Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography

by John Van Maanen

Once upon a time ethnographers returning from the field simply sat down, shuffled their note cards, and wrote up their descriptions of the exotic and quaint customs they had observed. Today scholars in all disciplines are realizing how their research is presented is at least as important as what is presented. Questions of voice, style, and audience--the classic issues of rhetoric--have come to the forefront in academic circles.

John Van Maanen, an experienced ethnographer of modern organizational structures, is one who believes that the real work begins when he returns to his office with cartons of notes and tapes. In Tales of the Field he offers readers a survey of the narrative conventions associated with writing about culture and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of various styles. He introduces first the matter-of-fact, realistic report of classical ethnography, then the self-absorbed confessional tale of the participant-observer, and finally the dramatic vignette of the new impressionistic style. He also considers, more briefly, literary tales, jointly told tales, and the theoretically focused formal and critical tales. Van Maanen illustrates his discussion of each style with excerpts from his own work on the police.

Tales of the Field offers an informal, readable, and lighthearted treatment of the rhetorical devices used to present the results of fieldwork. Though Van Maanen argues ultimately for the validity of revealing the self while representing a culture, he is sensitive to the differing methods and aims of sociology and anthropology. His goal is not to establish one true way to write ethnography, but rather to make ethnographers of all varieties examine their assumptions about what constitutes a truthful cultural portrait and select consciously and carefully the voice most appropriate for their tales. Written with grace and humor, Tales of the Field will be an invaluable introduction to novices just learning the fieldwork trade and provocative stimulant to veteran ethnographers.

"Engaging and well written."--H. Ottenheimer, Choice

Genres: Anthropology, Ethnography, Academic, Nonfiction, Sociology, Writing, Research

190 pages, Paperback

First published February 29, 1988

Reviews

[Jono · Rating 4 out of 5]

Van Maanen provides examples of three different styles of ethnographic writing:
- Realist tales (kind of matter of fact, authority assumed)
- Confessional tales (acknowledging the personal foibles and journey of the ethnographer with the result of actually increasing trust in the findings)
- Impressionist tales (dramatically telling the story of a key event - Geertz' Balinese cockfight story being perhaps the most famous example)

I know I'll find this taxonomy useful as I think about ethnography and, in fact, all types of writing.

[Juliet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A work on academic writing that actually made me laugh. Rare!

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in 1988, this book is considered a classic account of how to report ethnographic research data. Writing ethnography was historically considered a matter of "style," but Van Maanen challenges this notion and presents three methods for writing up fieldwork and participant observation data.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not exactly what I was expecting. Some of it was a bit dry and esoteric. I assume this is a text book used in college classrooms.

However, it was not without value. The author describes first what ethnography is, i.e. the study of people, cultures, population and sub-population groups. He then devotes a chapter to the various sorts of ethnographic writing.

He concludes by saying that ethnographers, should probably not only be anthropologists or sociologists but learn the different approaches to writing about their subject.

I assumed that ethnography would limit itself to culture types, tribes in the jungle, etc..but actually there are many population groups, depending on what the ethnographer wants to research and report.

While some want to draw conclusions about poverty and hence spends time with a group of families that live in a poor neighborhood, others may want to study a drug culture, or Muslims in the Phillippines. The author gives examples from his own research with a police department he spend several months with.

There are a variety of approaches to ethnography. The Realist Tales, as he calls them involve a third person supplying only facts based on his observations. They relate more to types and groups rather than individuals.

Confessional Tales are a more honest approach where the ethnographer admits in the beginning he was looking for specific facts in order to support his theory. For instance, one author studied a group of people living under the poverty line, with a Marxist slant already in place. However, he discovered that some of his conclusions were wrong. He therefore "confesses" his personal involvement and agenda in his tale.

Impressionist Tales are probably the most interesting. This is where the author includes himself, sometimes as a participant in the story, but primarily this is a method where the ethnographers "shows" rather than "tells". This is currently a popular and effective way to write non fiction. For instance, Mark Bowden's book "Hue 1968: A Turning Point in the American War in Vietnam" could be classified as an Impressionist Tale since he not only creates a documentary of the soldiers and civilians in Vietnam involved in the battle at Hue, but provides dialogue and action.

For each type of tale, Van Maanen gives examples of his own field research with the police force he spent time with.

If someone is interested in anthropology or sociology, it would behoove them to read books like this one in order to gain an idea of how to effectively write about their subject matter.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always hard to review an old methodology book. At least this is the updated second edition. This is a funny book, I would say it is neither a textbook but nor a straightforward academic book making an original contribution. In this sense it is a bit of a meta-book asking ethnographers aspiring and experienced to pay more attention to how they write and what this means for the craft of ethnography. I found this enlightening, but feel I will only know how useful this book is as I dive into more ethnographies and begin to apply the typology of realist, confessional and impressionist set out by Van Maanen..

Well worth a read if you are interested in ethnography as a methodology.

[mimo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The professor for my ethnography course told me if I was going to read any book from start to finish, make it this one, because it's a monograph rather than a collection, and because it's written in an accessible way. I agree, and I'd go further to say I really enjoyed the personable and even witty tone. The categorisation of different ethnographic writing styles offered here is also a great tool for students like myself to start thinking about how I want to write my own ethnography.

[Mike Zickar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic social science text on writing up ethnography that would be indispensable to ethnographic researchers but is of great value to all social scientists regardless of methodological predilection. The book was a real joy to read in that Van Maanen's prose is both clear and deep and doused with a level of humor that is rare in academic texts.

[Gosia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Podobał mi się styl, łatwo się brnęło przez całość
Jest w niej zawarte trochę wiedzy, może nie jakoś super ważnej jeżeli ktos nie zajmuje się kategoryzacją tekstów antropologicznych, ale no

[Alhassan Issah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book reveals proper outline of studying ethnography aside the traditional methods.

[Kristen Ghodsee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extended rumination of various forms of ethnography, and the nature of different kinds of "tales" that ethnographers can tell. The book is heavy on theory, and lacks practical writing advice for those trying to write a dissertation or first book. However, it is an important theoretical contribution to the field and an important counterweight to Writing Culture. Overall, I recommend this to all students of cultural anthropology, especially the very useful epilogue in the second edition.

[Trish Bodine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Van Maanen did an excellent job of sorting many of the various types of ethnographies. He provided information on how each ethnographer would gather, coalesce, and publish findings, WITH examples of how it would look in the real world. Van Maanen also has a wicked dry sense of humor, so that helps make the read an easier one.

[Nicole]

There is a funny story of a police chase.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ethnography is not my favorite subject so I am a bit biased in my review. I honestly skipped whole huge parts of the book.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography
Maanen, John Van
required text for college courses in australia, looked at the ideas of learning about culture with an open mind

[Ann Yanchura · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can a text like this be amusing? And yet it was. I was entertained and surprised by Van Maanen's writing. Even better, this has given me some ideas for my own writing.