Life-History Interview
The life-history interview is an ethnographic interviewing technique in which the researcher elicits one person's whole life, told chronologically, usually across several extended sessions. The narrator recounts childhood, family, work, migration, turning points, and old age in their own words, and the resulting narrative is treated as both ethnographic and historical data. Analysis proceeds thematically — coding recurring topics and meanings — and narratively — attending to how the story is constructed, sequenced, and given significance by the teller.
Read the full method
Sign in with a free account to read this section.
Method map
The neighbourhood of related methods — select a node to explore.
Sources
- Bernard, H. R. (2017). Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (6th ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN: 9780759112421
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). The Life-History Interview as Ethnographic Technique. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/anthropology/life-history-interview
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
- Ethnographic MappingAnthropology↔ compare
- Free ListingAnthropology↔ compare
- Genealogical MethodAnthropology↔ compare
- Key-Informant InterviewAnthropology↔ compare