Review

Reviewed Work(s): The Ethnographic Interview by James P. Spradley

Review by: James D. Sexton
Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 82, No. 4 (Dec., 1980), pp. 937-938
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/677186
Accessed: 10-01-2018 19:49 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

American Anthropological Association, Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,

preserve and extend access to American Anthropologist

This content downloaded from 155.198.30.43 on Wed, 10 Jan 2018 19:49:47 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 GENERAL AND THEORETICAL 937

represented in essays by descriptions David G. and Schneider

comparisons. By theand close of
Francis L. K. Hsu. Schneider contrasts the the 1970s, as Pertti and Gretel Pelto point out in
"special galaxy of American culture" ofAnthropological
"kin- Research: The Structure of In-
ship, nationality, religion, ethnicity, andquiry
com- (1978:65), the once seemingly clear
munity" (p. 166) with that of "work, ofdistinctions
com- between emic and etic assumptions
are blurred. Spradley's book on ethnographic
merce, of industry, of the rest of American
culture" (p. 171); the heuristic value of interviewing
such seems to revive the argument that
cosmological distinctions is limited. In athe differences in the two approaches are clear,
com-
parison of American and Chinese society, andHsu
it overwhelmingly supports the emic
describes American society, "much older strategy.
than For example, quoting Malinowski,
Spradley writes that ethnography's goal is to
Chinese society" (p. 226), as simply a continua-
grasp the native's point of view (p. 5).
tion of the "Teutonic" or "Anglo-Saxon" society
which "nurtured individuals with an affective Spradley wrote this book for the professional
and student who have never done ethnographic
pattern that threatened to dismantle itself and
fieldwork (p. 231) and for the professional
the society with it" (p. 229). In spite of this
disadvantage, Hsu concludes that the total ethnographer who is interested in adapting the
author's procedures (p. iv). Part 1 outlines in 3
disappearance of the American family is unlike-
chapters Spradley's version of ethnographic
ly, "unisex marriages, cohabitation without
research, and it provides the background for
marriage, and singlehood notwithstanding" (p.
230). It is possible that oversimplification,Part 2 which consists of 12 guided steps
distortion, and inaccuracy may have some (chapters) ranging from locating and inter-
viewing an informant to writing an ethnog-
descriptive interest (if not validity), but it is dif-
ficult to see how these latter two essays con- raphy. Most of the examples come from the
tribute to an understanding of present-day author's own fieldwork among U.S. subcultures
forms of social organization in the Unitedof tramps, bartenders and waitresses, and
States. elementary schoolchildren.
In her summary statement on the Kin and In the preface Spradley alerts the reader to
Community proceedings, Margaret Mead com- several important limitations in scope he has im-
mented that it had been "fashionable" at the posed on the book which the reader will find
listed
conference to refer to one's own family. There is in Appendix C. Perhaps these restrictions
no doubt that "the quest for personal family should have been placed in the preface rather
than the last two pages (pp. 233-234). In any
history" will lead both scholars and individuals
to case studies which will be informative on case, the more experienced ethnographer who is
social and economic changes within this coun-interested in such topics as intracultural varia-
try. The book is a contribution to that end.tions, statistical examination of data, and
systematic interview schedules that operational-
ize variables for testing and generating anthro-
pological theories may be less disappointed if
The Ethnographic Interview. James P. these qualifications are read before proceeding
Spradley. New York: Holt, Rinehart andto the first chapter.
Winston, 1979. vii + 247 pp. n.p. (paper). Although the range of types of interviews is
considerably narrow for a book-length treat-
James D. Sexton ment on ethnographic interviewing, the topics
Northern Arizona Universitydiscussed are readable and instructive, with
graphic illustrations. Steps 6 and 8 explain
After two decades of debate over whether a lucidly how to construct a domain and a tax-
culture should be described and analyzed from onomic analysis. But one may ask how far such
linguistic exercises go in providing a general
the eye of the person who lives in it (the insider
or emic perspective) or from the view of the theory of human behavior. Step 11 provides a
scientific observer (the outsider or etic view-number of valuable suggestions for uncovering
point), several publications have emerged from particular and universal themes that run
anthropology and cross-cultural psychology thatthrough ethnographic data. However, some of
indicate most social scientists do not rigidly the universal themes that Spradley mentions
restrict themselves to either position, and thatlike social conflict and acquiring and main-
illustrate the necessity of blending both frames
taining status (pp. 200-201) seem very similar to
of reference to achieve well-rounded, crediblethe kinds of traditional outsider categories of

