Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

Terra Sebus: Acta Musei Sabesiensis, Special Issue, 2014, p. 187-199 

 

 

THE POSSIBILITIES OF ETHNOMETHODOLOGY 

IN MODERN ART STUDIES 

 

 

Larisa Ivanovna NEKHVYADOVICH



 

 

 

In the last few decades, contemporary society has actively developed its 

approach to tackling the problems of the preservation of cultural, including 

non-material, heritage at the level of the world generally and Russian socio-

political and socio-cultural practices specifically. In this context, special 

attention is paid to the problems of preservation of ethnocultural diversity, 

represented at national and regional levels by various traditions, including 

the field of professional art and arts-and-crafts. Thus the development of 

the global information space of the contemporary world actualises the 

ethnic values which are manifest in domestic art as a whole and in the high 

art of the regional centres - in particular, in modern art practices connected 

with the manifestation of the creative master’s individuality. The study of 

the originality of local schools of art is of great importance in this regard. 

An inquiry into the possibilities of ethnomethodology in modern art 

studies is also relevant because of a lack of general studies in this field. The 

assessment of ethnic art as an aspect of art heritage highlights the novelty, 

originality and practical importance of this approach. 

The term “ethnomethodology” is formed of three independent 

elements: “ethnos” (people, nation, class, caste, tribe), “method” (pursuit of 

knowledge) and “logy” (study). “Ethnos” is a category of ethnography 

describing the signs of ethnic communities at all stages of the history of 

mankind. It is accepted defining a group of people who hold a number of 

these signs - such as language, ethnic territory, peculiarities of life and 

culture, origins and ethnic consciousness - in common.

1

 The term 

“methodology” denotes a system of general, fundamental ideas, principles 

and prescriptions from which the researcher can proceed or by which the 

researcher is guided in his or her cognitive activity.

2

 In this sense, the notion 

ethnomethodology denotes a direction in which the methodological tools of 

ethnographic research are put to use in the general methodology of social 

                                                 



 Altai State University, Altai Territory, Barnaul, Russian Federation; e-mail: 

[e-mail]. 

1

 Bromley 1983, p. 412. 

2

 Elchaninov 2013, p. 17. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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L. I. Nekhvyadovich 

 

188

sciences and the humanities in order to study the phenomenon of ethnicity.

3

 

The inclusion of ethnomethodology in the study of ethnic art is important 

for understanding the peculiarities of historical compositions of the various 

schools of art, as well as the modern tendencies of artistic processes. Based 

on the analysis of primary sources and academic literature, the author aims 

to show the possibilities of ethnomethodology in modern art studies. 

The question arises as to whether ethnomethodology is a special 

academic discipline. In modern interdisciplinary studies it is noted that the 

following factors are necessary for the formation of a new academic 

discipline: 1. the social need for knowledge in a new academic direction; 2. 

scientific methods, accumulated knowledge; 3. an appropriate level of 

disciplinary organisation within the field; 4. the training of specialists 

according to a given profile.

4

 

Regarding whether there is a social need for knowledge in a new 

academic direction, the answer is surely yes. The actualisation of 

ethnocultural traditions in modern art is connected with the action of 

factors such as globalisation, localisation and decentralisation. 

Transformation of the cultural context within which national identity is 

formed has led to the phenomenon of distinctive expressions of ethnicity in 

art: firstly, the unintended manifestation, arising from a mental grounding in 

ethnocultural traditions; secondly, the conscious, recognised assertion of 

ethnic origins realised in the programmatic character of the work. 

The disciplinary organisation of ethnomethodology as an academic 

direction is only in its early planning stages. The first studies in this field 

date from the second half of the 19

th

-early 20

th

 century. The central problem 

of ethnomethodology - whether the study of everyday life can provide 

knowledge of the world at large - leads to the wider question of whether 

there are general laws of cognition which cut across ethnocultural diversity? 

The study of this problem within ethnography, social and cultural 

anthropology has led to the formation of ethnomethodology as an 

integrative field of knowledge, absorbing the methods of all these 

disciplinary fields. Researchers’ accumulated experience in the study of the 

culture and life of ethnic groups through complex methodological 

approaches - including field observation (stationary and expeditionary), 

comparative-historical, typological, quantitative analysis, and the spatial 

definition of settlements of ethnic communities - have brought about the 

formation of a specific ethnomethodological approach. The anthropological 

constant of studies into ethnocultural processes in the works of J. J. 

                                                 

3

 http://www. science-education.ru/111-10626, accessed 16 August 2014. 

4

 Zhuk 2003, p. 17. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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