Person to Person: Fieldwork, Dialogue, and the Hermeneutic Method

The first undergraduate guide to qualitative ethnographic fieldwork, this book describes a step-by-step procedure called the dialogical hermeneutic method of analysis, including its philosophical basis, practical application, and ethical implications. The authors delineate the characteristics of the scientific and humanistic paradigms in the social sciences and emphasize that the hermeneutic method is employed in the humanistic paradigm. They discuss topics often missing from fieldwork manuals, such as journal keeping, personal and interpersonal relationships, ethics, and writing the ethnographic essay.

Barry P. Michrina is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Mesa State College and Editor of the journal Anthropology of Consciousness. CherylAnne Richards is Program Specialist at the Resource Center in Grand Junction, Colorado.