What aresome of the things that ethnographers and sociologists do duringparticipant observation?

Participantobservation is a method to study societies. Ethnographers andsociologists use this method when they have to conduct field workthat may last for months and years. Some of the things thatethnographers and sociologists do during participant observation are:

(i) Theyeither live or spend most of their time with the community peopleupon which the research is to be carried out.

(ii) Thesociologist or the ethnographer almost becomes like a part of thecommunity.

(iii) Theyparticipate with the communities in their rituals and customs, andrecord the observations on a regular basis.

(iv) Thesociologists and ethnographers have limited people from the communityon whom they depend for the information. These people are calledinformants or principal informants.

(v)Although the sociologist’s goal is to study a specific area ofinterest, but the overall goal of the participant observation is tolearn about the entire life of community.