Lecture 3. Qualitative
methods
Summary
For many years, ethnobotanists relied
exclusively on qualitative methods to
gather ethnobotanical data. Despite the
recent popularity of quantitative
methods, qualitative approaches are still
an integral part of ethnobotanical
fieldwork. Ranging from interviews to
market surveys and ethnobotanical
inventories, these methods allow us to
gain a broad and deep understanding of
the relationship between people and
plants. Some of these techniques will be
discussed in greater detail during
demonstrations and practical exercises.
Definitions:
- Participant observation involves
living with people, seeing what
they do and partaking in their
everyday activities. Although it
sounds simple, this technique is
a key way of understanding local
lifestyles and knowledge. When
the researcher is interested in
documenting practices which have
disappeared or are not commonly
performed, he or she can ask
informants to simulate the
activities. At its best, however,
participant observation is
conducted without interfering
with peoples’ daily
routines.
- Interviewing is one of the main
techniques of collecting
qualitative data. It is simply a
technique in which two or more
people interact, discussing
issues that may be defined
broadly or narrowly by the
interviewer. These discussions
take place wherever appropriate:
at home or in the workplace, in
agricultural fields or in areas
of natural vegetation. In each
location, the interviewers and
respondents may find specific
artefacts, landscapes, plants or
animals to talk about, guiding
the discussion. There are several
different types of interview:
- Unstructured interviews
are like casual
conversations in that the
topics and order of
questions are
free-ranging. They are
often used to establish
rapport and explore areas
of interest to pursue in
subsequent interviews.
- Semistructured interviews
have much of the
flexibility of an
unstructured interaction,
but are guided by a set
of questions that the
interviewer pursues.
Although it is important
that each topic is
touched on, there need be
no set order to the
questions.
- Structured interviews are
based on a fixed set of
questions asked in the
same order to all
respondents. Although
written questionnaires
and surveys are common
ways of conducting
structured interviews,
there are other
techniques such as
freelisting, pairwise
comparisons, triads and
matrix ranking. Depending
on the rigor with which
they are carried out, and
the method of analyzing
results, these interviews
yield quantitative as
well as qualitative data.
- Voucher collections are plant or
animal specimens that are
prepared, labeled, numbered and
later stored in herbaria (for
plants) or zoological museums
(for animals). The methods for
preparing the specimens are
specific, and are covered in
details in the recommended
readings.
- Market surveys consist of
visiting marketplaces,
interacting with sellers and
buyers, recording the products
that are being sold, noting
prices and sketching the layout
of stall and vendors. All of the
above techniques can be applied:
collecting plants, carrying out
structured or unstructured
interviews, and certainly
participant observation.
Basic text:
Martin, G. 1995. Ethnobotany.
London, Chapman and Hall. Chapters on
Anthropology and Botany.
Other readings:
Alexiades, M.N. 1996. Selected
Guidelines for Ethnobotanical Research: A
Field Manual. New York, The New York
Botanical Garden.
Bernard, H. R. (1994) Research
Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and
Quantitative Approaches. 2nd
edition. Thousand Oaks, Sage
Publications. Chapter 2. The foundations
of social research, Chapter 3.
Anthropology and research design, Chapter
4. Sampling.
Caniango, I. and S.F. Siebert. 1998.
Medicinal plant ecology, knowledge and
conservation in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Economic
Botany 52:229-250.
Given, D.R. and W. Harris. 1994. Techniques
and Methods of Ethnobotany. London,
The Commonwealth Secretariat.
IIRR. 1996. Recording and Using
Indigenous Knowledge: A Manual.
Silang, Cavite, International Institute
of Rural Reconstruction.
Moreno-Black, G., W. Akanan, P.
Somnasang, S. Thamathawan and P.
Brozvosky. 1996. Non-domesticated food
resources in the marketplace and
marketing system of northeastern
Thailand. Journal of Ethnobiology
16:99-117.
Poffenberger, M., A.P. Chatterji and
A. Schwarz. 1997. Field Methods
Manual: Range Profiling, Boundary
Demarcation and Microplanning for Joint
Forest Management. Berkeley, Asia
Forest Network.
Stockdale, M.C..and Ambrose, B. 1996.
Mapping and NTFP inventory: participatory
assessment methods for forest-dwelling
communities in East Kalimantan,
Indonesia. Pages 171-211 in Jane
Carter, editor, Recent Approaches to
Participatory Forest Resource Assessment.
London, Overseas Development Institute.
Excerpts for
discussion:
"Much of the data collected by
ethnobotanists is cultural data: when an
informant describes the use of a plant,
he or she is explicitly and implicitly
referring to the concepts and categories
of a particular individual with a
particular cultural experience that may
or may not correspond to the concepts and
categories of the ethnobotanist. The term
naive realism is used to describe
the self-centered and almost universal
belief that all humans define the world
around them and categorize their
experience in the same way. When
recording accounts on plant use, a worker
not trained in cross-cultural analysis
will unwittingly project his or her
expectations, categories and experience
onto the informant’s account. The
seemingly straightforward method of
collecting cultural data – talking
to another person – belies the
tremendous challenge of learning to
recognize and minimize the ways in which
we unconsciously reinterpret and
reformulate the experience of others on
the basis of our own."
"A scientist is not a blank slate
capable of absolute objectivity,
particularly when it comes to recording
culturally based information. All
individuals carry a certain amount of
cultural "baggage" or
"filters" in the form of
preconceived notions, stereotypes and
expectations. These biases are determined
by a combination of the individual’s
culture, subculture abd life experience.
Nationality, ethnic identity,
socioeconomic class, ideology, age,
gender and profession are some of the
variables that determine what we notice
and how we interpret it. Most of our
concepts and beliefs, taken for granted
as they are, are derived from our
experience in our own society, and this
experience is easily and inappropriately
projected onto the acts, including the
spoken acts, or others. Anthropologists
refer to "blind spots",
"ethnocentrism" and
"semantic accent" to describe
the processes through which workers
introduce their personal bias and
distortions onto the interpretation of
culture-specific behavior and
knowledge."
From: Pages 54 – 56 in Alexiades,
M.N. 1996. Selected Guidelines for
Ethnobotanical Research: A Field Manual.
New York, The New York Botanical Garden.
Questions for
discussion:
Can you think of a situation in which
your initial interpretation of someone
else’s belief or practice was
clouded by "blind spots" or
"ethnocentrism"? If so, how did
you eventually achieve an understanding
that was consistent with the other
persons perception of the belief or
practice?
Exercise:
See Exercise 2.
Ethnobotanical data and plant collecting
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