1. Unit 4 – Theory and Methods in Cultural Anthropology

2. Outline Ethnography: Anthropology’s Distinctive Strategy
Ethnographic Techniques
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

3. What Ethnographers Do

4. Ethnography: Anthropology’s Distinctive Strategy
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

5. Ethnographic Techniques
Use several, not all, of the following techniques
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

6. Observation and Participant Observation
Must pay attention to hundreds of details of daily life, seasons events, and unusual happenings.
Many anthropologists experience culture shock
Most anthropologists stay in the field for at least a year to make up for anything missed then

7. Even Anthropologists Get Culture Shock
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?

8. Observation and Participant Observation
Many ethnographers keep a personal diary and field notes
Ethnographers must establisher rapport with their hosts and contacts

9. Conversation, Interviewing, and Interview Schedules
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

10. Conversation, Interviewing, and Interview Schedules
Complete household 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

11. Conversation, Interviewing, and Interview Schedules
Pros of interview schedule
Meet almost everyone
Creates rapport
Created information leads to follow later
Creates both quantitative and qualitative information

12. Genealogical Method
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

13. Key Cultural Consultants
Key cultural consultant: expert on a particular aspect of local life
Also called key informants
Important for gathering information about specific parts of the tribe
May be only survivor of epidemic
Only midwife in town

14. Life Histories
When find someone unusually interesting, collect their life history.
Life history: of a key consultant; personal portrait of someone’s life in a culture
Different perspectives and interpretations of important events

15. Story Corps – Small Life Histories

16. Local Beliefs and Perceptions and the Ethnographer’s
Ethnographer’s perspective usually different from native
Use two approaches – emic and etic
Emic – research strategy emphasizing on local explanations and meanings
Etic – research strategy emphasizing the ethnographer’s explanations and categories

17. Problem-Oriented Ethnography
Most ethnographers go in with a specific problem to research
Use data from local people and other factors such as population density and environment

18. Longitudinal Research
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

19. Culture, Space, and Scale
More and more the world is interconnected and places cannot be studied in isolation anymore

20. Should Anthropologists Study Terrorism?
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?

21. Survey Research
Survey research – study of society through sampling, statistical analysis, and impersonal data collection

22. Survey Research vs Ethnography
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

23. Anthropology Today 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

24. Test Tomorrow Short test tomorrow on What is anthropology
Ethnographic research