What are some of the things that ethnographers and sociologists do during participant obsevation ? 

I. Meaning : ‘Participant observation is often called ‘field work’. The term originated in the natural sciences, specially those like botany, zoology, geology etc.

Popular in sociology and specially social anthropology. Participant observation refers to a particular method by which the sociologist learns about the society, culture and people that he/she is studying.

This method is different from other in many ways. Unlike other methods of primary data collection like surveys or interviews, field work involves a long period of interation with the subjects of research.

II. Role of enthnographers and sociologists during participant observation : (a) Typically, the sociologist or social anthropologist spends many months-usually about a year or sometimes more-living among the people being studied as one of them.

(b) As a non-native ‘outsider’, the anthropologist is supposed to immense himself/ herself in the culture of the ‘nations’-by learning their language and participating intimately in their everyday life-in an effort to acquire all the explict and implicit knowledge and skills of the ‘insider’.

(c) Although the sociologist or anthropologist usually has specific areas of interest, the overall goal of‘participant observation.’ field work is to learn about the ‘whole way of life’ of a community.

(d) Indeed the model is that of the child : Sociologists and anthropologists are supposed to learn everything about their adoptive communities injust the holistic way that small children learn about the world.

Anthropologer collected and organised information about distant community. For example, some early anthroplogist collected datas based on the information provided by some older anthropologers (Jamaes Frezer’s) collecterd data from the book or work of Emile Durkheim.

During the last decade of 19th century and during first decade of the 20th century some early anthropologist carried out systematice surveys and first hand observation and tribal language, customs, ritual and beliefs.

Later on some anthropologist constructed a geneology of community. This may be based on the information obtained in the canses, but extends much further since involves creating a family tree for individual member and extenderd the family tree as for back as possible.

Field work by Sociologist : Sociological field work differ not so much in its content-what is done during field work-but in its context-where it is done-and in the distribution of emphasis accross different areas or topics of research. Thus, a sociologist would also live among a community and attempt to become an insider.

However, unlike the anthropologist who typically ment to remote tribal community to do field work, sociologist did their field work among all types of communities. Moreover sociological field work did not necessarily involve living in although it did involve spending most of one’s time with the member of the community.