Ethnography

Ethnography is a method of research that anthropologists use. Basically ethnography is understanding another culture and their ways of life, and linking that to the specific behaviors, traditions, etc.. that they have. Anthropologists do this by immersing themselves into the culture. I think that really that is the only way to really get the full understanding. They learn to speak the language, watch closely, listen, and learn the ways of the culture. There are two techniques that anthropologists use to gain there information and knowledge. One is called the Quantitative method which is more focused on data and things that can be counted. Anthropologists use the quantitative method in order to obtain their hypothesis. For example, a survey that concludes that a patient on average has to wait 1 hour in the waiting room, of a certain doctors office, before being seen by the doctor. (Wikipedia, example #2) Another example is from the article Prostitution and the era of aids. Sterk measured many things about the prostitutes like how long they had been prostitutes, how many of them do drugs, and much more. The other method that is used is the Qualitative method. The qualitative method deals more with a deep understanding of a persons behavior, and the reasons that they behave in those certain ways, it focuses on the reasons why people make the decisions that they do and how. An example of the Qualitative method can also be found in Sterks study. This method was much different than the Quantitative. Sterk had to "become" one of them, she found out why they wanted to become prostitutes in the first place and what it is like for them. When using the ethnographic method you really have to dive in and become apart of the surroundings to really get the real understanding of everything.