Methods of Ethnology
Any
scientific study involves the study of a particular object through the
mobilization of all available knowledge. For its part, the specificity of the
object of cognition in any science inevitably confronts the researcher with a
question about the nature of the involved materials, which you can use to
obtain the most complete and exact knowledge about the studied object.
In modern
Ethnology for the science of analysis uses the most diverse material: the study
and description of the scientists-ethnographers, travel notes, folk and
literary texts, ethno-sociological and ethno-psychological research,
journalistic materials, official documents, historical and socio-political
literature, etc. In addition, when the possibility of direct contact with
representatives of the studied ethnic group be valuable observations of their
reactions to different situations, the logic of the arguments and reasoning
used in arguments and discussions, ways of explaining different phenomena of
the world and their own behavior, etc.
Different
materials require different methods of their obtaining and processing. Today in
Ethnology has developed a whole range of methods of ethnological research,
which involves field research, the study of written sources and oral
traditions, the use of archaeological and anthropological materials, analysis
of statistical sources (especially censuses).
The study of written sources. This is one of the most important methods of Ethnology, the value of
which is to diverse and reliable information about the studied peoples and
cultures. As written sources are used normally the history of the peoples,
written by them, or describe their cultures that keeps these sources sustained
the interest of scientists-ethnologists. However, such historical and cultural
descriptions are not the only type of written sources of interest to ethnologists.
Currently, there are a huge number of unexplored written materials that contain
a lot of useful and unknown information about the life and cultures of
different countries and eras. For this kind of materials include reports
geographers, scrapbook adventurers and sailors, reports of envoys, messages of
captains of ships, merchants, etc.
You need to be able to evaluate objects, ideas, or statements that some
people took from others and integrated into their own history, as real
historical events. But even ethnologists such borrowing have value because they
represent a testimony of relations between these peoples.
Oral tradition. Their value
is that they are expressions of historical consciousness. The experience of
ethnological research suggests that the development of historical consciousness
can be quite different even from the neighboring peoples. So, storytellers in
some African tribes still in the mid of the XX century were preserved and
transmitted to their descendants names, dates, deeds and actions of their
rulers and the events of life of their peoples over the past 400 years.
Oral tradition as a source of ethnological materials fade faster than
others. This process increasingly accelerated, and it is easy to foresee that
very soon this source will dry up altogether. The main reason for the
disappearance of traditions is not only and not so much in the interest of the
minor peoples to its early history, as in the growing literacy of the people.
Any written tradition as would be dissolved and cease to live in the memory of
the people, their place is occupied by new ideas. Together with these legends
at the drop of lost and depleted history.
The archaeological materials. To restore the ethnic history and the history of culture in Ethnology
applied method for the study of archaeological materials. Unlike written
sources, oral traditions and archaeological materials are the most reliable, as
they allow you to accurately determine the time of any historical event or age
of the artefacts. The high reliability of this method is based on the modern
methods of study and evaluation of archaeological materials. So, for example,
with the help of thermoluminescent method to establish the age of pottery. In
addition, in the study of archaeological materials today are increasingly used
statistical methods. Their use requires careful preparation of the
archaeological material allows to achieve high reliability of the information.
In turn, the analysis, evaluation and interpretation of this information are
the basis for the creation of ethnological theories, concepts and models of
culture.
Comparative linguistics. This
is another important method of ethnological research, which is that scientists
compare certain words from different languages to show the relationship of
loved ones, languages and their degree of kinship. After all, with different
rates of language development, some of them on the basis of endogenous
processes in a short time create a lot of new words or adopt due to external
influence of words from other languages. Other languages, by contrast, remain
static and do not change for many centuries.
As practice shows, are particularly interesting and important for
Ethnology, the results provide a systematic comparison of words from several
languages. If we proceed from the axiom that words and deeds are inextricably
linked with each other in any culture, on the basis of this method, you can
trace the development of culture and cultural relations between different
peoples. The disappearance of certain words or replacing them with synonyms
from other languages serve as important indicators of cultural interaction.
However, the method of comparative linguistics requires from scientists a good
knowledge of the respective languages, and above all the laws of their
derivation.
Statistical methods. Since the
mid-twentieth century Ethnology constantly increasing the value of statistical
sources, among which the most important are census. This is largely due to the
fact that thanks to the census ethnic scientists receive information on a wide
range of issues. The value of this information lies not only in diversity but
also in its systematic, organized character. Census forms are divided into
blocks of questions in the respective directions. Chief among them is a block
of socio-demographic questions, with which scientists get information about
sex, age, social position, education, profession, type of dwelling, time of
human habitation in the area, etc. a Block of questions on nationality and
native language reflects not only the objective characteristics of the
individual but also traits of his mind, especially his self-identification with
a particular ethnic or language group. This allows you to set the overall
picture of ethnic and identify the dynamics of ethnic processes by comparing
the number of census materials.
The field research. The
formation of Ethnology as an independent science largely occurred through the
direct study of the life of peoples, or, as it is called from ethnologists,
field research. The formation of this method was caused by the necessity to
have more detailed and systematic knowledge of the colonial peoples, their
economy, social structure, customs, beliefs, as an increasing role of the
colonies in the economies of metropolises with necessity demanded
scientifically based management of the population dependent countries.
Method the field research is based on long stay and the integration of
the researcher in the studied ethnic media. The term stationary work must be at
least one ethnic year in length needs two to three calendar month to exceed.
Two or three months account for the primary acquaintance and adaptation to new
conditions, after which the ethnologist observes the life of an ethnic
community or part thereof in all time periods of the annual cycle.
Naturally, that the fruitfulness of the method of field research
increases with the duration of stay of the researcher in the studied ethnic
group. In this respect, the history of Ethnology emphasizes the outstanding
achievements of the American Lewis Morgan, a long time lived among the
Iroquois, and the Russian ethnographer N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, who lived several
years among the Papuans of New Guinea. Stationary method of field research has
the distinct advantage that the ethnologist becomes an accomplice to the daily
life of the people. Currently in Ethnology this method exists in the form of
fixed-term or seasonal departure for field research, which combined with the
routing option of this method, designed to include the largest possible number
of the population or of great ethnic territory in the allotted time. Such a
character of field studies provides timely material, but suffers major flaws.
So, fixed-term (seasonal) the departure is usually planned for the most
convenient for the researcher while working in the field, and therefore
excludes the observation of life of the ethnic group in the off-season.
The method of field research allows researchers
to obtain information about both the material and spiritual culture of the
peoples. To the first are recorded in drawings, charts, photographs, objects of
material culture: the objects of production and everyday life of the ethnos,
tools, dwellings, utensils, clothing, etc. With the help of modern technical
means (film, photos, audio, video) and traditional field recordings are
recorded and the objects and phenomena of the spiritual life of the people
(tradition, rituals, customs, rituals, folklore, etc.), and the materialized
evidence of spiritual culture, such as religious objects, folk art, places, and
types of burials are recorded like the objects of material culture. During the
field work items, both material and spiritual culture are often withdrawn from
use and amount of exposure of the Museum's ethnological collections.
Modern trends of integration of scientific
knowledge lead to the use of Ethnology in the scientific methods of the various
related disciplines. Particularly useful and productive here are methods of
Ethnography, semiotics, psychology and concrete sociology.
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