Ethnography
Collecting Women's Knowledge through Ethnography
Siemens (1993) was interested in contrasting his findings from an ethnographic study of the Azande in Southern Sudan with those from a much earlier study that took place between 1927 and 1930. The earlier researcher limited his study of the Azande to what the men had to say about their beliefs and culture, whereas Siemens was interested in collecting this information from both men and women. In order to achieve this goal, Seimens conducted his field work very close to the location where the earlier study was conducted. Although Zande women were at first distrusting or indifferent, under the assumption that men have little interest in the roles and opinions of women, once they learned that Siemens was genuinely interested in what they had to say they had no problem discussing their lives and culture with him.
According to Siemens (1993), the main difference between the two studies arose from how differently each researcher was defined by their Zande hosts and how willing each researcher was to adopt the assigned status and role. Whereas the earlier researcher was given the status of subchief and was exalted for his largess, on display in the manner of all-night feasts paid for by the researcher, Siemens...
For this reason, the earlier researcher was limited to sitting with and interacting with male village leaders, while Siemens gradually developed rapport with older matrons of the village who were a goldmine of information about cultural traditions and the roles women play.
Another limitation faced by the earlier researcher was that of status, which prevented him from interacting with lower status households. In contrast, Siemens was willing to ruffle feathers by taking a random sampling of all households regardless of social status. This had the unintended effect of insulting higher status households and rendering greater status to lower households. In addition, Siemens initial status as a subchief and elder were called into question by several of the village leaders.
Another interesting aspect of Siemens (1993) interactions with the Azande is that of his wife, who chose not to take on the traditional roles of Zande wives. She interacted with her husband as an equal, taking part in managing their financial affairs and attending male-dominated activities, while never cooking, sewing, or otherwise caring…
