Abstract
This paper investigates the concept of social roles in ethnographic
fieldwork, its place in the global literature discussing qualitative
research methods, and its application in the Ethiopian ethnographic
fieldwork. I discuss that social roles are all about seeing one’s role
and status, in this case, as researchers, in the social structure of a
society or community we do the ethnographic research. Based on my own
experience and the experience of other ethnographers elsewhere, I argue
that a conscious use of our social roles is a sin qua non for
successful ethnographic fieldwork. However, this concept has been given
less emphasis in the literature of qualitative research methods. Social
roles in the ethnographic fieldwork are especially less known in the
Ethiopian ethnographic research experience.