ABSTRACT
In previous chapters we have examined the main sources of data that ethnographers use: observation and participation; participants’ oral accounts, both those that are ‘naturally occurring’ and those elicited in interviews; plus documents and artefacts of various kinds. In this chapter we want to look at how these data may need to be preserved or recorded, and organized, in preparation for the process of analysis. What is involved here varies considerably depending upon the nature of the data. In the case of documents and material objects, relatively little processing may sometimes be required, though these data will need to be catalogued in ways that make them available for analysis. By contrast, in the case of observing patterns of social interaction and collecting participant accounts, the task of recording the data is much more significant and time-consuming.