This content downloaded from 155.198.30.43 on Wed, 10 Jan 2018 19:49:47 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 938 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [82, 1980]

the United
social and economic organization that States, in Belgium, and in the
he pur-
posefully avoids. The final stepCongo-Zaire; (12) offers of sound
conducting and halting
advice for beginners and professionals medical research;
who of wishconducting medical
to improve their writing styles: research
do not while at the same time attempting to
procrasti-
nate but write; identify the audience heal; of being and write
at once a patient and a research
for its level; and use concrete illustrations and subject; of differences between medical systems;
specific incidents. Unfortunately, unlike Robert of the sociocultural etiology of change and
B. Edgerton and L. L. Langness's book evolution in medicine and in medical educa-
Methods and Styles in the Study of Culturetion; of the deep cultural roots of medicine and
(1974), there is little discussion regarding ac-medical ethics; and of the sociology of sociolog-
curacy, efficiency, and credibility at each level
ical and other knowledge. Fox writes, moreover,
of writing. with a literate grace rare in the social sciences.
In a book titled The Ethnographic Interview, To use her own metaphor, Fox weaves a
the reader might expect to find some treatment tapestry.
of unstructured, semistructured, and structured Fox illuminates the inner life, heart and
interviews that deal with nonlanguage factors mind, of the persons and societies she ob-
like technology, economics, and social relation- serves - physicians, patients, sociologists,
ships, but these are absent. Moreover, except Belgians, Americans, non-European Congolese-
from the vantage of taxonomic and thematic
universals, ethnography is treated almost as if it Zaireans--and the premises, values, and emo-
tions which underlie and accompany their lives,
were divorced from ethnology. Because work, and expressions. Many of her subjects are
Spradley's book emphasizes one particular ap- themselves reticent if not actively repressive
proach to one brand of ethnography, its ap- about their inner worlds. Fox is concerned with
plication is limited. the dialectics of conscious and unconscious, in-
dividual and collective.
A probable sign of her insight, Fox's analyses
have received strong responses from some of
those she has studied, for example, from physi-
Essays in Medical Sociology. Renee C. Fox, ed.
cians and from Belgians. Respectful of her sub-
New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1979. viii + 548
jects, Fox reinvests in the capital of their com-
pp. $19.95 (cloth). mon sense, speaking in the language of their ex-
perience, phenomenologically. Hers is a sociol-
Robert A. Hahn ogy of depth, producing analytic insight.
University of Washington Fox demonstrates brilliantly the existential
dilemmas of becoming and being a physician in
Human medicine is the deliberate ministra- the United States, the ways in which knowledge
and uncertainty, detachment and concern,
tion by persons to the relief of personal suffering
healing and researching, are learned and ex-
(e.g., disease) and to the promotion of personal
well-being (i.e., health). It is universally the
perienced in medicine. Her essays, "Training
most vital practice. for Uncertainty" and the previously unpub-
lished, "The Autopsy: Attitude-Learning of
In a society's medicine, we may see the ways
Second-Year Medical Students," describe in
in which its participants think about and other-
wise confront "persons," "society," "well-
vivid detail the unfolding experience of the
being," value and ethics, knowledge andmedical curriculum of the 1950s which allow or
technique, human relations and their contexts,
force incorporation of these dynamic tensions
and the capacities of health, disease, and heal-
inherent in medical work, e.g., between the
ing. We may explore the dynamics of body, detachment required for rational, objective ac-
thought, action, and the manifold environ- tion and the concern which may compel this ac-
ment-their biology, sociology and phenome- tion, and between the uncertainty inherent in
nology. Medicine is an index anthropologicus,(medical)
a knowledge and the compulsion to
syndrome of the body social. know with certainty for the immediate help of a
In this anthology, Professor Fox presents 21
present patient. Fox also describes how the
character of medical students and of medical
essays of penetrating depth on a remarkable
variety of medical issues. Her insightfuleducation have been deliberately changed in
analyses, begun some thirty years ago, delve in-
the past 20 years in ways which, she claims, have
to the inner workings of becoming a doctor uncertain
in outcomes.

This content downloaded from 155.198.30.43 on Wed, 10 Jan 2018 19:49:47 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms