Experiences

It has long been said that experience is at the center of ethnographic practice. Definitions of experience have changed over time and new implications present themselves as culture and technology advances. John Dewey once defined experience as “the flow of everyday life punctuated by moments of fulfillment”. Researching experiences involves many things depending on the case and the type of experience being analyzed. Researching experience means collecting and measuring subjective stories that point to something beyond the story itself. Experience is a form of explication because there is a meaning and significance you can draw out of the initial data. However, this can be troublesome for ethnographers because the significance or meaning of an experience can be difficult to articulate.

There are two primary approaches to ethnographical research of experience. The first approach focuses on the five senses. David Howes and Constance Classen stated that “perception informed not only by the personal meaning a particular sensation has for us, but also by the social value it carries”. The second approach is more broad, as it considers experience as “something that might not necessarily fit into verbal categories of expression”. This approach looks at the possibility of other categories such as culture. This approach involves what our text refers to as sensory immersion in a culture. According to Paul Stoller, this approach can produce “profound insights and understandings”.

I am immediately interested in my great grandmother. I know that her experience as an immigrant is worth researching. Her experience had to do with urgency and escaping from her troubled life in Europe. Although I do not know much more than that, it seems like it was an experience that holds great significance. I’d like to know why she had to escape and what it mean for her and her family. What about the culture she lived in and her experience at that place and time made her who she was? What about it made her leave not knowing where she was going or what she would do? I’d also like to research the experiences of my grandfather who I never met. Since we never met there are tons of stories unheard. He worked in a steel mill in Johnstown Pennsylvania, a place where my surname has a long history and high significance. All I know is that he worked there for many years. A large part of ethnography and genealogy is utilizing records of residence and occupation, so I’ld like to know more about my grandfather’s life at the steel mill.