Ethnography, Introspection, and Reflexive Culture Studies

In recent years American Studies scholars have shown a growing interest in combining social-science methods with humanistic concerns. One aspect of this development has been an increased interest in anthropological-style fieldwork or ethnography. “Ethnography” can be broadly defined as the “work of describing a culture,” but in anthropology it usually consists of an attempt to describe the existing culture of a particular group or institution through the use of firsthand participant observation in its social life and intensive in-depth interviews with individual members. Traditionally, anthropological fieldwork has also connoted description of “other cultures”—often non-Western tribal cultures. But the ethnographic approach has long been used to study modern Western society, and over the last fifteen years it has been widely used to study subcultures in contemporary America. During the same period it has come into increasing use in American Studies as well.