Transcript Unit 4 Theory and Me..

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Ethnography: Anthropology’s Distinctive Strategy
Ethnographic Techniques
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Observation and Participant Observation
Conversation, Interviewing, and Interview Schedules
The Genealogical Method
Key Cultural Consultants
Life Histories
Local Beliefs and Perceptions, and the Ethnographer’s
Problem-Oriented Ethnography
Longitudinal Research
Team research
Culture, Space, and Scale
Survey Research
Anthropology Today
 http://youtu.be/nV0jY5VgymI
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Developed as
anthropologists studied
small, homogenous
communities
Adopted a free-ranging
strategy for gathering
information
Moves place-to-place,
person-to-person to
discover interconnections
of social life
Provides a foundation for
generalizations about
human behavior and social
life
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Use several, not all, of the
following techniques
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Participant observation
Interviews
Genealogical method
Work with key consultants
of the community
Life histories
Discovery of local beliefs
Problem-oriented research
Longitudinal research
Team research
Must pay attention to
hundreds of details of
daily life, seasons
events, and unusual
happenings.
 Many anthropologists
experience culture
shock
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• Most anthropologists
stay in the field for at
least a year to make up
for anything missed then
 Read
the article and
write a one page
reflection
• What do you think of
the idea of
anthropologists
getting culture shock?
• What do you think it
would be like to study
another culture?
 Many
ethnographers
keep a personal
diary and field notes
 Ethnographers must
establisher rapport
with their hosts and
contacts
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Constantly talking to
locals and asking
questions
Have to learn the local
language and as learn
language and local
culture, understand more
• Phases of language
acquisition
 Naming
 Understanding simple
conversations
 Rapid-fire public discussions
and group conversations
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Interview schedule
• Complete household
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interview
Set questions on printed
form
Included basic
information on each
family member, diet, etc
Tried to interview entire
population
Talks face-to-face, asks
questions, ethnographer
fills in answers
 Pros
of interview
schedule
• Meet almost everyone
• Creates rapport
• Created information
leads to follow later
• Creates both
quantitative and
qualitative information
Genealogical method –
use diagrams and
symbols to record kin
connections
 Many non-industrial
societies use kinship
for social status
 Using symbols help
ethnographers to
reconstruct history and
understand social
circles
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Key cultural
consultant: expert on
a particular aspect of
local life
• Also called key
informants
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Important for
gathering information
about specific parts of
the tribe
• May be only survivor of
epidemic
• Only midwife in town
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When find someone
unusually interesting,
collect their life
history.
• Life history: of a key
consultant; personal
portrait of someone’s life
in a culture
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Different perspectives
and interpretations of
important events
 http://storycorps.org/
Ethnographer’s
perspective usually
different from native
 Use two approaches –
emic and etic
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• Emic – research strategy
emphasizing on local
explanations and
meanings
• Etic – research strategy
emphasizing the
ethnographer’s
explanations and
categories
 Most
ethnographers go in with a specific
problem to research
 Use data from local people and other factors
such as population density and environment
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Longitudinal research –
long-term study of a
community, region,
society, or culture, or
other unit, usually based
on repeated visits
Allows for long-term
research and impacts on
areas.
Many times it becomes
team research with many
anthropologists studying
the same areas and
peoples
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and more the
world is
interconnected and
places cannot be
studied in isolation
anymore
 Read
the article
 Write a one page
reflection
• Should anthropology
be used by the
government to help
with security
concerns?
• Is submitted
anthropological data
to government officials
unethical?
 Survey
research –
study of society
through sampling,
statistical analysis,
and impersonal data
collection
Ethnography (traditional)
Survey Research
Studies whole, functioning communities
Studies a small sample of a larger population
Usually is based on firsthand fieldwork,
during which information is collected after
rapport, based on personal contact, is
established between researcher and hosts
Often is conducted with little or no personal
contact between study subjects and
researchers, as interviews are frequently
conducted by assistants over the phone or in
printed form
Traditionally is interested in all aspects of
social life (holistic)
Usually focuses on a small number of
variables (e.g., factors that influence voting)
rather than on the totality of people’s lives
Traditionally has been conducted in
nonindustrial, small-scale societies, where
people often do no read and write
Normally is carried out in modern nations,
where most people are literate, permitting
respondents to fill in their own
questionnaires
Makes little use of statistics, because the
communities being studied tend to be small,
with little diversity besides that based on
age, gender, and individual personality
variation
Depends heavily on statistical analyses to
make inferences regarding a large and
diverse population, based on data collected
from a small subset of the population
Many campuses lack
representation of all
subfields
 With the world
becoming smaller,
traditional
ethnography is fading
away
 AAA now has multiple
subgroups to different
identities and focuses
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 Short
test tomorrow on
• What is anthropology
• Ethnographic research