The epistemic value of participant observation: Between explanation and understanding

Participant observation is a method that tries to capture the beliefs and practices of the people being studied as they occur in their natural settings. Bronislaw Malinowski was the first to describe participant observation as an empirical method. Following Clifford Geertz, this method has been described as enabling “thick description”. It has been presented as a method for the “hermeneutical analysis” of culture. As such, it is seen as the means for the production of interpretations of human actions, contributing thereby to our understanding of sociocultural phenomena. That is to say, participant observation is understood as being at odds with the research that explores the causes of the phenomena observed. This method also tends to be the defining feature of sociocultural anthropology and practicing it for at least a year (usually during the PhD) is the inescapable rite of passage for calling oneself a sociocultural anthropologist. Despite its central role in sociocultural anthropology, participant observation stands aside as a scientific method. It obviously differs from the experimental method, which is often presented as the paramount example of scientific practice. It also differs from mere observational methods – as practiced, for instance, by astronomers observing stars or even by ethologists observing animals’ behavior. Indeed, the participant observer has to be directly involved, for a sufficient amount of time, in the lives of the ‘observed’. Only this can bring the genuine understanding that sociocultural anthropologists are after. Participant observation has therefore an epistemic value, but it is one of a specific kind. Two questions follow: first, what makes participant observation so valuable in knowledge production? Second, does participant observation have epistemic value for those who are looking for causal explanations? In this paper, I analyze the processes through which knowledge is produced by way of participant observation. My argument rests on a description of the cognitive feats of ...