Towards a Native Anthropology -Delmos J. Jones- Theories of Area Studies Prof. Lee Kyu Young 2007-11-12

What is Native Anthropology? Goal of this article is to explore problems that native anthropologist can face during his or her own field work Most of researches in anthropology were carried out by an “outsider” Native anthropology is a research conducted by an “insider” the person who himself is a member of cultural, racial, or ethnic group that he wants to study

Native Anthropology and Native Anthropologist Native Anthropology is a set of theories based on non-Western precepts and assumptions Modern anthropology was developed based on western-values and beliefs The discipline was once dedicated to prove the superiority of western culture during the colonial period

Native Anthropology and Native Anthropologist Traditional anthropologist has been encouraged the training of native anthropologist Franz Boas: anthropological field work is for describing the total culture of a group of people in the view point of natives. Therefore, data collected by native anthropologist has immeasurable advantage of trustworthiness, authentically revealing intimate thoughts and sentiments of the natives But this attitude implies that native and female anthropologist are seen as potential tools to be used to provide information for white male anthropologist

Insider vs. Outsider Anthropology Jones: it is undoubtedly true that insider may have easier access to certain types of information as compared to an outsider but outsider may also have certain advantage in certain situation Author’s personal experience: In his research practicum in the hospital at rural southern black community, white students pointed out distinct cultural feature that the author himself, who was identified as both black and southern, was not able to find. They collect different data based on different points of view, and make different interpretations from same set of data

Case Study: Lahu, Thailand vs. Black Community in Denver Thailand and Denver T: Lahu is hill tribe of Northern Thailand, and author sought to observe intracultural variation among six villages The goal was to determine and to measure the range of variation in same tribal groups D: Insider approach to understand the relationship between social structure and black self-concepts. required much more than logic: intuition, experience, and self-interest factor of point of view was much more significant in Denver study while it was virtually absent in Lahu study.

Problem 1. Gaining Access Both in T & D, author was new comer to the community: Even in Denver, author (insider) has to develop a contact “a chain of introduction which leads at least to the threshold of his group”

2. Establishing a continuing role Difference has observed based on the different social structure of 2 communities T: small, close-knit village, once accepted, anthropologist can takes a role within the context of community D: urban neighborhood, researcher may have to establish a role for himself with each individual that he meets

3. Perception on outsiders T: 3 types of outsiders Trader, missionaries, government agencies Author had to overcome the perception of him as a missionary. Resolved it by participating in pagan ritual dance D: Ghetto dwellers have many kinds of outsiders Social workers, bill collectors, salesman, researcher, representatives of agencies

3. Perception on outsiders Because author was black, he had faced much less hostility during the research compared to other white anthropologist. Easier to convince Denver black people than people in Lahu, and no one refused interview Looked as someone looking for a friend rather than undesirable stranger Problem: often suspected as Black Panther Occurred during the expression of his political and economical view point Much easier to convince than Lahu villagers

4. Communication Communication involves more than verbal exchange Facial expression, body movements, tones of voices T: faced mannerism that requires considerable amount of time to understand D: able to have common understanding with most of black people Grew up in poor black community, experienced discrimination, can speak dialects

5. Perception toward research T: needed reason to be in remote village like theirs could not understand why someone is interested in their life D: Know what research is and has been interviewed before 3 different reaction 1: no commitment or perception on interview 2: positive view: only black researcher can make valid research on black people 3: think research is unnecessary and action is needed Explaining about research in Thailand and Denver had different complexion >> existence of personal reaction

Data Analysis and Publication Both inside and outside viewpoint has a room for distortion, inaccuracies, half truths Outsider: might overlook important elements or make misinterpretation due to his own cultural perception Insider: no native wants to publish the results that can be negative to his host culture

Data Analysis and Publication No vantage point can be said. Outsider may enter the social situation armed with a battery of assumptions which he does not question and which guide him to certain types of conclusion; and the insider may depend too much on his own background, his own sentiments, his own desires for what is good for his own people” Insider, therefore, have no privilege: they may distort the “truth” as much as the outsider

Advantage point for native anthropologist Both inside and outsider anthropologist faces same empirical problem Anthropological fieldwork during 60’s produced dull and uncreative reports, not because the researchers were white but their way of looking people lost relevance Robert Redfield & Italian peasant community Different reports on peasant values might be due to the choices made by observers and writers as to which aspects of social situation they choose to stress

Advantage point for native anthropologist Native anthropologist can took social phenomena from point of view different from that of the traditional anthropologist Role of third world students who are now being trained are becoming aware of the biases in social science and are not bound by the old values of objectivity and neutrality There emergence will contribute to an essential decolonization of anthropological knowledge