Download Chapter 3 Doing Cultural Anthropology

Chapter 3
Doing Cultural Anthropology






What are the aims of ethnography and fieldwork?
How does an anthropologist do an ethnographic
field study?
How has ethnography changed in the past century?
What are some of the theories in anthropology and
what do they search for?
What are the special opportunities and problems in
doing anthropology in one’s own society?
What are some of the ethical problems raised by
ethnography?
Fieldwork



Firsthand exploration of a society and culture.
Develops a holistic perspective about a
culture.
Reveals the difference between what people
say they do and what they do.
Fieldwork Techniques




Participant observation
Photography and filming
Recording life histories
Using historical archives
Common Issues in Fieldwork

Fieldwork is done by colleting data & testing a
hypothesis







Community acceptance
Appropriate data-gathering techniques.
Understand local political structure
Choosing knowledgeable informants.
Coping with culture shock.
Learning a new language.
Reevaluate findings in the light of
new evidence.
Advantages and Disadvantages of
Participant-observation
Advantages
Enhances rapport
Enables fieldworkers to
distinguish actual and
expected behavior.
Permits observation of
nonverbal behavior.
Disadvantages
Small sample size.
Difficult to obtain standardized
comparable data.
Problems of recording.
Obtrusive effect on subject matter
Ethnography in History



Anthropology began in the late 19th Century as
a comparative science.
Ethnographers concentrated on small-scale,
technologically simpler societies.
Cultures were place on evolutionary scales of
cultural development.
Early 20th century
Boas- insisted that fieldwork
was essential for holistic
study.
 Malinowski- “main goal for an
ethnographer was to obtain
the native’s point of view.”

(Emic perspective)
Feminist Anthropology



Questions gender bias in ethnography and
cultural theory.
Men, who had limited access to women’s
lives, performed much of the fieldwork.
Ignoring women’s perspectives perpetuates
the oppression of women.
Anthropological Theory

Attempt to answer questions such as:


Why do people behave as they do?
How do we account for human diversity?
Evolutionism in Brief




All cultures pass through the same developmental
stages in the same order.
Evolution is unidirectional and leads to higher levels of
culture.
A deductive approach is used to apply general theories
to specific cases.
Ethnocentric because evolutionists put their own
societies at the top.
Morgan’s Evolutionary Stages
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Lower savagery: From the earliest forms of humanity
subsisting on fruits and nuts.
Middle savagery: Began with the discovery of fishing
technology and the use of fire.
Upper savagery: Began with the invention of the bow and
arrow.
Lower barbarism: Began with the art of pottery making.
Middle barbarism: Began with domestication of plants and
animals in the Old World and irrigation cultivation in the New
World.
Upper barbarism: Began with the smelting of iron and use of
iron tools.
Civilization: Began with the invention of the phonetic alphabet
and writing.
Diffusionism in Brief



Societies change as a result of cultural
borrowing from one another.
A deductive approach is used by applying
general theories to explain specific cases.
Overemphasized the essentially valid idea of
diffusion.
mother
American Historical
Particularism in Brief

Franz Boas- changing from a deductive to
an inductive approach by collecting detailed
ethnographic information.





Ethnographic facts must precede development of
cultural theories (induction).
Any culture is partially composed of traits
diffused from other cultures.
Direct fieldwork is essential.
Each culture is, to some degree, unique.
Ethnographers should try to get the view of those
being studied, not their own view.
Functionalism in Brief




Through fieldwork, anthropologists can understand how
cultures work for the individual and the society.
Society is like a biological organism with many
interconnected parts.
Empirical fieldwork is essential.
The structure of any society contains indispensable
functions without which the society could not continue.


Radcliffe-Brown- structural functionalist
Malinowski’s psychological functionalism- 7 universal needs:

Nutrition, reproduction, bodily comfort, safety, relaxation,
movement, and growth.
Psychological Anthropology in
Brief /Culture & Personality



Anthropologists need to explore the
relationships between psychological
and cultural variables.
Personality- result of cultural learning.
Universal temperaments associated
with males and females do not exist.


Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
Ruth Benedict (1887-1948)
Neoevolutionism in
Brief
Leslie White (1900-1975)





Julian Stewart’s Cultural Ecology (1902-1972)
Cultures evolution= capacity to harness
energy.
Shaped by environmental conditions.
Techno-environmental conditions.
Individual factors are de-emphasized.
C=E x T culture= energy X technology
Cultural Materialism in Brief
Material conditions determine human thoughts and
behavior.
 Theorists assume the viewpoint of the anthropologist,
not the native informant. (Etic perspective)
 Anthropology is seen as capable of generating causal
explanations.
 Deemphasizes the role of ideas and values in
determining the
conditions of
social life.

Postmodernism in Brief



Switch from cultural generalization and lawsto description, interpretation, &search for meaning.
Ethnographies- written from several voices
Involves a return to cultural relativism.
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Use statistics to test generalizations
about culture and human behavior.
 Human Relations Area File (HRAF)

Native Anthropology


Study of one’s own society.
Maintain the social distance of the outsider.


“Going Native”
More common as native cultures disappear.
Ethical Fieldwork
Anthropologists must:
 Obtain consent of the people to be
studied.
 Protect them from risk.
 Respect their privacy and
dignity.