Anthropology Ethnographic

Anthropology

Ethnographic Perspective

Jan Vega

ANTH102-6980

Dr. Nicole R Ives

University of Maryland University College

Ethnographic Perspective

Ethnography is a field of Anthropology that aids researchers in the pursuit for deeper understanding of various societies, cultures or social groups (Hammersely, 1995). The purpose of this essay is to give an illustrative example over which two groups failed to communicate effectively and reasons for such failure, and clarify on to the key features of ethnography and its challenges.

Ethnographic illustration

Recently, five strong players quit their university men soccer team, and said that, they no longer had fun in the team, one of the player’s said that the time consumed was no longer worth it anymore, while the other said that being in the team was no longer making him happy. Earlier in the week, some of the strongest players did quit the team. Again, their reason was that they had less fun from the game. They also explained that they felt unappreciated by the coach, as well as poor leadership in the team.

Despite the fact that the coach may have not wanted to bring down the teams morale and cause the players to quit on purpose, it was apparent that he did something to cause the players to quit. The recent players’ withdrawal from the team marked a serious problem with the coach, but this problem is not apparent to a common fan or observer. A common observer will see the coach acting and doing everything any; competitive coach would do or act. Likewise, the same observer will see the players positively responding to the coach in a way never imaginable to be of unhappy players. Therefore, the common fans will truly see nothing more than a surface facade of a united team and coach. Consequently, this realization leads to questioning what the underlying problems was, and attempt to establish cause of this none explicitly...