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Ethnography Paper Examples

Rohini Mohan
Ethnography requires you to understand the details of societies. You need to socialize with people, and dwell into their way of life, without any preconceptions.
Ethnography is the study of people and the cultures they represent. It is a study which encapsulates the very essence of the individual, and can help us unravel the mysteries behind why two communities are so very different from one another. It helps us to understand what makes cultures and communities unique as separate entities.
For a student of anthropology, you will need to write research papers, which will decipher what you have summed up from the study of human societies and how you have interpreted your findings.
This indulging subject can unleash the detective as well as the journalist in you, making you ever so alert, because you will be required to observe interpersonal behavior and interact with the very people you are studying.

Ethnography Paper Ideas on Multiracial People

Multiracial is the sum combination of all types of people found in this world and how they would interact when put into one given society.

Behavior in Preschool

Children of parents from different cultures will portray certain different traits. For instance, a child who speaks in his or her native language at home, will often mix languages while conversing with the other toddlers.
Thus, the results will be a cacophony of languages, which the teacher will rarely understand, nor will the other children. However the message will be conveyed somehow through body language or gestures and commonly understood words.

Behavior in School

In school, children of different cultures begin to gradually understand that the realities at home are different from those at school. Thus, they will learn to blend with the common crowd, by behaving like every other student. The only difference will be demarcated by the way each student of a variant culture would appear from the others.
Secondly, if the influence of the native language is rather pronounced, that too will reflect and stand out when two students from different cultures converse with each other.

Behavior in College

College is a place where external or foreign students join into the course in order to pursue higher education. Students who have lived among multiracial people for many years, will be able to readily welcome the new students. On the contrary, it may not be as easy for the foreign students as they may find it hard to interact freely.
This may depend on their conservative cultural upbringing, or inability to converse in a common language or the innate behavior of being wary in general. It will also be a very common sight to notice students from the same culture, to be constantly being together and interacting only with one another, while choosing to not mingle with the rest.
In order to write ethnography, you will need to interact with these students, to gain the reason for their behavior. If you ask them why they do so, their answers may; more often than not, be that they do not feel accepted by the other people or that they feel more comfortable in the company of each another.

Behavior in a Market

It is very common to find community oriented markets within a big city, having a specific locality, which will be set up according to their own cultural standards. These places are representations of their own culture and a way of keeping it alive or feeling like they are still a part of it.
Here you will find people talking mostly in their native language. In many ways, you can have a taste of their real culture by simply stepping out of your homes and visiting these localities.

Behavior in Relationships

Couples of two separate cultures, will have certain distinct nuances about their interpersonal relationship. The man will behave the way he has been taught and what he has observed throughout his life. Similarly, the woman will treat her spouse the way she has been brought up to believe.
Even though, if both choose to discard their individual cultural teachings, they will still have distinct behavioral patterns, which will revert them back to their individual cultures.
This will include cultural ideologies, imbibed ideologies and clash of retained and discarded ideologies between the two. Differences would also arise in terms of eating habits, cooking food, spending money, bringing up of children and many other intricacies.

Behavior During Elections

Notice how and why certain communities show interest in election procedures, while some remain passive. Also, observe why they support one or two candidates and completely ignore the others from a particular political party. These will have a lot to do with past economical, social and political treatment, which was given to a particular community of people.
You may take inspiration from the aforementioned examples. The entire objective is to either take a very narrow subject as your project or use a very wide based one and have ample information to compare results with theoretical studies.