Dilemas

Some moral dilemmas that ethnographers face occur with the idea of being “undercover.” Ethnographers face the dilemma of feeling as if they are lying to the group they are observing. As the book expressed, it may feel as if they are deceiving the, for lack of a better word, culture they are trying to belong in.
To resolve this issue, they just need to think about how they are not necessarily deceiving anyone. They have to think about how they are doing research for themselves and that if they are changing for the culture they are trying to belong in, they are just adapting to their surroundings. This is something that everyone does. We adapt to our surroundings and in many cases we change our actions in order to feel as though we belong. I feel as though most ethnographers are observing a certain group because they are interested in that group, they are not observing to make fun of or be mean to that group. But they are observing and researching because they are trying to make sense of that particular group. This is not something that everyone is willing to do, especially with an open mind. Ethnographers are not judging or putting biases on the group, but they are observing and analyzing. They should not feel as though they are doing any thing morally wrong, unless they are truly doing something mean.
Although our actions may change, who we are does not necessarily change. When adapting to our surroundings we can pretty much fit into a certain group or culture by still being ourselves, just adding little kinks to be able to make sure we are acting appropriate for that culture. This is not mean. It would be a harder situation if the ethnographer makes up huge elaborate lies about themselves and have people depend on them just to go away and deliberately hurt the culture. So in other words, Ethnographers can resolve the issue of feeling as though they are being deceptive by still being themselves just adapting to their surroundings. They need to realize they are doing the research to better understand, not to hurt, the culture.