One of the biggest moral dilemmas most ethnographers face is
deception. Often times when they go into their research they must remain true
and not make their subjects feel as if they’re using them. What also comes with
that is being able to make the group members you’re studying very comfortable
and not have a problem with lying to them. Ethnographers have to go in with no
feelings and emotions so that they don’t get emotionally attached. Often times
when one does get emotionally attached, it can affect the research and the
ethnographer could possibly “make objective observations” (pg. 360).
Another moral dilemma that ethnographers face is having to
set their own morals and values to the side so they can solely focus on the
group they’re observing. When an ethnographer does this they are doing
presuppositionlesss research which can defer this moral dilemma. . It would not
be fair to the research for an ethnographer to go in with preset ideas of what
their researching because it could hinder the research altogether.
HI Damon,
ReplyDeleteI really liked what you said about how theiresearcher has to put aside their own morals when they are observing a group. When reading in the textbook about the ethnographer doing a study on gangs it made me wonder what he would have done if they wanted him to be a part of something that was against his morals like sell drugs or commit a robbery. How far do ethnographers go to fit in to the group, they are studying. I think the subject of ethnography is really interesting and i think ethnographers are interesting as well. I liked how you adressed the dilemma of deception, and it is a very important morral dilemma that they have to deal with.