Anthropological Research in Complex Societies By: Truong Nguyen

The Story Comparison of two fieldworks One was done in the Trobriand Islands by Malinowski and the other done in Arembepe by Conrad Phillip Kottak Trobriand Islands are a small island on the east coast of New Guinea and Arembepe is a city in Brazil. Malinowski’s field work was recorded in an ethnographic monograph

Kottak got to know everyone in the community he was situated in since the area is small and the social system was simple Arembepe is much different from Trobriand Islands since it is part of a nation and not a tribal society Trobriand Islands are small and simple for an ethnographer to do fieldwork on all islands Generalizations about the culture would be simpler, rather than Arembepe since it would take an anthropologist to explore the entire nation

In order to have successful fieldwork, the author looked at his fieldwork merely as contribution for a study of the entire nation His fieldwork would be compared with other ethnographic studies of other towns in Brazil to determine and reveal its diversity This series of collaborative fieldworks is known as community studies

Anthropologists must consider urban life and social contrasts that are not present in small, rural areas when conducting community studies conducting research through community studies is a fine way for anthropologists to gain information on complex societies