Transcript Nanda 3e PPTs Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH IN
ANTHROPOLOGY
LECTURE AND CHAPTER OUTLINE
Nancy Scheper-Hughes- Death without Weeping
What is ethnographic fieldwork?
Ethnography Video
Brief history of research
Franz Boas and the four field approach and cultural relativism
Bronislaw Malinowski and participant observation
Preparing for Fieldwork
Anthropological techniques
Ethics in research
TRADITIONAL VIEW OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH
NANCY SCHEPER-HUGHES
Alto do Cruzeiro (Crucifix Hill)- Brazil
“Why do the church bells ring so often?”
“Indifference” of women to death of children
Infants have “aversion to life”
Mothers encouraged not to cry – tears dampen angel wings
Fieldwork- traveled to Brazil, learned the language, lived in
community, built trust and relationships.
Fieldwork is more than research.
WHAT IS (ETHNOGRAPHIC) FIELDWORK?
Firsthand exploration of a society and culture.
Reveals the differences between what people say they
do and what they do.
Fieldwork is an essential component of the
anthropological experience.
Fieldwork comes with its own host of challenges and
dilemmas.
Ex: Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Greg Simon
Advantages/Disadvantages of Fieldwork?
ETHNOGRAPHY: ELLEN ISAACS: PRODUCT DESIGN
ETHNOGRAPHY
Gathering and interpreting information based on
intensive, firsthand study
The major research tool of cultural anthropology
Includes both:
 fieldwork among people in a society (verb)
 the written results of the fieldwork (noun)
Advantages and disadvantages of an ethnography?
HISTORY OF RESEARCH IN ANTHROPOLOGY
The first scholars who called themselves
anthropologists worked in the second half of
the 19th century.
The most famous were Sir Edward Burnett Tylor
and Louis Henry Morgan.
They saw themselves as compilers and analysts
of ethnographic accounts rather than field
researchers (“armchair anthropologists”).
CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON
British and European anthropologists were
interested in ethnology.
In the 1860s, Herbert Spencer began to develop
a way of organizing information on a large
number of societies.
The project was called Descriptive Sociology.
CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON
William Graham Sumner, Albert Keller, and George
Murdock.
 In the late 1930s, Murdock and Keller created a
ethnographic database at Yale University.
 In the late 1940s, the project was expanded to include
other universities and its name changed to the Human
Relations Area Files (HRAF).
FRANZ BOAS: FIELDWORK AND THE FOUR FIELD APPROACH
Early work among the Kwakiutl of Pacific Northwest
Grounded in fieldwork process
Embarked on mission to document Native American cultures
Salvage Ethnography- speed at which it was conducted
Focus on culture, language, biology, and artifacts- four field
approach
Development of Cultural Relativism as key
concept in fieldwork
BOAS AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Boas insisted that anthropologists approach
each culture on its own terms
This came to be known as cultural relativism
-hallmark of anthropology.
Boas argued that all human beings have equal
capacities for culture
Human actions might be morally right or wrong,
no culture was more evolved or of greater
value.
BRONISLAW MALINOWSKI: “FATHER” OF FIELDWORK
Went further than Boas in developing research methods in cultural
anthropology
Polish citizen-Over a year on Trobriand Islands- WWI
Study of the Kula Ring
Set new standards for fieldwork- opening chapter had guidelines for
fieldwork
•
Stay for long period of time
•
Learn the language
•
Get off the “veranda”
•
Engage in participant observation
•
Explore “mundane imponderabilia”
Emphasized that “native” ways were as logical as
one’s own
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
Fieldwork technique that involves gathering cultural data by
observing people’s behavior AND participating in their lives
 Anthropologists work with respondents who guide them and offer
insights into the culture.
 Informants/Cultural consultant/Key informant- community
member who offers cultural feedback
 Rapport- relationship of trust with members of community being
studied
 Advantages and disadvantages of participant observation
ANTHROPOLOGIST AND INFORMANT
What kind of relationship would you expect between an
anthropologist and his or her primary informant?
