Manuals for ethnographic data collection: experience and issues.

Abstract

The authors' experience in developing a manual based on ethnographic methods for collecting, analyzing and using information about the 'cultural context of diarrhea' is presented. The goal of the process outlined in the manual is to recommend programmatic strategies and educational messages that are likely to be effective in achieving the adoption of appropriate diarrhea case management behaviors by mothers. The implications of manuals of this type for the role of anthropologists, and for social science capacity building in developing country programs are discussed. While recognizing that this approach risks limiting the anthropologist's role to a technical one, the authors suggest that appropriate application of program specific manuals can encourage anthropological input into formulating program policies and strategies.