1. Chapter 3 Ethnographic Research: Its History, Methods, and Theories

2. What Are Ethnographic Research Methods? Although cultural anthropology relies on various research methods, its hallmark is extended fieldwork in a particular cultural group. Fieldwork features participant observation in which the researcher observes and participates in the daily life of the community being studied.

3. Components of Cultural Anthropology 1. Ethnography – A detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on fieldwork. 2. Ethnology – The study and analysis of different cultures from a comparative point of view.

4. Urgent Anthropology Ethnographic research that documents endangered cultures. Also known as salvage ethnography.

5. Acculturation Acculturation is the exchange of cultural features that results when groups come into continuous firsthand contact; the original cultural patterns of either or both groups may be altered, but the groups remain distinct. (Kottak 2007)

6. Applied Anthropology The use of anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems in communities confronting new challenges.

7. Question The study and analysis of different cultures from a comparative point of view is called A. Ethnography B.Urgent Anthropology C.Ethnology D.Applied Anthropology

8. Answer: C The study and analysis of different cultures from a comparative point of view is called ethnology.

9. Peasant Studies Peasants represent an important category between modern industrial society and traditional subsistence foragers, herders, farmers, and fishers. Peasantry represents the largest social category of our species so far. Because peasant unrest over economic and social problems fuels political instability anthropological studies of rural populations are considered significant and practical.

10. Advocacy Anthropology Anthropologists committed to social justice and human rights have become actively involved in efforts to assist indigenous groups, peasant communities, and ethnic minorities. Most anthropologists committed to community based and politically involved research refer to their work as advocacy anthropology.

11. Advocacy Anthropology Today’s most wide ranging advocacy anthropologist is Rodolfo Stavenhagen, special rapporteur on indigenous rights for the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights.

12. Multi-sited Research In her explorations on Chinese identities in the context of U.S. and Chinese racial and multicultural politics, anthropologist Andrea Louie (center) has done multi-sited research in St. Louis, San Francisco, Hong Kong, and China.

13. Ethnographic Fieldwork Extended on-location research to gather detailed and in-depth information on a society’s customary ideas, values, and practices through participation in its collective social life.

14. Fieldwork Ecologist James Kremer and anthropologist Stephen Lansing who have researched the traditional rituals and network of water temples linked to the irrigation management of rice fields on the island of Bali in Indonesia are explaining a computer simulation of this system to the high priest of the supreme water temple, as other temple priests look on.

15. Participant Observation A research method in which one learns about a group’s beliefs and behaviors through social participation and personal observation within the community, as well as interviews and discussion with individual members of the group over an extended stay in the community.

16. Key Consultant A member of the society being studied, who provides information that helps researchers understand the meaning of what they observe. Early anthropologists referred to such individuals as informants.

17. Quantitative Data Statistical or measurable information, such as demographic composition, the types and quantities of crops grown, or the ratio of spouses born and raised within or outside the community.

18. Qualitative Data Nonstatistical information such as personal life stories and customary beliefs and practices.

19. Photographs Anthropologists sometimes use photographs during fieldwork as eliciting devices, sharing pictures of cultural objects or activities for example, to encourage locals to talk about and explain what they see.

20. Interviewing Informal interview –An unstructured, open-ended conversation in everyday life. Formal interview –A structured question/answer session carefully notated as it occurs and based on prepared questions.

21. Challenges of Anthropology Among the numerous mental challenges anthropologists commonly face are –Culture shock –Loneliness –Feeling like an ignorant outsider –Being socially awkward in a new cultural setting.

22. Challenges of Anthropology Physical challenges typically include: –Adjusting to unfamiliar food, climate, and hygiene conditions –Needing to be constantly alert because anything that is happening or being said may be significant to one’s research. –Ethnographers must spend considerable time interviewing, making copious notes, and analyzing data.

23. Accurately Describing a Culture To accurately describe a culture an anthropologist needs to seek out and consider three kinds of data: 1.The people’s own understanding of their culture and the general rules they share. 2.The extent to which people believe they are observing those rules. 3.The behavior that can be directly observed.

24. Digital Ethnography The use of digital technologies (audio and visual) for the collection, analysis, and representation of ethnographic data.

