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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Galman, Sally Campbell, author.
Title: Shane, the lone ethnographer : a beginner’s guide to ethnography / Sally Campbell
Galman, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Description: Second Edition. | Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, [2018] | Includes
bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018039882 (print) | LCCN 2018041619 (ebook) | ISBN
9781442261426 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442261402 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781442261419 (paperback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Ethnology—Research. | Ethnology—Fieldwork. | Ethnology—
Methodology.
Classification: LCC GN345 (ebook) | LCC GN345 .G35 2018 (print) | DDC
305.80072/1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018039882
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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.
Printed in the United States of America
C O N T E N T S
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction to the Second Edition ix
1 Alone on the Range: A Fistful of Reserve Reading 1
2 Showdown at the Paradigm Corral 9
3 The Beginner: Where Do I Even Start? 25
4 Wanted: Theoretical Framework, Dead or Alive 33
5 IRB: From the People Who Brought You the IRS 47
6 Ethnographic Data and Methods 67
7 Taming Datasaurus Rex 99
8 Writing 117
Final Thoughts 135
References and Further Reading 143
About the Author 147
I N T R O D U C T I O N T O T H E
S E C O N D E D I T I O N
When I was a newly minted PhD, with a brand new job, hugely pregnant with my first baby.
and sitting, night after night, hunched over my drafting table inking by hand the pages
of the first edition of Shane, the Lone Ethnographer, I certainly didn’t think the book would
be so popular and so much fun, or that Shane would become such a big part of my life. I
couldn’t foresee a time past tenure, let alone a future that included a second edition.
So much has changed since the first edition. For one, that first baby is a now a tall,
beautiful twelve-year-old with two younger siblings. I’ve written lots of things—both with
and without pictures! And a lot has happened in the world of ethnography, including how
we teach it, do it, think about it, and write about it. Even more has changed in my art
world: the original book was hand-drawn in pencil, hand-inked, and hand-erased before
being wrapped in plastic bubble wrap and physically shipped to the publisher. I was no
different from a medieval illuminator, except that I had electricity by which to spend
nearly twenty hours erasing pencil lines. This new book is a product of new, better tablet
technology (No erasing! No need to redraw an entire page if you make a single mistake! No
more nerve-racking shipping of originals across continents!), and it is also a product of
new, better ideas about how to teach other people about ethnography.
Writing a second edition is a labor of love and decision-making as you consider what
to keep, what to toss, and what to add. So, this book is both old and new. It’s still the
good old Shane at her bewildered best. But it’s also a new Shane who has perhaps read
and done a bit more. This new Shane offers a comprehensive survey of ethnographic
foundations, study design, and methods, but with the same old sense of humor and
helpful drawings, diagrams, lists, and charts to present complex information in a new
light. While the first edition was focused on ethnography within the field of educational
