Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork

Lisa Gilman, John Fenn

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780253040282
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

A comprehensive review of the ethnographic process for developing a project, implementing the plan, and completing and preserving the data collected.

In Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork, readers will find a detailed methodology for conducting different types of fieldwork such as digital ethnography or episodic research, tips and tricks for key elements like budgeting and funding, and practical advice and examples gleaned from the authors own fieldwork experiences. This handbook also helps fieldworkers fully grasp and understand the ways in which power, gender, ethnicity, and other identity categories are ever present in fieldwork, and guides students to think through these dynamics at each stage of research. Written accessibly for lay researchers working in different mediums and on projects of varying size, this step-by-step manual will prepare the reader for the excitement, challenges, and rewards of ethnographic research.

PART I

PREPARING FOR THE FIELD

ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDWORK IS AN EXTENSION of what each of us does in our day-to-day lives as we learn how to be social and creative people through observations and interactions within the worlds we occupy. Most of what one does in fieldwork resonates with what we already know how to do: learn about something by spending time with people, observe what is going on around us, and ask questions while listening carefully to responses. Yet, adapting everyday life activities into research methods requires developing a level of awareness and set of skills that enables one to systematically gather, document, interpret, and present information.

Part I begins with an overview of folklore and ethnomusicology fieldwork and then addresses many details associated with preparing to do fieldwork. Chapter 1 presents some terms and concepts that are important to fieldwork processes and outcomes. Chapter 2 discusses how to identify potential fieldwork topics and the importance of developing the necessary knowledge base prior to entering the field. Chapter 3 emphasizes the importance of creating a proposal that clearly outlines the objectives and plan for the project. Fieldworkers may be required to submit such proposals to instructors, funders, employers, or research compliance officers. And most significantly, proposals serve as important guides and tracking devices during the fieldwork process.

In the final three chapters of part I, we shift our focus to the logistical details that are often necessary prior to beginning fieldwork. Chapter 4 addresses some institutional requirements that are typical for fieldwork projects, such as a university’s policies for conducting research with human subjects and some governments’ requirement that foreigners obtain clearance prior to conducting research in a country. We then discuss some practical issues around doing research in domestic versus international settings and between face-to-face versus digital realms.

Documentation is an integral part of the fieldwork process often requiring a certain degree of skill and careful consideration about equipment and accessory needs, and this is the topic of chapter 5. The final chapter in part I is chapter 6, a detailed discussion about resource considerations that covers some sources for funding and the types of expenses that fieldworkers should expect.

1

DEFINING FIELDWORK

THIS CHAPTER INTRODUCES SOME BASIC terms and concepts for the beginning fieldworker. It begins by explaining what ethnographic fieldwork involves by describing what is meant by the “field,” followed by a discussion of what kinds of people and cultural forms tend to be the focus of fieldwork projects. We consider the “work” by outlining the activities that are typical to this type of research. Folklorists and ethnomusicologists do fieldwork in a variety of settings and with varying relationships to organizations, establishments, and community groups. We present different types of institutional contexts for fieldwork and discuss the differences between individual and collaborative approaches. Human relationships are at the center of fieldwork, so we also consider various types of relationships between fieldworkers and the people they study.

What Is Ethnographic Fieldwork?

The method of fieldwork has been defined multiple ways by different scholars. For example, in Folklife and Fieldwork: An Introduction to Cultural Documentation, Stephen Winick and Peter Bartis explain that fieldwork is “the difficult but rewarding work of recording firsthand observations and interviews with community experts” (2016, 4). Similarly, in “Casting Shadows in the Field: An Introduction,” Timothy J. Cooley writes that “fieldwork is the observational and experiential portion of the ethnographic process during which the ethnomusicologist engages living individuals in order to learn about music-culture” (1997, 4). And Bruce Jackson explains in Fieldwork that he likes Everett C. Hughes’s 1960 definition: “Field work refers . . . to observation of people in situ; finding them where they are, staying with them in some role which, while acceptable to them, will allow both intimate observation of certain parts of their behavior, and reporting it in ways useful to social science but not harmful to those observed” (1987, 7). Echoing these scholars, we conceive of ethnographic fieldwork as encompassing those research strategies based on direct involvement with the individuals and communities studied. The goal of fieldwork is to try to understand how people experience the world from their perspective—doing and experiencing similar activities in similar spaces with them will enable a fieldworker to develop a deep perspective on the lives and cultural practices of the people they study. Fieldwork takes many different shapes depending on the topic and objectives of the researcher and community members involved. Though the term “community” is a complex and contested term, we use it throughout this text for lack of a better term to refer generally to the networks of people involved in a specific folklore or musical form that is being studied. The ethnographic approach to fieldwork, often referred to as “participant observation,” is founded on the idea that a great deal can be learned about a community’s creative expressions by immersing oneself within the contexts in which the cultural practice being studied occurs. This usually involves developing relationships and spending significant time with the communities involved, while participating in and observing people’s engagement with the cultural form in its so-called natural context.