25. Ethnohistory A study of cultures of the recent past through oral histories, accounts of explorers, missionaries, and traders, and through analysis of records such as land titles, birth and death records, and other archival materials.

26. Theory In science an explanation of natural phenomena, supported by a reliable body of data.

27. Doctrine An assertion of opinion or belief formally handed down by an authority as true and indisputable. Also known as dogma.

28. Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) - Comparative Method A vast collection of cross-indexed ethnographic and archaeological data catalogued by cultural characteristics and geographic locations. Archived in about 300 libraries (on microfiche and/or online).

29. Advocacy Anthropology Anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis interviews Xavante Indians in the Brazilian savannah where he has made numerous fieldwork visits since the 1950s. Maybury-Lewis is founder of the indigenous advocacy organization Cultural Survival, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

30. Anthropology’s Theoretical Perspectives Idealist perspective –A theoretical approach stressing the primacy of superstructure (worldview) in cultural research and analysis. Materialist perspective –A theoretical approach stressing the primacy of infrastructure (material conditions) in cultural research and analysis.

31. Informed Consent Formal recorded agreement to participate in research. When it is a challenge to obtain informed consent, or even impossible to precisely explain the meaning and purpose of this concept and its actual consequences, anthropologists may protect the identities of individuals.

32. Franz Boas Franz Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German- American anthropologist who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did post-doctoral work in geography. He is famed for applying the scientific method to the study of human cultures and societies.

33. Franz Boas In 1883 Boas went to Baffin Island to conduct geographic research on the impact of the physical environment on native Inuit migrations. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Baffin+Island&um=1&ie=UTF- 8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Baffin+Island&um=1&ie=UTF- 8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image In January, 1887, he was offered a job as assistant editor of the journal Science, in New York. In 1892 Boas joined a number of other Clark faculty in resigning, to protest Hall's infringement on academic freedom. Boas was then appointed chief assistant in anthropology at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Boas was appointed lecturer in physical anthropology at Columbia University in 1896, and promoted to professor of anthropology in 1899. Boas's program at Columbia became the first Ph.D. program in anthropology in America.

34. Franz Boas Boas identified two basic questions for anthropologists: "Why are the tribes and nations of the world different, and how have the present differences developed?" “ We do not discuss the anatomical, physiological, and mental characteristics of man considered as an individual; but we are interested in the diversity of these traits in groups of men found in different geographical areas and in different social classes. It is our task to inquire into the causes that have brought about the observed differentiation, and to investigate the sequence of events that have led to the establishment of the multifarious forms of human life. In other words, we are interested in the anatomical and mental characteristics of men living under the same biological, geographical, and social environment, and as determined by their past.”

35. Franz Boas "Franz Boas posing for figure in US Natural History Museum exhibit entitled "Hamats'a coming out of secret room" 1895 or before. Courtesy of National Antropology Archives. (Kwakiutl culture) At both Columbia and the AAA, Boas encouraged the "four field" concept of anthropology; he personally contributed to physical anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, as well as cultural anthropology.

36. Potlatch Celebration of births, rites of passages, weddings, funerals, namings, and honoring of the deceased are some of the many forms the potlatch occurs under. Although protocol differs among the Indigenous nations, the potlatch will usually involve a feast, with music, dance, theatricality and spiritual ceremonies. The most sacred ceremonies are usually observed in the winter. The potlatch is a festival or ceremony practiced among Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. At these gatherings a family or hereditary leader hosts guests in their family's house and hold a feast for their guests. The main purpose of the potlatch is the re-distribution and reciprocity of wealth.

37. Boas & Potlatch Chief O’waxalagalis of the Kwagu'ł describes the potlatch in his famous speech to anthropologist Franz Boas, "We will dance when our laws command us to dance, and we will feast when our hearts desire to feast. Do we ask the white man, 'Do as the Indian does?' It is a strict law that bids us dance. It is a strict law that bids us distribute our property among our friends and neighbors. It is a good law. Let the white man observe his law; we shall observe ours. And now, if you come to forbid us dance, be gone. If not, you will be welcome to us.” Potlatching was made illegal in Canada in 1885 and the United States in the late nineteenth century, largely at the urging of missionaries and government agents who considered it "a worse than useless custom"[citation needed] that was seen as wasteful, unproductive which was not part of "civilized" values.