What Is Ethnographic Argumentation?
Ethnographic argumentation is a type of argumentation that relies on ethnographic research to build and support a claim It seeks to understand how people in a particular culture or society interpret, interact with, and interpret their world. It can also be used to explore and explain phenomena that are not necessarily related to a single culture, as well as to comprehend and interpret global phenomena. Ethnographic argumentation employs collective knowledge and practices from the culture or society under research and applies them to help further explain and build a more comprehensive understanding of the topics at hand.
Ethnographic research typically starts by gathering knowledge about a certain group of people or culture, such as the language, beliefs, customs, and practices of the cultural group. These must then be analyzed and interpreted by the researcher in order to make sense of the data collected. This type of argumentation seeks to provide an in-depth understanding of the social context in which the research takes place, which allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the topics being studied.
Examples of Ethnographic Argumentation
1. Immigrant Assimilation: Using ethnographic research, scholars can build an argument that examines how immigrants assimilate into the dominant culture of the host country, as well as the cultural and social implications of this process. By looking into the history of the immigration process, patterns of acculturation, and language usage, the argument can provide an in-depth understanding of this phenomenon in different countries.
2. Cultural Appropriation: This type of argumentation examines the effects of cultural appropriation on the people from whom certain cultural elements are taken. Ethnographic research can be used to explore how certain cultural practices come to be adopted by dominant societies, how this affects the original culture, and how it creates a power imbalance.
3. Gender Roles: This argumentation looks at how gender roles are constructed in different cultures and how this impacts the daily lives of the people of that culture. It can also examine the implications of these gender roles and how they shape the social structure of the society.
4. Education: This type of argumentation looks at the effects of education on a given cultural group, including how education is valued, the methods used to teach, and the ways in which education supports or hinders the development of that culture.
5. Sexuality: This argumentation looks at the impact of sexual orientation and gender identity on a particular culture, such as the ways in which gender and sexuality are perceived, the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals, and the ways in which they are able to express themselves in their society.