At the core of ethnographic research is the idea of cultural relativism: an understanding of cultural practices from the perspectives of the practitioners rather than through the interpretive lens of the fieldworker. In addition to participating in and observing a community or the cultural forms in action, more targeted information-gathering strategies are often used that vary depending on the research topic and objectives. Some common strategies include attending occasions where the cultural practice takes place, such as social gatherings, concerts, festivals, practice or instructional sessions, craft markets, or participating on social media sites; pursuing interviews with individuals or groups of participants and community members; conducting surveys; and documenting using textual, audio, and visual media. Library, internet, and archival research often complement fieldwork, and engagement with digital communities can constitute all or part of one’s fieldwork approach.

People do fieldwork with a number of objectives in mind, and they use the knowledge and materials they gather in a variety of ways. Some fieldwork is individually driven; the fieldworkers have the option of choosing a topic and can shape the project around their own interests and goals. Other fieldwork is done at the behest of an organization, company, instructor, or community, in which case the topic and objectives may be already determined. Some people enter the field with clearly delineated expectations about what they should learn and gather for a specific goal. Other projects are more open-ended. Depending on the goal, fieldwork can contribute to knowledge building, as in when someone does fieldwork because they are interested in learning about a community or cultural practice. Often, fieldwork supports some type of product: class assignment, documentation for an archive, master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation, museum exhibit, documentary video, podcast, multimedia online exhibit, school curriculum, festival, or radio show. In addition to or alternately, the goal might be advocacy or to produce some type of social change through action research. The desired outcome will necessarily influence how fieldworkers approach the project, what questions they seek to answer, how and what they document, and what they will do with the information after.

What Is the “Field”? What Is the “Work”?

“Fieldwork” is a compound word, suggesting that some kind of work is being done in a field. Multiple academic and professional fields employ the term, but in the context of folklore and ethnomusicology, “field” refers to the sites where cultural expression occurs or where people involved live and do a variety of activities. The “work” refers to the researcher going into that field to learn something about the people and cultural practices, as well as everything a researcher does before and after related to the project.

What is considered the “field” can vary greatly and is dependent on the type of project. Ethnomusicologists Marcia Herndon and Norma McLeod explain that “a field may be a geographic area; a linguistic area; a particular village, town, city, suburb, or rural area” (1983, 3). The field can refer to spaces, such as a geographic location, a digital platform, an institution, or according to some, a state of mind (see Kisliuk 1997). It can refer to events, such as concerts, festivals, family gatherings, or art markets. And, it can entail a community of people who are participants in any number of capacities, which could comprise anything from a family, set of friends, ethnic group, musical ensemble, artist collective, social media network, political association, occupational group, digital community, the population of a town or country, or an international network.

If one is doing research about a family’s holiday traditions, the field could involve spending time with individuals in a variety of activities in different locales relevant to the holiday as well as potentially interviewing participants in spaces unrelated to the practice. In this case, the field could include the home where a holiday is celebrated, the grocery store where special foods are purchased, the coffee shop where a family member is interviewed, the website where cooks find recipes, and the social media site where members share images of their holidays to a disparate audience. Some projects have a single focused field site, while others have multiple ones. Those doing research on a musical tradition might choose to focus their project on a single practitioner or physical site, whereas someone else might select to research in several communities where the music is practiced. Such choices emerge from, and produce, different perspectives.

Figure 1.1. Gilman’s students from Mzuzu University posing during a field trip during which they learned fieldwork methods. Malawi, 2013. Photo by Lisa Gilman.

Fieldworkers’ relationship to the field varies. The field can be in their own backyard if they do research within a community of which they are already a part or that is nearby. It can be in other locations either within the region and country in which the fieldworker lives or a foreign one. Where the field is will necessarily shape the kind of preparation required and methods used, as will be elaborated on in chapters 4 to 6.

The “work” refers to what one does in the field, the methods used to research or gather information. It also extends beyond the field with regard to assessing materials gathered and preparing them for preservation or future use. The work can include spending time with people engaged in a practice or a location where it’s happening, engaging in the practice, having informal conversations about a topic, conducting more formal directed interviews, attending events, and reading news or social media coverage of them. One of the most valuable components of the “work” or methods in folklore and ethnomusicology is the documentation of folklore and music practice that is part of the information gathering process. Folklorists and ethnomusicologists record multiple aspects of social life, often using combinations of textual, audio, and visual media. We will elaborate on cultural documentation in chapters 5 and 10.

The People

Fieldwork is ultimately research with people and can include those involved in folklore or ethnomusicological practice in a myriad of capacities. In her 1993 article, “Power and the Ritual Genres: American Rodeo,” folklorist Beverly Stoeltje suggests that when doing fieldwork on rituals, folklorists should attend to (1) form, (2) production, “the organization of forces, energies, and materials that constitute the actual production,” and (3) the discourse that surrounds them (1993, 141). Though each person will plan fieldwork based on what is most productive and appropriate for their topic of study, Stoeltje’s framework is useful for thinking about whom might be worth spending time with when doing research. Below are some of the types of participants that may...