KVALITATIV METODE I PRAKSIS

Resumé

Kajsa Ekholm Friedman: Qualitative

Method in Practice

Social anthropologists doing fieldwork must

realize that no transformation of „us“ into

„hem" is possible. Instead they must rely on

communication across cultural horders. By

carefully going through informants narratives

and statements during interviews. Kajsa

Ekholm Friedman illustrates how such dialogues

can take place. Her first example is

from fieldwork in Congo. It shows how the

encounter with a different tradition of sensemaking

leads to a situation where no sense

can be made at all. Ekholm Friedman then

goes on to describe how the fieldworker gradually

builds up new understandings. The

second example contains some intriguing

episodes from fieldwork in Hawaii where

Ekholm Friedman explores the Hawaiian

practice of adoption, hanai. Here, it is the

emphasis on sameness rather than difference

between the fieldworker and the informant

which is the primary method that leads to

understanding. However, in the final part of

the Hawaiian interviews we leam how the

focus on sameness must never exclude the

sensitivity for difference, nor the awareness

of dominant actors and their hegemonic

interpretations.