The beginner’s odyssey: ethics, participant observation and its challenges in native ethnography

What is it about?

Classic anthropological fieldwork emphasized working „abroad‟ – that is, doing fieldwork in societies that were culturally and geographically distant from that of the ethnographer. More recent discussions of anthropological fieldwork have drawn attention to significance of working „at home‟ – including paying attention to the forms of social differentiation and marginalization present in the society to which the ethnographer belongs. There are arguments that native anthropologists are better qualified to study issues involving their group than outsiders are. This paper discusses the researcher’s field experience conducting native ethnography among the Nrobo of Southeastern Nigeria. This study adopted ethnographic methods of participant observation – adopting chitchatting and semi-structured interviews. Also, focus group discussion (FGD) was used to cross-check the validity of data from the other instrument. This study found among other things, that conducting native ethnography is a challenge to the ethnographer. The mutual intelligibility does not guarantee quick rapport instead it sets up suspicion. Furthermore, ethical issues in ethnographic research are culturally relative. The Nrobo case stipulates time value and as such reward is expected for every task that takes up their time. Also security threat poses challenges to native ethnography. This study, to the best of my knowledge, is the first attempt to conducting native ethnography among this group. As such it adds to the corpus of ethnographies on the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria.

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Why is it important?

This study found among other things, that conducting native ethnography is a challenge to the ethnographer. The mutual intelligibility does not guarantee quick rapport instead it sets up suspicion. Furthermore, ethical issues in ethnographic research are culturally relative. The Nrobo case stipulates time value and as such reward is expected for every task that takes up their time. Also security threat poses challenges to native ethnography. This study, to the best of my knowledge, is the first attempt to conducting native ethnography among this group. As such it adds to the corpus of ethnographies on the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria.