Download Doing Cultural Anthropology

Doing Cultural
Anthropology
How do we study other
cultures?
Ethnography

The major research tool of cultural
anthropology
 The
gathering and interpretation of information
 Based on intensive first-hand study
 Written reports of this study are called
ethnographies
 Ethnographies are used as a basis for crosscultural comparisons
Ethnography

Fieldwork – intensive first-hand study
 Structured
interviewing
 Unstructured interviewing
 Collecting census data
 Photographing and filming
 Historical archives
 Recording life histories and geneologies
 Participant-observation
Ethnography
Participant-observation – gathering data
by living among the people, observing and
participating
 Good fieldwork will combine emic and etic
views

Ethnography
Consultant – person from whom the
anthropologist learns about the culture
through observation and interview
 Key Consultant – person who has deep
knowledge about the culture and serves
as connection between anthropologist and
community, helping develop connections
and relationships

History of Ethnography
Began in last quarter of 19th century
 Focused on study of small, technologically
simpler societies outside Europe
 Desire to document societies before they
were changed by Western interaction

History of Ethnography
Cultures seen as progressing from
“primitive” to “advanced”
 Early comparisons of cultures performed
by “armchair anthropologists” who read
accounts written by explorers,
missionaries, traders

History of Ethnography
In the early 20th century first-hand
fieldwork became standard for
anthropological research
 Academically trained ethnographers
studied cultures around the world
 Emphasis on fieldwork associated with
Boas and Malinowski

History of Ethnography

Franz Boas, father of American anthropology
 Discounted
idea that cultures progressed from
“primitive” to “advanced”
 Promoted in depth field study to get holistic view
of a culture and people
History of Ethnography

Bronislaw Malinowski
 For
an anthropologist to understand another
culture, must learn to think, feel, and behave
as a member of that culture
 Goal of ethnographic method was to
understand the objective reality of a culture by
observation performed by a trained, neutral
investigator
History of Ethnography
After WWII urban and peasant societies
began to be studied as smaller units within
a complex society
 Now all cultures are functioning in a world
where we are influenced by eachother

Postmodernism
Position that all observation is influenced
by the observer’s culture and social
position
 Questions Malinowski’s confidence that
properly trained, neutral investigators can
understand the true reality of a culture

Postmodernism
Claims that there is no one objective reality
 Raises question that anthropologist’s
presence may influence the culture

 Anthropologist
as person of power and status
 May influence power and status of consultants

Ethnographer’s view is just one perspective
Feminist Anthropology
Raises questions about gender bias in
ethnography
 Early ethnographers were men and
focused on male roles and interactions

Cross Cultural Comparison

Looking at many cultures to compare
some aspect; religion, family, economics
 Ethnography
based
 Cross cultural survey – test general concepts
against data from many cultures

Human Relations Area File – filing system of
ethnographic data from which random samples
can be pulled
Cross Cultural Comparison

Human Relations Area File
 Promotes
formation of hypotheses that can be tested
for statistical significance
 Lots of data at our fingertips can help prevent
generalizations based on selective memory of
ethnographers that have looked at a small number of
cultures
 But, do statistical relationships indicate causality? (eg.
Drinking and financial insecurity)
 Dependent
database
on quality of ethnographies in the
Special Issues and Ethics

Native Anthropologists – studying their
own culture
 Can
be hard to be objective when
investigating own society
 Impartial researcher or advocate
Special Issues and Ethics

Collaborative Ethnography
 When
principal ethnographer invites
consultants from the culture to contribute to
the writing of the ethnography
 Can create documents that are more
meaningful to the research group (eg.
Homeless and Narcotics Anonymous)
Special Issues and Ethics

Ethical obligation to protect participants
 Obtain
informed consent
 Protect from risk
 Respect privacy and dignity

What we learn is a result of the trust of the
people and research may have
consequences