PREPARING FOR FIELDWORK
Vaccinations
Money- who, how much, guidelines and restrictions
Stay in new culture
Informants- letters of introduction
Food and medication
Visa/passport
Language
Customs and traditions
Your home/pets/children
PREPARING FOR FIELDWORK
Literature review
Research methods/design
Anthropologist’s toolkit
ANTHROPOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES AND RESEARCH METHODS
Interviews
-Informal interviews- conversations from daily experience
-Unstructured interviews- scheduled conversation;
informants choose path
-Semi-structured interviews- written list of questions/topics
in specific order
-Structured interviews- set of identical or nearly identical
questions in specific order with specific instructions
Data from interviews-Qualitative – information which cannot be counted
Ex: life histories, personal stories
Qualitative questions- open ended
-Quantitative- information which can be counted
Ex: age, income, partners
Quantitative questions- close ended
QUESTION MAKING
POOR QUESTION
Do you favor urban
homesteading?
PROBLEM
BETTER QUESTION
People may not understand Do you favor a government
the question.
program that encourages
families to improve inner
city housing?
Did your mother ever
Misleading; Sexist.
Did your mother ever work
work?
for pay outside the home?
Should it be possible for a Too general.
Should it be possible for a
woman to obtain a legal
woman to obtain a legal
abortion?
abortion if there is a strong
chance of serious defect in
her baby? If she became
pregnant as a result of
rape?
Do you favor making it
Double-barreled (two
Do you favor making it
legal for 18-year-olds to
questions in one).
legal for 18-year-olds to
drink liquor and smoke
drink liquor? Do you favor
marijuana?
making it legal for 18-yearolds to smoke marijuana?
Don’t you think that the
Biased question; leads
Would you say that you
press is slanted and that we people toward a particular have a great deal of
should distrust whatever it response.
confidence, some, or very
says?
little confidence in the
press?
DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING SPECIFIC
KINSEY- HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS
Kinsey and his research team
MAPPING
The analysis of the physical space where fieldwork is conducted.
Mapping an external space- flow of people, infrastructure, lighting, traffic
Mapping an internal space- notice entry, exit, smells, noise, lighting, public
and private areas, flow of people
Reflexivity
EXPERIMENTS
An artificially created situation that allows the researcher to
manipulate variables.
EXISTING SOURCES
A research technique that makes use of previously collected and
publicly accessible information and data.
ETHICAL FIELDWORK
Anthropologists must:
Obtain consent of the people to be
studied- informed consent
Protect them from risk- ensure
anonymity if needed
Respect their privacy and dignity
PROJECT CAMELOT AND HUMAN TERRAIN SYSTEM
Mid-1960s U.S. military project that used
anthropologists to achieve foreign policy goals
Anthropologists seen as spies in host countries
HTS embedded social scientists in military units
(2005-2006)
American Anthropological Association members
raised concerns about the ethics of the
project.
NEW ROLES FOR ETHNOGRAPHERS
Today anthropologists increasingly must take
into account regional and global connections
Anthropologists must constantly re-consider the
deep connections between cultures
Conduct research on one’s own culture- Native
anthropology
QUICK QUIZ
1. Participant observation:
a)
means that people who are the subjects of a study observe their own
behavior.
b)
is carried out in a laboratory setting.
c)
is an intensive field research method in which the investigator lives among
the subjects of study.
d)
is another way of describing a telephone survey technique of collecting data.
ANSWER: C
Participant observation is an intensive field research method in which the investigator
lives among the subjects of study.
2. The philosophy that there is no single objective reality but rather many partial truths
or cultural constructions, depending on one's frame of reference, is known as:
a)
holism.
b)
postmodernism.
c)
globalism.
d)
fundamentalism.
e)
positivism.
ANSWER: B
The philosophy that there is no single objective reality but rather many partial truths
or cultural constructions, depending on one's frame of reference, is known as
postmodernism.
3. The ethnographic database used most frequently to statistically test relationships
between two or more culture traits across world cultures is:
a)
the Human Relations Area Files.
b)
the Summer Institute of Linguistics.
c)
the Smithsonian Records.
d)
the National Institute of Mental Health.
ANSWER: A
The ethnographic database used most frequently to statistically test relationships
between two or more culture traits across world cultures is the Human
Relations Area Files.
4. Which of the following is not part of the Code of Ethics in anthropology?
a)
An obligation to maintain the safety of the anthropologist
b)
An obligation to uphold the standards of the discipline
c)
An obligation to the people being studied
d)
An obligation to the research sponsors
ANSWER: A
An obligation to maintain the safety of the anthropologist is not part of the
anthropological Code of Ethics.