a few years. But it is different from historical works in the general sense, because he wrote a living history, not a dead history. In other words, it is a history written by the author based on personal field investigation, not a history written based on dead documents.

After on-the-spot investigation, ethnologists should use a certain narrative framework to explain their experiences and findings in observation. Writing ethnography. Different from macro-analysis, ethnography uses a relatively micro social and cultural description as a whole. Because ethnology pays attention to all aspects of the society it studies-politics, economy, law, religion and so on. -as a closely related complex. None of these aspects can be understood separately unless they are studied in the relationship with other aspects. This method of observation and analysis is called "full landscape". It is microscopic, because ethnology does not necessarily give a comprehensive description of a nation's society or culture. Its research object is often a small ethnic group or community. The focus of the research is to investigate and describe the details that can show the internal relations, structure and evolution of things in detail, and to convince readers with the details and uniqueness of each thing (case) to express the essence and significance of things.