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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
This chapter introduces students to the ethical
standards of anthropology and the field methods
employed by anthropologists. It pays special
attention to the multidiscipline nature of
archaeology and biological anthropology and
discusses the field methods of ethnographers and
survey research.
CONRAD PHILLIP KOTTAK
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
• Ethics and Anthropology
– Researchers must create and maintain proper relations
between themselves and the host nations, regions, and
communities where they work.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
– The AAA Code of Ethics states that anthropologists should
recognize their debt to the people with whom they work and
should reciprocate in appropriate ways.
• Researchers should obtain informed consent from anyone
who provides information or who might be affected by the
research.
• Researchers should include host country colleagues in their
research planning and requests for funding.
• Researchers should establish collaborative relationships with
host country institutions and colleagues before, during, and
after their fieldwork.
• Researchers should include host country colleagues in
dissemination of the research results.
• Researchers should ensure that something is “given back” to
host country colleagues.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
• Research Methods in Physical Anthropology and Archaeology
– Multidisciplinary Approaches
• Physical anthropologist and archaeologists collaborate
with scientists from diverse fields in the study of sites,
fossils, and artifacts.
• Remote sensing plays an important role for locating
archaeological features not visible to the naked eye.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
– Primatology is the close study of primates.
• Primate studies have been conducted in both zoos and
natural settings.
• Like ethnographers, primatologists must establish
rapport with the individuals they are studying.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
– Anthropometry is the measurement of human body parts
and dimensions.
• Anthropometry can be used to evaluate a person’s
fitness.
• Knowledge about how contemporary humans adapt and
use energy can be used to understand human evolution.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
– Bone biology is the study of bone as a biological tissue,
including its genetics; cell structure; growth; development;
decay; and patterns of movement.
• Paleopathology is the study of disease and injury in
skeletons from archaeological sites.
• Forensic anthropologists work in a legal context to
recover, analyze, and identify human remains and
determining the cause of death.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
– Molecular anthropology uses genetic analysis to assess
evolutionary distance among species, along with dates of
the most recent common ancestor.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
– Paleoanthropology is the study of early hominids using
fossil remains.
• Paleoanthropologists work to reconstruct the structure,
behavior, and ecology of early hominids.
• Working with multidisciplinary teams,
paleoanthropologists locate and excavate sites where
hominid fossils are found.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
– Systematic survey provides a regional perspective on the
archaeological record.
• Survey collects information on settlement patterns (e.g.,
the location of cities, towns, villages, and hamlets) over
a large area.
• Survey is one of the ways in which archaeologists locate
sites that might be excavated in the future.
• During a survey, the team records the location, the size,
and the approximate age of the site.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
– Excavation complements the regional survey data with
more fine-grained data collected at the level of a specific
site.
• The layers or strata that make up a site help
archaeologists establish a relative chronology for the
material recovered.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
• Kinds of Archaeology
– Experimental archaeologists try to replicate ancient techniques and
processes under controlled conditions.
– Historical archaeologists use written records as guides and
supplements in their study of societies with written histories.
– Classical archaeologists study the literate civilizations of the eastern
region of the Mediterranean, such as Greece, Rome, and Egypt.
– Underwater archaeologists investigate submerged sites.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
• Dating the Past
– Fundamental Concepts
• Paleontology is the study of ancient life through the
fossil record.
• Anthropology and paleontology both are interested in
establishing a chronology for primate and human
evolution.
• Taphonomy is the study of the processes that affect the
remains of dead animals.
• Much dating depends upon stratigraphy, which is the
study of the sequence of geographical layers.
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Ethics and Methods
– Relative Dating
• Relative dating uses the natural layers or strata to
establish a relative chronology – material from this layer
is older than the material from that layer.
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Ethics and Methods
– Absolute Dating
• Whereas relative dating techniques allow you to say
only what is older or younger, absolute dating
techniques produce dates in years so differences in age
can be quantified.
• Radiometric techniques are based on known rates of
radioactive decay in elements found in or around fossils.
• Examples are 14C and potassium argon (K/A) dating
(both of which are radiometric techniques),
thermoluminescence (TL), and electron spin resonance
(ESR).
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
• Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology
– Cultural anthropology and sociology share an interest in
social relations, organization, and behavior.
– Sociologists have traditionally worked in the large-scale,
complex nations of the industrialized West.
• They rely heavily on questionnaires and other means
of collecting masses of quantifiable data.
• Sampling and statistical techniques are basic to
sociology.
– Traditionally ethnographers used ethnographic techniques
to study small, nonliterate populations.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
• Ethnography
– Ethnography is the firsthand personal study of a local cultural
setting.
– Ethnographers try to understand the whole of a particular
culture, not just fragments.
– In pursuit of this holistic goal, ethnographers usually spend an
extended period of time living with the group they are studying
and employ a series of techniques to gather information.
– The early ethnographers conducted research almost exclusively
among small-scale, relatively isolated societies, with simple
technologies and economics.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
• Ethnographic Techniques
– Observation and Participant Observation
• Ethnographers are trained to be aware of and record
details from daily events, the significance of which may
not be apparent until much later.
• Participant observation involves the researcher taking
part in the activities being observed.
• Unlike laboratory research, ethnographers do not isolate
variables or attempt to manipulate the outcome of
events they are observing.
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Ethics and Methods
– Conservation, Interviewing, and Interview Schedules
• Increasingly, more than one of these methods are used
to accomplish complementary ends on a single
ethnographic research project.
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Ethics and Methods
– The Genealogical Method
• Early anthropologists identified types of relatedness,
such as kinship, descent, and marriage, as being the
fundamental organizing principals of nonindustrial
societies.
• The genealogical method of diagramming such kin
relations was developed as a formalized means of
comparing kin-based societies.
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Ethics and Methods
– Key Cultural Consultants are particularly well-informed
members of the culture being studied that can provide the
ethnographer with some of the most useful or complete
information.
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Ethics and Methods
– Life Histories are intimate and personal collections of a
lifetime of experiences from certain members of the
community being studied.
• Life histories reveal how specific people perceive, react
to, and contribute to changes that affect their lives.
• Since life histories are focused on how different people
interpret and deal with similar issues, they can be used
to illustrate the diversity within a given community.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
– Local Beliefs and Perceptions and the Ethnographer
• An emic (native-oriented) approach investigates how
locals think, categorize the world, express thoughts, and
interpret stimuli.
• An etic (science-oriented) approach emphasizes the
categories, interpretations, and features that the
anthropologist considers important.
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Ethics and Methods
– Problem-Oriented Ethnography
• Ethnographers typically address a specific problem or
set of problems, within the context of broader depictions
of cultures.
• Variables with the most significant relationship to the
problem being addressed are given priority in the
analysis.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
– Longitudinal Research is the long-term study of a
community, region, society, or culture based on a series of
repeated visits.
• Longitudinal research study has become increasingly
common among ethnographic studies, as repeat visits to
field sites have become easier.
– Team Research involves a series of ethnographers
conducting complimentary research in a given community,
culture, or region.
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CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Methods
• Survey Research
– Anthropologists working in large-scale societies are increasingly using
survey methodologies to complement more traditional ethnographic
techniques.
• Survey involves drawing a study group or sample from the larger
study population, collecting impersonal data, and performing
statistical analyses on these data.
• By studying a properly selected and representative sample, social
scientists can make accurate inferences about the larger population.
– Survey research is considerably more impersonal than ethnography.
• Survey researchers call the people who make up their study sample
respondents.
• Respondents answer a series of formally administered questions.
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